Ok Ready To Start Cycle

Hello

So I just had to dump all water out of my tank as something in the well water was not letting my cycle(3weeks) start .So buying spring water today treating it tomorrow with conditioner and waiting for Monday to start. Will be doing a fishless cycle.

My tank is 20gal tall and I would like to add 4 or 5 panda corys to start with then add more in 2 weeks after or so

So I can't get my hands on tetr safe start but can get stability and I have read almost all posts about how to cycle tanks using this but most are different. My questions are..


Do I add stability then ammonia to get up to 4ppm or add ammonia first then stability?

What should I get the ammonia to if I want the 4 to 5 fish after cycling?

Do I add stability to the filter and not the actual tank?

Do I follow the directions of the bottle or do I add more?

The spring water I am using has a ph of 7.6 so I did ph high 7.4 please I don't want to have to start over again but I also would like to have the tank cycled as soon as possible because I'm goimg crazy always going in the pet store and seeing all the cute fish that I can't get yet.

Thank you

 

Do I add stability then to get up to 4ppm or add ammonia first then stability?

Add ammonia before any bacteria

What should I get the ammonia to if I want the 4 to 5 fish after cycling?

2ppm is probably best

I add stability to the filter and not the actual tank?

Shouldn't matter too much. Add it to the filter if you like.

Do I follow the directions of the bottle or do I add more?

You can't overdose it so if you don't have another tank you need it for then just tip in the whole bottle.

The spring water I am using has a of 7.6 so I did ph high 7.4 please I don't want to have to start over again but I also would like to have the tank cycled as soon as possible because I'm goimg crazy always going in the pet store and seeing all the cute fish that I can't get yet.

That ph is great for most fish

 

So I'm not familiar with stability, but I can give you a few more tips after I try to answer your questions.

Ammonia should read 0 before you add fish.
What do the directions on stability say? If it doesn't say where to add it I'd put it straight into the water. I always, always follow the directions on the bottle. They are chemically formulated for specific volumes of water.
If you need to bring the pH down, I think peat will do that.

So on to my tips, I don't like adding pure ammonia to a tank, my tanks are always heavily planted too so I add a piece of raw shrimp to the tank and let that decompose for a couple of days to get things going. It will release more than just ammonia which is good for your plants. Once you wait a couple of weeks adding the shrimp in every few days, you should start to see new leaves growing on your plants and algae blooming. This is a good sign as your tank is alive. Test your water then and it should be close to cycled.

 

So I'm not familiar with stability, but I can give you a few more tips after I try to answer your questions.

Ammonia should read 0 before you add fish.
What do the directions on stability say? If it doesn't say where to add it I'd put it straight into the water. I always, always follow the directions on the bottle. They are chemically formulated for specific volumes of water.
If you need to bring the pH down, I think peat will do that.

So on to my tips, I don't like adding pure ammonia to a tank, my tanks are always heavily planted too so I add a piece of raw shrimp to the tank and let that decompose for a couple of days to get things going. It will release more than just ammonia which is good for your plants. Once you wait a couple of weeks adding the shrimp in every few days, you should start to see new leaves growing on your plants and algae blooming. This is a good sign as your tank is alive. Test your water then and it should be close to cycled.

I don't have plants so I don't meed to worry about that. I thought I would wait I feel bad when I kill a house plant and I'm so new at this I didnt qant anything in the tank that I could kill

 

I don't have plants so I don't meed to worry about that. I thought I would wait I feel bad when I kill a house plant and I'm so new at this I didnt qant anything in the tank that I could kill

Don't worry about killing them, they are really necessary in the cycling process. If you get the aquatic equivalent of weeds you won't be able to kill them, especially if you add fertilizer to your tank as well. That might be why it didn't work last time is you didn't have plants getting your cycle going. There was nothing to convert chemicals. Think about earth evolution, algae led to plants and when the water was good things to eat the plants and algae evolved. That's how I like to cycle my tanks.

 

okillok

Add ammonia before any bacteria

2ppm is probably best

Shouldn't matter too much. Add it to the filter if you like.

You can't overdose it so if you don't have another tank you need it for then just tip in the whole bottle.

That ph is great for most fish

so add ammonia to get to 2ppm then add my stability.

Now I wait for ammonia to get to zero then bring ammonia back up to 2ppm?

Should I be checkimg nitrite when ammonia starts going down?

What is the highest I should let the nitrite get to before doimg a water change? Or should I not even bother some say leave it others say if it gets past 4 then you can stall yoir cycle so the recommend a 50% water change

 

When ammonia gets to about 0.25-0.5ppm I'd dose it back up to 2ppm.

The nitrite should rise as ammonia drops. When the ammonia drops that means it's being turned into nitrite.

Too high nitrite can stall a cycle. I'd do a large water change whenever nitrite goes over 4 or 5ppm then dose ammonia again.

 

Don't worry about killing them, they are really necessary in the cycling process. If you get the aquatic equivalent of weeds you won't be able to kill them, especially if you add fertilizer to your tank as well. That might be why it didn't work last time is you didn't have plants getting your cycle going. There was nothing to convert chemicals. Think about earth evolution, algae led to plants and when the water was good things to eat the plants and algae evolved. That's how I like to cycle my tanks.

What about a moss ball?

When ammonia gets to about 0.25-0.5ppm I'd dose it back up to 2ppm.

The nitrite should rise as ammonia drops. When the ammonia drops that means it's being turned into nitrite.

Too high nitrite can stall a cycle. I'd do a large water change whenever nitrite goes over 4 or 5ppm then dose ammonia again.

How much water change do you suggest

 

How much water change do you suggest

Large as possible. In theory a 75% water change should lower 4ppm nitrite to 1ppm so 75% or more would be great.

 

Large as possible. In theory a 75% water change should lower 4ppm nitrite to 1ppm so 75% or more would be great.

How Long do you think this cycle would take roughly

 

Usually they take about 6-8 weeks. I cycled a tank in 2 weeks with tetra safe start though.

 

Usually they take about 6-8 weeks. I cycled a tank in 2 weeks with tetra safe start though.

So what if I used half bottle of stability the first day then the rest the second day? Do you think that will give it a better shot at bb sticking?

 

I don't think it will really affect it tbh

 

I don't think it will really affect it tbh

You don't think it will eat up all the ammonia when I dump it in do you? Will it take a bit? Sorry for all the questions

 

No, it still takes a while to cycle. Even if it instantly cycles it will take a while to remove all the ammonia.

 

No, it still takes a while to cycle. Even if it instantly cycles it will take a while to remove all the ammonia.

Ok I was just worried that when I put the stability in it would get rid of the 2ppm ammonia right away and the bb if any that came from it would starve