Tropical Fish Tank and Aquarium Information

Go Back   Fish Lore Tropical Fish and Aquarium Forum > Freshwater Aquarium Fish Forum > Freshwater Beginners

Freshwater Beginners A place where freshwater aquarium fish beginners can go to post their questions and hopefully get responses from those more experienced. Also check out the Freshwater Fish Beginner's Guide and Aquarium Setup Guides. Setting up a new freshwater aquarium can be a rather large project and you want to make sure you do it right the first time. If you need help with your fish tank please don't be afraid to ask questions. That's what this fish forum is all about!

Join Fish Lore Aquarium Forum

Search Fish Lore Facebook 
Google+
Twitter


Aquarium Forum
General
Welcome To FishLore
Using the Forum
General Discussion
Members Fish Tanks
Photos and Videos
Member Photos
Member Videos
Freshwater Aquarium Forum
Freshwater Beginners
Freshwater Equipment
More Freshwater Topics
Freshwater Fish & Inverts
Ponds
Saltwater Aquarium Forum
Saltwater Beginners
Saltwater Equipment
More Saltwater Topics
Saltwater Fish & Inverts
Member Blogs
Member Blogs
Misc. Topics
Reviews
Aquarium Fish Clubs
Buy, Sell, Trade
Fish Profiles
Freshwater Fish
Saltwater Fish
Fish Forum Archives
Closed Thread
 
Fish Forum Thread Tools
Old February 13th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
A watched pot never boils

Well here we are on day 41 of the fishless cycle. Nitrites have spiked ( I hope) and ammonia is processing but since I hit day 30 I am getting restless. Things seem to move very slowly in cycling land.
I have learned a few things about my water since I started and it seems (at least while cycling) I have a hard time keeping the pH up. When it hits 6 the cycle stops in its tracks when I bump it up with crushed coral for a few hours it kicks back in but takes a day or two to get back to processing the ammonia the way it was before the PH crashed. Hopefully things will stabilize when the cycle is over.
What once was a nice looking aquarium with crystal clear water, now looks like bogwater and I have been battling a snail invasion that I seem to get under control only to have them pop up again. I am just about ready to let them stay...they seem to really like the new house, green water and all. LOL
Test...feed....test...feed...test...feed....test.. ..feed.....
I have planned the community of Cardinals and Otos, researched more plants, read about diseases and algae, and now I am ready for fish!!!
PLEASE! OH PLEASE !GODS OF THE WATER BACTERIA......PLEASE MAKE IT END!
Thanks for letting me vent...I can safely go another month now. LOL
----Nate----
Nate McFin is offline  
Old February 13th, 2009  
Fish Master
 
What kind of water are you using??..Tap, RO??..and what is the PH of the water your using??...Cycles can take forever!!!..It can get very frustrating, sorry your having problems..But great job at doing a fishless cycle..
CHoffman is offline  
Old February 13th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
One would think its RO but its tap.LOL~! Straight from the faucet I have a pH of 6.8 within two days it drops to somewhere below 6. I aerated a glass of water and tested it at 7.4 for 3 days straight which confused me a little. I thought maybe there was soap residue on the glass that may have caused it to go Alkaline.. I haven't repeated the test yet nor have I been able to find a KH/GH test locally. Hopefully this weekend I will find one and it should tell me a little more. I am really hoping its just the cycle causing the fluctations!
Nate McFin is offline  
Old February 13th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
Not sure of your details here and just throwing out ideas: it sounds like you're using food to cycle (liquid ammonia is wonderful stuff)? if so doesn't food have lots of phosphates? is it possible the phosphates are buffering your pH? (or at least feeding snails..?)

not sure if I'm way off base there or not, I just remember reading something about phosphates in food and another thing about phosphates mucking up pH...hopefully someone helps you get it straightened out!
prairielilly is offline  
Old February 13th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
Thanks for the reply Prairielilly. Actually I did start the cycle with food. I used food the first week. It was beginning to make a mess in the tank so I switched to ammonia ( after a very long search to find any without surfactants or other ingredients) You are correct about phosphates in food and I too was wondering what kind of effect this might have had on the progress. I have read that high phosphates can cause Algae blooms which could explain the "bogwater" lol I am currently in doing a blackout for the greenwater problem.
The ammonia is being processed at a rate of about 1ppm in 24 hours now and the Nitrites have dropped to .5. They haven't climbed or dropped in about a week and a half now. The Nitrates are about 60 PPM.(one of the bright red colors anyway) They too dont seem to climb over 100 but then I have 2 sword plants in there that may be keeping those down.
Does anyone know if fertilizer tabs (Flourish) could cause a problem with the cycle? That is the only other thing I can think of at this point.
Maybe I need to just quit thinking about it and let the pot boil in its own time. HAHA
Nate McFin is offline  
Old February 14th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
..well I need to say, your doing one heck of a job ..more people should have your patience before stocking their new/uncycled tanks..keep up the good work, are you reading a good book to pass the time?
mare2009 is offline  
Old February 14th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
Thanks Mare! As far as reading a good book goes...I should finish my 4th by the time this is done (none of which were great though!) LOL
My wife got me a gift certificate to the fish store for Valentines Day so I am going over there today to drool on the tanks some more while I am waiting. HEHE They must be tired of cleaning up after me now!
Nate McFin is offline  
Old February 14th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan Allen View Post
Thanks Mare! As far as reading a good book goes...I should finish my 4th by the time this is done (none of which were great though!) LOL
My wife got me a gift certificate to the fish store for Valentines Day so I am going over there today to drool on the tanks some more while I am waiting. HEHE They must be tired of cleaning up after me now!
..nice valentines Gift, have fun at the fish store ...maybe a little less barf and more Drooling, will keep the staff there happier
mare2009 is offline  
Old February 14th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
Pure Ammonia should be basic thus pH should go up. Run test on your tap. pH test before and after the addition of ammonia.
I do not know how high PO4 is but PO4 is an anion and with presence H+, can yield Phosphoric acid(H3PO4)? NO3 is an anion and with presence of H+, can yield Nitric Acids (HNO3)? Old detritus in the gravel will produce amino acids as decays then NH3 as deamination takes place.
I believe Fetilizer can contribute to nitrate and phosphate. Do simple NO3, PO4 test on tap water. Then add some fertilizer, swirl and test for thos two and you may have your answer to Algae. This product may have contributed to high nitrate

It is not easy to wait and test and wait to go thru fishless cycle. Thus I personally would do cycling with fish and little know-how. At least i know for sure, cycling w/ fish will takes about 6 weeks on average. It seems many are worried about exposure to NH3, NO2, but these can be well controlled via feeding, pwc, and of course amt of fish and tank size. With availability of Turbo Start (shipped overnight) which will reduce amount of water changes required to keep fish alive, one can still enjoy fish while cycling. ALthough never used this specific product but this is the only one which seems logical compared to similar products on the shelf (who know how long its been on the shelf before bottle is in your hand).

Once you have one tank well established, no need for fishless cycling if one is willing to take advantages of established tank.

Hang in there. You are almost there.

Last edited by cerianthus; February 14th, 2009 at 12:54 PM.
cerianthus is offline  
Old February 14th, 2009  
Fish Mentor
 
happened to me too... its been 1 month since i started my cycle in the 55gal and I just saw .25 nitrites yesterday
Alessa is offline  
Old February 14th, 2009  
Fish Helper
 
Making me feel guilty, I did my 30 gal. in 19 days. But only because I seeded a bio filter in my 55 for a week before setting up the 30.
Toxic is offline  
Old February 15th, 2009  
Fish Keeper
 
Thanks to everyone for their replies!
Cerianthis your info on Phosphates LED me to a several hour "surfing" reading about phosphates. Your posts always make me learn new things and are much appreciated! The whole process of the cycle really amazes me the more I read!
I did test the PO4 this morning and got a result of .25. As far as I can tell that isn't really abnormal and shouldn't be contributing to my problem but maybe you have more to add on the subject??
I also noticed some new inhabitants of my fishless cycle this morning while snail hunting. There are alot of new little white(ish?) bugs in the gravel and a few inches above it. They do seem to swim short lengths as well as crawl pretty quickly on the gravel and glass. They are about the size of a grain of sand. Tough to make out any of the features on them at all. From looking around I think they are copeods of some sort. I also noticed some white threadlike worms swimming with an S pattern in random directions. I thought they were lint or hair at first but then noticed the wriggling. Anything to be concerned about with either of these guys?? No way to get pictures since I broke my Macro lens.
Nate McFin is offline  
Closed Thread

Fish Forum Thread Tools

Fun Fish and Aquarium Games!
Fish Tycoon
Fish Tycoon
Insaniquarium - Insane Aquarium
Insaniquarium
Insane Aquarium
Jenny's Fish Shop
Jenny's
Fish Shop
FishCo
FishCo!


Similar Aquarium Fish Forum Threads
Thread Fish Forum
ever watched oscars @ tubbie time? bubble bath n all! Freshwater Videos
I watched a special on snakeheads Oddball Fish



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2012, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
LinkBacks Enabled by vBSEO 3.3.2 © 2009, Crawlability, Inc.
© Fish Lore.com - providing tropical fish tank and aquarium information for freshwater fish and saltwater fish keepers