Ok, new question... When should I do my first water change? I added 5 Rosy Red minnows to the tank yesterday to help jump start the cycling process, but what now? I bought a set of test strips so I can monitor the Ammonia and Nitrite/Nitrate levels. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Setting Up a 20 Gallon Long
- Thread starter nickag9
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Looks nice! Wood chunks have been known to take months to sink... Maybe some fishing line & larger rocks would speed the process?
EDIT: First off, dont touch the filter for the next month or so to make sure the cycle is done & the BB are established. Change the water as often as necessary to keep the ammonia around 0.5ppm. If you were doing the fishless cycle, they say keep the ammo below 5.0ppm. Once you get nitrite readings, keep up the WC's to keep nitrite under 1.0ppm. When you see no more nitrite & a spike in nitrate, do another WC & wait one more week before adding any more fish. Good luck!
EDIT: First off, dont touch the filter for the next month or so to make sure the cycle is done & the BB are established. Change the water as often as necessary to keep the ammonia around 0.5ppm. If you were doing the fishless cycle, they say keep the ammo below 5.0ppm. Once you get nitrite readings, keep up the WC's to keep nitrite under 1.0ppm. When you see no more nitrite & a spike in nitrate, do another WC & wait one more week before adding any more fish. Good luck!
Ok thanks for the info. And yeah, I have decided to put the piece of wood in the tank with a large rock holding it at the bottom. It doesn't look like it is absorbing water very fast at all... And I would have loved to do a fishless cycle on this tank but I don't have a heater and don't ever plan on using one so I couldn't justify buying one soley for that purpose. As for the cycling process going on now I will leave the two filters alone, that's fine. But this test kit I bought it a piece of junk so I'm going to need to buy a better kit. Right now the water has become pretty cloudy but I'm assuming this is the first stage of the cycling process (BB bloom). I will continue to monitor the few minnows that are in there and do water changes as I see the ammonia levels increase. Anything else I need to keep an eye on?
Here are the updated pics with the Driftwood and a few rocks added. I removed a few of the plants and added a few more, moving them around into this final aquascape. Anyway, I'm off to Petsmart today to pick up a good test kit and as soon as I get my Ammonia and Nitrite readings to 0 I'll do one last water change and order my sunfish!
Thanks!
And I've got two AC30s running full speed. The intake tubes are cleverly hidden behind the two taller fake plants. I figure with the bioload of 3-5 small sunfish a ~15x turnover rate should be sufficient. Right now they are keeping the water crystal clear with my 3 Rosy Red minnows and the one Crawdad. I still need to pick up a better test kit and do my first water change, my el cheapo test strips still haven't detected any ammonia but I don't really trust them. Either way, it's a good thing those Rosy Reds are so hardy...
And I've got two AC30s running full speed. The intake tubes are cleverly hidden behind the two taller fake plants. I figure with the bioload of 3-5 small sunfish a ~15x turnover rate should be sufficient. Right now they are keeping the water crystal clear with my 3 Rosy Red minnows and the one Crawdad. I still need to pick up a better test kit and do my first water change, my el cheapo test strips still haven't detected any ammonia but I don't really trust them. Either way, it's a good thing those Rosy Reds are so hardy...
Ok so today I went to the LFS and purchased an API test kit with the drops. As of tomorrow the tank will have been up and running for a full week. Right now my test results are as follows:
Ammonia: 1.5 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
I intend to do a 25% water change tomorrow when I get home from work, but do I need to do anything else? I'm assuming the presence of all three means the cycling process is under way but I want to take it slow and make sure I have the tank fully cycled before I order my sunfish. Thanks again for all of the help!
Ammonia: 1.5 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
I intend to do a 25% water change tomorrow when I get home from work, but do I need to do anything else? I'm assuming the presence of all three means the cycling process is under way but I want to take it slow and make sure I have the tank fully cycled before I order my sunfish. Thanks again for all of the help!
Ammo is way high at 1.5ppm! If you didnt have fish in there, thatd be different... Definitely do a 50% waterchange ASAP & dose with Prime. If those rosy barbs die, your cycle may have to start over. 0.5 is the max you should see, since some of that ammo has already been converted.
Ok gotcha. A 50% water change will take place as soon as I get home. And just to clarify, the kit didn't actually have a specific color marked for 1.5 ppm of Ammonia. The color of the water in the test kit looked to be right in between the color for 1 ppm and for 2 ppm. I estimated that it was 1.5 when it could have easily been closer to 1. Either way, I understand that anything above 1 ppm could potentially kill my 3 Rosy Red Minnows and that would not help the cycling process. I'll get on that water change and test the water again later this week. Thanks for the help!
