Hey everybody.
I recently moved out of state and had to give all my fish away, and figured I would try a fresh start with my 20 gallon tank, wanting to establish a filter before I set up my 125 gallon.
So, I knew I definitely wanted to go fishless, and wanted to try tetra safe start (I'm aware you're supposedly able to add fish right away, but I'm a skeptic).
So, here is how it went:
Day 1: set up tank with an aquaclear 50 (carbon removed, extra biobag) standard heater and 17w light, added fine gravel and prime, let it run over night.
DAY 2: At this point my TSS hadn't arrived in the mail yet, so I figured I would just try to start the cycle and add TSS when it arrived (a mistake in hindsight). Used fish food in a filter media bag.
DAY 3-5: ammonia at a steady 4ppm+ and no nitrite/nitrate readings.
DAY 6: TSS arrives. Add approx 3 oz.
DAY 7-8: readings the same. Added about 10 plants.
DAY 9: did some reading, figured ammonia was too high to let the TSS do its job when I added it. Did a 50% water change with tetra aquasafe (does not affect ammonia like prime) and got ammonia down to less than 2ppm. Added another 3 oz of TSS and heat was increased to upper 80's.
Day 10-11: BINGO. Ammonia down, nitrites up, no nitrates.
DAY 12: ammonia almost non detectable, 0 nitrites, healthy amount of nitrates
DAY 13 (today): bought pure houeshold ammonia from ACE, added a teaspoon. Waiting to see how long it takes to reduce ammonia and nitrites to 0, but things look good!
I will continue to post in the next couple of days, but here are the early conclusions: I would have added plants and TSS first, and slowly increased ammonia levels from household ammonia, fish food was too unpredictable. TSS appears to have worked, will see how it goes in the next couple days.
I recently moved out of state and had to give all my fish away, and figured I would try a fresh start with my 20 gallon tank, wanting to establish a filter before I set up my 125 gallon.
So, I knew I definitely wanted to go fishless, and wanted to try tetra safe start (I'm aware you're supposedly able to add fish right away, but I'm a skeptic).
So, here is how it went:
Day 1: set up tank with an aquaclear 50 (carbon removed, extra biobag) standard heater and 17w light, added fine gravel and prime, let it run over night.
DAY 2: At this point my TSS hadn't arrived in the mail yet, so I figured I would just try to start the cycle and add TSS when it arrived (a mistake in hindsight). Used fish food in a filter media bag.
DAY 3-5: ammonia at a steady 4ppm+ and no nitrite/nitrate readings.
DAY 6: TSS arrives. Add approx 3 oz.
DAY 7-8: readings the same. Added about 10 plants.
DAY 9: did some reading, figured ammonia was too high to let the TSS do its job when I added it. Did a 50% water change with tetra aquasafe (does not affect ammonia like prime) and got ammonia down to less than 2ppm. Added another 3 oz of TSS and heat was increased to upper 80's.
Day 10-11: BINGO. Ammonia down, nitrites up, no nitrates.
DAY 12: ammonia almost non detectable, 0 nitrites, healthy amount of nitrates
DAY 13 (today): bought pure houeshold ammonia from ACE, added a teaspoon. Waiting to see how long it takes to reduce ammonia and nitrites to 0, but things look good!
I will continue to post in the next couple of days, but here are the early conclusions: I would have added plants and TSS first, and slowly increased ammonia levels from household ammonia, fish food was too unpredictable. TSS appears to have worked, will see how it goes in the next couple days.
