New aquarium help with set up

I wouldn’t do any water changes till the end when ammonia is 0 and nitrites are 0. Then your nitrates will be high from all the cycling. Without any fish the water won’t hurt anything but if you keep changing water it’ll slow down the cycle.

 

Ammonia 4
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 5ppm

 

I would change out half or more of that water.
The ammonia is climbing too high.
Aim to keep your ammonia between 1-2ppm while cycling. Even 2ppm is a bit much imo.
Changing water is never a bad idea.

If your ammonia climbs too high it can stall the nitrification process or over produce nitrite then you end up changing the water anyways.

Keep your ammonia and nitrite diluted down to where neither of the climb passed 2ppm.

You will be able to keep a better check on your progress without your water parameters getting out of whack.

 

You’re getting great advice from Bwood here, only thing I’ll add is make sure you add dechlorinator before adding the fresh water in. You don’t wanna accidentally kill off any bacteria you’ve been growing.

Tuna , huh ! I never would of thought of that. I’m interested in seeing what the mercury test comes back with.

 

I would change out half or more of that water.
The ammonia is climbing too high.
Aim to keep your ammonia between 1-2ppm while cycling. Even 2ppm is a bit much imo.
Changing water is never a bad idea.

If your ammonia climbs too high it can stall the nitrification process or over produce nitrite then you end up changing the water anyways.

Keep your ammonia and nitrite diluted down to where neither of the climb passed 2ppm.

You will be able to keep a better check on your progress without your water parameters getting out of whack.

I won't be able to change water until tonight. I'll have to condition it as well but it'll be done before bedtime.

You’re getting great advice from Bwood here, only thing I’ll add is make sure you add dechlorinator before adding the fresh water in. You don’t wanna accidentally kill off any bacteria you’ve been growing.

Tuna , huh ! I never would of thought of that. I’m interested in seeing what the mercury test comes back with.

Me too. I'm not doing any test until I'm ready to go. Running the second filter with carbon may pull out ant trace of the metal as well.

 

Water changed yesterday. This mornings check

Ammonia 2
Nitrite. 25
Nitrate barely 2.5

Ammonia was at 4 by tonight so I did another water change to keep it at 2. Nitrite was .25 after water change. All is looking good, just maintaining a constant ammonia of 2 and adding beneficial bacteria until the whole thing cycles. I have not had to add any pure ammonia as an external source yet. With close monitoring I may not have too

 

At this point I'm mainly keeping a log.

Ammonia, nite and nate have stayed the same. Looking forward to the mornings reading.

 

At this point I'm mainly keeping a log.

Ammonia, nite and nate have stayed the same. Looking forward to the mornings reading.

No changes in tank parameters

 

No changes in tank parameters

This is when the truth comes out and the test of patience starts.
Im thinking that when you added the bacteria balls they converted a tad bit of your ammonia and that would explain the tiny amounts of nitrite and nitrate.
Don't add anymore...you have introduced the bacteria to the system and we don't want to see those numbers start changing because we are throwing band-aids in the tank.
As that bacteria grows...and it is...those test results will start changing on their own.
That's what we want to see.

You're doing great.

 

Ammonia - gree2ppm (x2 pics as it was kind of hard to read)

Nitrite - purple .25, looks a heck of a lot closer to 0 now.

Nitrate - yellow 5

I'm adding pictures so it'll be easier for me to monitor changes.

Looks to me like I have higher nitrates and the ammonia is negligible in its change, still a 2 in my books.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if that tad bit if nitrite converted and that's why you are seeing a bit more nitrate.
Wait until that ammonia start moving.
It will start slow but it will get faster and faster.
You will need to be able to reliably get your ammonia up between 1-2ppm every 3 days.

 

Ok.

I also have 2 ozelot Swords in the tank, outside in a circulating planter I have 12 cloves of garlic and 2 Roman lettuce planted.

Hopefully they chew up most of the nitrate

 

Still waiting. Nice to see things have become stable.

 

Just another log so I can easily organize the pictures and compare.....still very very stable.

I was fortunate to be able to add some estsblished ceramic media and squeeze out a sponge from a friend's tank. Had it in my tank in 30min from removal of the old tank. Hopefully this will shave off a week or two.

 

And we have liftoff!