Seachem Stability: PUT TO THE TEST/blank slate (daily perams/pics)

[JK47]

And on day 16....we have a winner!!!!

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Nitrates 10 ppm

I think the fact that this took so long was user error, or combined with the fact that I may have gotten a bad batch. Regardless, it's ready to go. However the bad news is I lost my GT in this tank today. Not from water parameters or quality, but rather he jumped out. I removed the glass lids to caulk them into the hinges and he either jumped out or was chased out by a smaller Firemouth who is very territorial.

Well, thanks everyone for the help and patience along the way. Thanks JK47 and zennzzo!

Congrat Davey. Your very welcome BTW. Sorry about your loss... On a positive note though you had a bad experience and still cycled a tank in 16 days. That is still significantly faster than if you started from scratch.

 

[zennzzo]

Congrat Davey. Your very welcome BTW. Sorry about your loss... On a positive note though you had a bad experience and still cycled a tank in 16 days. That is still significantly faster than if you started from scratch.

You know JK47,
If I could wind up with those Parameters,
I'd gladly do STABILIITY for 2 rounds...
You?

 

[JK47]

You know JK47,
If I could wind up with those Parameters,
I'd gladly do STABILIITY for 2 rounds...
You?

4 lol.

 

[daveydoodle]

Is there not enough bioload in there to support enough beneficial bacteria (thus producing Nitrates)? Are low nitrate reading going to change dramatically if the bioload is increased? I understand you say this is not obtainable, but I have more than 1 tank with this reading. (Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10). Zennzzo, other than the ideas in the PM, I don't know what would cause this, or what this would be a result of (more accurately). Am I setting myself up for failure with such low Nitrates?

 

[zennzzo]

Not at all...
remember me telling you that NitrAtes are the final conversion of the Beneficial Bacteria...Nitrates that low are because there isn't that large of a bio-load to produce Ammonia that coverts to NitrIte, then to NitrAte, in the first place...

When you add fish (bio-load) the Beneficial Bacteria will do it's thing to convert the bio-load to nitrAte and then some will gas off from the water as Nitrogen...the remaining NitrAtes will stay dissolved in the water and become measurable.
The easiest way to remove them/lower them, is to do Water Changes...

 

[JK47]

^ agreed. Low nitrates is the name of the game in this hobby bro. Here is something for you davey just in case... When I test my nitrates they first read 10 ppm. When I wait the full 5 minutes it reads properly at about 30ppm before my WC. Its very, very, very important to follow the nitrate card instructions to a tee (shake time per bottle, wait time etc..) In order to get a proper reading.

A few years ago in my last house the tap had 20ppm straight out of the tap and that's how my test from the tank would read right away, wait 5 minutes and that would jump to 80ppm as the actual/acurate reading. I now set my oven to 5 mins and just wait for a beep.

 

[Red_Belly_Pacu]

Bumping up this thread. I switched out my gravel in my 80 gallon tank and my bacteria is gone. Ammonia is showing up. My filters are Rena XP3, Aquaclear 110 HOB and undergravel filter with powerheads. Guess, the XP3 and 110 HOB could not do it alone without the undergravel filter. Well I added stablity yesterday and I will see if it works for me or not. Will keep it updated to day 7.

 

[JK47]

Right on... Switching substrate is a great reason to use stability. GL and keep us posted.

 

[goldies88]

I had my 125 set up on May16 . With everything brand new.FX5, sump ,pool filter sand, Took me 8 days to completed the cycle with Stability. Ammonia never gone over from day 1 to day 6 0.50ppm Nitrite stayed 0 Nitrate around 10 ppm the whole time. On the 7 day,My Ammonia went down a bit 0.25ppm. Then came the 8 day Ammonia 0 ppm. Nitrite still 0 ppm. Nitrate went a bit to 20 ppm.
I got to say this is a miracle . It works. Thanks for Zennzzo and nc~nutcase .Both of you helped me a lot for this set up.

 

[Red_Belly_Pacu]

Bumping up this thread. I switched out my gravel in my 80 gallon tank and my bacteria is gone. Ammonia is showing up. My filters are Rena XP3, Aquaclear 110 HOB and undergravel filter with powerheads. Guess, the XP3 and 110 HOB could not do it alone without the undergravel filter. Well I added stablity yesterday and I will see if it works for me or not. Will keep it updated to day 7.

Good news on using the stablilty. I started on 5/28 at night with the ammonia level at 1. Today after three doses at night, 5/31, the ammonia level is at 0.25. I did not take the other water readings because I know this stuff is already cycling my tank. It should be a few more days until my water is okay.