Ash Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 I read the previous post wrong, I thought you had nitrate & ammonia, which would be abnormal, but you said nitrite & I'm a tool so carry on waiting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAL.16V Posted April 15, 2007 Author Share Posted April 15, 2007 lol ok then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Hog Posted April 15, 2007 Share Posted April 15, 2007 I had a problem with my 4 foot display tank didnt seem to be cycling got a lend of a sponge filter out of a tank that was right and fixed the problem in 3 days squeaze the sponge filter out near your intake on what ever filtration your using leave sponge filter in the tank for a couple of weeks. Thanks again Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firemike Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Another option you could do it get some hardy fish like convicts. They're great cycling fish, and once done just give them back to the fish shop. quote from my friendly LFS: "The only way to kill a convict is to take it out of the tank and jump on it". Cycling a tank from scratch takes a while is all, it's amazingly easier if you have access to a cycled tank. Noodle ninjaing is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spedwards Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 You may not kill it, but it's not exactly a nice humane thing to do either... I think that saying it takes longer to cycle a tank using a fishless method is a bit of an untruth - provided you are giving the tank some sort of food (be it pure ammonia or fish food) the process would be exactly the same. Keep feeding the tank daily, don't worry about putting too much in as you are trying to cause an ammonia problem. The more fish you want to put in to begin with the more food you should be supplying the tank. Keep at it and you'll be rewarded soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roughscaled Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Don't get cycle it's hopeless try a thing called Sera Nitrivec I used it a few years ago and it's excellent, Didn't lose a single fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luket Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Yeah, large ammonia and nitrite spikes can damage a fishes gills permanantly. If I had a choice of fish to use it would be the humble goldfish (or more for larger tanks), they excrete a lot of ammonia, which is what you want to get a large bacteria colony going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAL.16V Posted April 16, 2007 Author Share Posted April 16, 2007 thought i was on the second stage as ammonia was falling and nitrite is off the scale so i dont want to g back and get more ammonia now do i?? its been at this stage with teh same readings for several days now... just sitting at below 0.25 ammonia and 5.0 nitrites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spedwards Posted April 16, 2007 Share Posted April 16, 2007 Depends how well stocked the tank will be off the bat... If you are going to throw a stack of fish at it you want to build up the bio filter as much as you can, you do this by giving it more food. You won't want to be in a false sense of cycled'ness to only find the bio filter wasn't well enough established. Think of them this way - people (bacteria) colonise a piece of land, the food (ammonia/nitrites) provided by the land can only sustain a certain number of people. Suddenly there is some miraculous event that caused the food sources to increase and the people can't keep up with it all. More people will come along eventually to eat the extra food but until then a lot goes to waste. Applying this to your tank, if the ammonia or nitrites build up to a point where the bacteria can't cope you will get an outbreak. Basically what I'm saying is that your bio filter will build itself up to the level required to eat away at the bio load you apply to the tank. If you go light on the cycle process then the bio filter won't be up to the task when the fish are added and it will have to cycle again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAL.16V Posted April 19, 2007 Author Share Posted April 19, 2007 went to fish shop yesterday and got a black mollie as teh guy recomened it.. yesterday tank was nitrite- 5.0 ammoia - 0 - 0.25 put the fish in and also put in rift lake aquasonic water conditioner salts/buffer and today about 30 hours later, the readings are ammonia - 0 nitrite - 0, maybe 0.1 .. its clear see through maybe slight purple tinge but far from 0.25 is it a false reading due to the water conditioner or is it done?? quick chaneg and looks like the salets/fish did the trick!! ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spedwards Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Seems odd to me that it would drop that much over night. The water conditioner you used should describe what it reduces on the side of the pack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAL.16V Posted April 19, 2007 Author Share Posted April 19, 2007 just says africans have special water conditions so it creates teh right chemistry by containing 11 natural salts and will raise the hardness by 300ppm, and a ph of 7.0 will rise to approx 8.0 and salinity will rise by 80ppm.. contents: sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium thiosulphate exicated, magnesium chloride, magnesium sulphate, potassium chloride, potassium nitrate, lithium chloride, calcium chloride, calcium sulphate.. maybe its the magnesium sulphate which has killed the nitrite?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyedge Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Hi Cal, If you want to save some time and money, you should get some water and gravel from an established tank. Just change 50% of the water in your tank with water from an establish tank. I never cycle my new tank anymore, just use the above method and go easy with the number of fish in the first few weeks. PM me if you want some water and gravel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAL.16V Posted April 20, 2007 Author Share Posted April 20, 2007 thanks for the offer.. appears to be cycled though.. confirmed today and results are good ! 0, and 0 for both.. now have to do small water change to get rid of nitrates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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