Freshwater Sump Issues

[Fish Tank Travis]

Look up the water report for your area. If they use chloramine then you will get an ammonia reading from the test. It will also not evaporate out of the tank like chlorine does, which will cause your tank to not cycle. You should be dosing with pure ammonia, if you don't have fish in the tank. Take it up to 4ppm and wait for it to drop. If you have fish, then it's hard to tell what's going on if there's also chloramine. I'm sure someone can help you a bit better than I can, but this should be a decent start.

 

[Tiptonhudson]

Thanks for the advice. I do have a few. Fish in it but I'm thinking of removing them now. The water report does say they use chloromine.

 

[ragin_cajun]

If they use Chrloramine, then YOU use Prime or some other dechlorinator type water treatment -- they all work very well. If you're not using Prime or some other dechlorinator (which I think you said you are), then you won't be getting any beneficial bacteria building up in the media in your sump.

I have never gotten a true "0" ammonia reading from my tap water, and I've been keeping fish and standing up tanks with it for years.

 

[#.$]

Have you not been using conditioner for the water? Use safe or prime every time. Even trace elements of chorine will kill bacteria. I always add new water into the tank never the sump till conditioned....

Call it inhumane if u like but I always prefer fish in cycle so long as you know you are doing and have the time for 25% water change every 1-3 days depending on load.

 

[Jhay3513]

Have you not been using conditioner for the water? Use safe or prime every time. Even trace elements of chorine will kill bacteria. I always add new water into the tank never the sump till conditioned....

Call it inhumane if u like but I always prefer fish in cycle so long as you know you are doing and have the time for 25% water change every 1-3 days depending on load.

I found this to take longer and be more work than doing a 4ppm ammonia dosing fishless cycle. Plus you possibly open your brand new set up to disease. Not to mention I paid $1 for the ammonia and it also gave me an even more in depth understanding of how the nitrogen cycle actually works. Dosing ammonia at 4ppm will give you on hell of a bio filter once the tank has fully cycled