Hello; pH is near neutral. You have some nitrates. Dose some ammonia tomorrow and keep watching until the ammonia and nitrites are at or near zero.
Help with cycle
- Thread starter Dwl0222
- Start date
Ok this morning I dosed 3/4 TSP ammonium, should get me to 3-4 ppm ammonia. I’ll check in an hour or two to confirm, and then check periodically to see if it’s dropping/when it gets near zero.
Let me ask this, how often should I dose ammonium? If the ammonia reads at or near 0 tonight (not that I expect that), do I dose back up right away or wait till 24 hours from my previous dose? I’m wondering if i was dosing too frequently and that somehow caused the crash?
One of the reasons to do water changes (even when simply cycling a tank), is to replace buffering capacity (alkalinity) of the water.
Your pH probably crashed, because the by-products of metabolism (bacteria are growing and metabolizing the ammonia), ate up a lot of alkalinity over the week (or however long the tank has now been set up).
Without water changes, the pH swings are large enough hinder equilibrium.
If pH drops radically, do a water change, remove enough old water, and replace it with new tap water enough to bring it to equilibrium (somewhere near the normal tap water), and add new ammonia.
While we are on the subject, if your tap water pH is normally around 8 or higher, it is time to consider what fish are right for your tank, if you want a healthy tank.
With that pH, Amazonian South American, and some Asian species may not be right (long term).
Fish from the Rift lakes of Africa, or Central America, or South American species from "west" of the Andes would be better choices.
you can probably buy DI water at your local grocery store, and it is the best rinse for test tubes, because it has the capacity to get rid of left over residual, your high pH , harder water might not be able to do. And those residuals can easily skew test results. You are dealing in parts per million, with tiny samples, a tiny left over residual can often give very different results than reality.
Your pH probably crashed, because the by-products of metabolism (bacteria are growing and metabolizing the ammonia), ate up a lot of alkalinity over the week (or however long the tank has now been set up).
Without water changes, the pH swings are large enough hinder equilibrium.
If pH drops radically, do a water change, remove enough old water, and replace it with new tap water enough to bring it to equilibrium (somewhere near the normal tap water), and add new ammonia.
While we are on the subject, if your tap water pH is normally around 8 or higher, it is time to consider what fish are right for your tank, if you want a healthy tank.
With that pH, Amazonian South American, and some Asian species may not be right (long term).
Fish from the Rift lakes of Africa, or Central America, or South American species from "west" of the Andes would be better choices.
you can probably buy DI water at your local grocery store, and it is the best rinse for test tubes, because it has the capacity to get rid of left over residual, your high pH , harder water might not be able to do. And those residuals can easily skew test results. You are dealing in parts per million, with tiny samples, a tiny left over residual can often give very different results than reality.
Thanks for the help. Yeah I was at about 2 weeks with no water change. I honestly didn’t realize I needed to do it during a fishless cycle. My PH out of the tap is about 7.6, and settles at around 8-8.2 after a day. My plan was to keep sajica (Central America obviously) and dithers. I have kept convicts, red devil, firemouth and JDs in the past with no problems. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and I’ll get it corrected and get back on track. I’ll be testing again in an hour to see where the ammonia is at. One thing I should definitely do is get a pipe cleaner brush to really get in the test tube and scrub it out.
Sajica's sound perfect for your water, as would live bearer dithers. The pH in your water rises as CO2 trapped in the pressurized pipes, dissipates.
Scrubbing is not the trick, it's using a water that automatically strips the residual from the tube. DI does this, because it is simply H2O and nothing else, so it is similar to a vacuum, it wants stuff (in the parlance of our time).
When I worked as a water chemist after each test, we were required to rinse the tube 3 times with DI.
This meant 3 times between a nitrate test, 3 times after a pH test, 3 times after chlorine.... etc etc etc. In this way we were assured of accurate results.
Scrubbing is not the trick, it's using a water that automatically strips the residual from the tube. DI does this, because it is simply H2O and nothing else, so it is similar to a vacuum, it wants stuff (in the parlance of our time).
When I worked as a water chemist after each test, we were required to rinse the tube 3 times with DI.
This meant 3 times between a nitrate test, 3 times after a pH test, 3 times after chlorine.... etc etc etc. In this way we were assured of accurate results.
Oh ok, that makes sense. Next time I’m out I’ll have to look for a gallon jug of that. So you think my problem was just because I didn’t do a water change, correct? It didn’t have anything to do with me dosing ammonia incorrectly or anything? (I don’t think I made a mistake with dosage, but when it went downhill I started second guessing).
Ok so it’s safe to leave it go overnight? I know too long at 0 ammonia and the BB will starve. And if it’s 0 in the morning, go out and get some fish?!? Sorry for all the questions, I’m just shocked I saved the cycle after what I thought happened yesterday.
Hello; This from Duanes.
Let me add a couple of things. First the bb will eventually die off without their nutrients but my take is it takes a little time. My best guess is more than a day or two. That may be one blessing from their slow reproductive rate. I also seem to recall reading (perhaps in one of the links I posted) that they can be sort of dormant briefly. ( check on this as I accidently looked in a mirror a moment ago and am still a bit unsteady)
Yes you can keep just adding a dose of ammonia for days to come even when the tank is cycled. That will keep the bb thriving until you have an opportunity to pick out some fish.
You can also throw in something that will rot and this is supposed to release some ammonia. I have read that some use raw shrimp while some use fish food. but if you have liquid ammonia that is likely less messy.
I like to toss in some snails in my new tank setups. They will make some ammonia and will feed on any organics. I figure it is better to have stuff pass thru a digestive system rather than to just decay.
A question. After following your thread, how did you survive the birth of children?
