Post by svbriggs on Apr 3, 2015 11:19:57 GMT -5
Hi, I'm new to this forum and to freshwater aquariums.
I have had a betta for about 6 weeks now in a half gallon tank (which I was told was too big by an employee at Pet Smart) and I'm in the process of cycling a 5 gallon tank for my little guy.
I use my home's RO water (my tap is also RO but has chloramine added) to which I add SeaChem's Equilibrium. I also add Prime as a preventative measure and about 1/4 tsp per gallon of aquarium salt. I make up about 3 gallons of conditioned water at a time. I keep a glass container of about 4 cups sitting out at room temp for water changes. My pH of both tank and conditioned water is 6.8, but I noticed a .2 drift every 24 hours in my betta's tank. I have no substrate in the betta's half gallon tank, a weighted silk plant (which is betta friendly); I syphon out fish waste daily with a turkey baster and change 25% of water every other day, matching temp and pH, over a half hour period. I feed lightly about 3 pellets of New Life Spectrum twice daily. So far, he is healthy and super active and playful.
My question is about my fishless cycling tank. I am using Dr. Tim's One & Only (I plan on using Stability for maintenance in the future) and ammonia chloride.
I am on day 13 of my cycle, and since day one of adding 1 drop per gallon (as recommended by Dr. Tim's) to achieve 2 ppm of ammonia, I have never had an ammonia reading. I think now that it is because of the Prime, and only testing for free ammonia using SeaChem's ammonia test kit. On day 6 I finally got a nitrite reading of 0.25 ppm. It wasn't until day 8-9 that my nitrite went up to 1 ppm. My nitrates also appeared at 5 ppm.
At day 13, today, my nitrite is between 2-5 ppm, nitrates still at 5 ppm, ammonia 0. I did a 40% water change on day 9 thinking that the nitrite was too high (I realize that I should have waited until they were at 5 ppm).
I'm planning on doing another water change, about 25%, today. I have only added ammonia on days when nitrite was below 0.5 ppm. I did add ammonia after last water change. I need to test my GH and KH; my pH is stable at 6.8. I did initially add API pH Proper to raise pH slightly, but I plan on using a phosphate removal filter to remove phosphate in case I want to add plants later on. Equilibrium only increases GH according to their site.
Is my cycling stalled, on schedule, should I be adding more ammonia and test for total ammonia? Is it total ammonia that should be at 2 ppm? Is it possible for the bacterial product to consume the added ammonia so quickly? I test 25 minutes after adding ammonia and still get a zero reading.
To increase KH for pH stability should I use wonder shells?
Sorry for all the questions, but I continually get conflicting and often wrong advice through my local pet store.
I have had a betta for about 6 weeks now in a half gallon tank (which I was told was too big by an employee at Pet Smart) and I'm in the process of cycling a 5 gallon tank for my little guy.
I use my home's RO water (my tap is also RO but has chloramine added) to which I add SeaChem's Equilibrium. I also add Prime as a preventative measure and about 1/4 tsp per gallon of aquarium salt. I make up about 3 gallons of conditioned water at a time. I keep a glass container of about 4 cups sitting out at room temp for water changes. My pH of both tank and conditioned water is 6.8, but I noticed a .2 drift every 24 hours in my betta's tank. I have no substrate in the betta's half gallon tank, a weighted silk plant (which is betta friendly); I syphon out fish waste daily with a turkey baster and change 25% of water every other day, matching temp and pH, over a half hour period. I feed lightly about 3 pellets of New Life Spectrum twice daily. So far, he is healthy and super active and playful.
My question is about my fishless cycling tank. I am using Dr. Tim's One & Only (I plan on using Stability for maintenance in the future) and ammonia chloride.
I am on day 13 of my cycle, and since day one of adding 1 drop per gallon (as recommended by Dr. Tim's) to achieve 2 ppm of ammonia, I have never had an ammonia reading. I think now that it is because of the Prime, and only testing for free ammonia using SeaChem's ammonia test kit. On day 6 I finally got a nitrite reading of 0.25 ppm. It wasn't until day 8-9 that my nitrite went up to 1 ppm. My nitrates also appeared at 5 ppm.
At day 13, today, my nitrite is between 2-5 ppm, nitrates still at 5 ppm, ammonia 0. I did a 40% water change on day 9 thinking that the nitrite was too high (I realize that I should have waited until they were at 5 ppm).
I'm planning on doing another water change, about 25%, today. I have only added ammonia on days when nitrite was below 0.5 ppm. I did add ammonia after last water change. I need to test my GH and KH; my pH is stable at 6.8. I did initially add API pH Proper to raise pH slightly, but I plan on using a phosphate removal filter to remove phosphate in case I want to add plants later on. Equilibrium only increases GH according to their site.
Is my cycling stalled, on schedule, should I be adding more ammonia and test for total ammonia? Is it total ammonia that should be at 2 ppm? Is it possible for the bacterial product to consume the added ammonia so quickly? I test 25 minutes after adding ammonia and still get a zero reading.
To increase KH for pH stability should I use wonder shells?
Sorry for all the questions, but I continually get conflicting and often wrong advice through my local pet store.
