AnnaEA

I am cycling fishless, using the 'drops of ammonia' plan from the main site here. My tank is planted with plants from an established and cycled tank, and has a scattering of gravel from the same tank (inadvertant, came in the bag with the plants.)

Fish will go in no sooner then March 24th, and later if the tank is still cycling -- I am going to go ahead and change my water once a week (20%) so that I can get practice changing my water before I have fish in, and so that I can track my water quality before and after water change to make sure my pH (and other parameters) aren't swinging around too much.

Right now I am not planning on aging my water before a water change -- but if I find the tank chemistry getting funny with water changes, that will be the first thing I try. The second thing will be changing my water mix - right now I am using a 50/50 mix of RO water and my tap water. The LFS folks suggested trying that, then considering either straight RO water if my budget allowed, or else getting unsoftened water from the public fountain.

If I have water issues, I will just continue feeding ammonia drops to my biofilter and hold off on putting in any fish until I have the water situation stabilized.

newbie101

good luck!!!!!!!! and make sure the ammonia is pure ammonia lol!

AnnaEA

It is! I had to go pick some up cause what I had on hand was a detergent added cleaning ammonia

Gunnie

Anna,
Your approach sounds very good except for the water changes. Try and wait at least 2 weeks before doing the first water change. The water changes will slow down the cycling process so just keep that in mind. You go girl!

AnnaEA

Thanks for the advice, Gunnie. I had planned on doing the first water change this up-coming Saturday, but I can easily hold off for another week.