Regular Member jessicalee Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Thanks! Can you do one more thing please? I want you to do two dilution tests. Fill a test tube 1/2 way to the white line with tank water & the other half with plain tap water and test. Then fill only 1/10 with tank water & rest with tap water and test. Let us know how these results look. I believe your nitrites are actually off the chart high- when they reach these levels, the API nitrite test actually can not correctly read them and the test will turn an odd color such as blue grey or white. In your pic, it looks blue grey but pics can be deceiving. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member dnalex Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 That's worth a try, Jessica. The only thing that makes me think that this might not be the case is the ammonia is still sitting there, largely unprocessed. Still, it's worth doing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 9, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Thanks! Can you do one more thing please? I want you to do two dilution tests. Fill a test tube 1/2 way to the white line with tank water & the other half with plain tap water and test. Then fill only 1/10 with tank water & rest with tap water and test. Let us know how these results look. I believe your nitrites are actually off the chart high- when they reach these levels, the API nitrite test actually can not correctly read them and the test will turn an odd color such as blue grey or white. In your pic, it looks blue grey but pics can be deceiving. That's worth a try, Jessica. The only thing that makes me think that this might not be the case is the ammonia is still sitting there, largely unprocessed. Still, it's worth doing. These are the results of the dilution test Left (lighter tube): 1/10 tank water/ rest tap water Right (darker tube): 1/2 tank water/ 1/2 tap water Thank you so much for your input 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jessicalee Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Thanks! It was worth checking just to be sure there wasnt something else happening here. Ok, I am just throwing this out there if your interested. I havent figured out how/if I can send pm's yet but I can mail you some cycled media or if you want to meet me at the Hidden Reef, Ill be taking a drive down that way later in the week. It wont be enough to fully cycle this size tank but it may help jumpstart it. I can not guarentee it will be snail-free though. Just an idea. Keep up the good work in the meantime! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member dnalex Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Well, instead of doing that, go and ask your LFS for some. I understand that you have a great LFS that you really trust, no? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jessicalee Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Well, instead of doing that, go and ask your LFS for some. I understand that you have a great LFS that you really trust, no? I am curious what lfs this would be.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member dnalex Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Well, instead of doing that, go and ask your LFS for some. I understand that you have a great LFS that you really trust, no? I am curious what lfs this would be.... Oops. I confused two people. The person I was thinking of is in RI, and already had a cycled tank. Let's chalk it up to my impending senility Anyway, it is a good idea to see if you can get cycled media. It will certainly speed things up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jessicalee Posted October 9, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 No problem! I was wondering if there was a place within a 2hr drive I havent been to yet! I have heard rumors about this mysterious store in Philly's chinatown section that has spectacular goldies but I have yet to find it and even Philly's local aquarium blogger who does reviews on every place in and around the area has no knowledge of it. Question for another day! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 9, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 9, 2012 Thanks! It was worth checking just to be sure there wasnt something else happening here. Ok, I am just throwing this out there if your interested. I havent figured out how/if I can send pm's yet but I can mail you some cycled media or if you want to meet me at the Hidden Reef, Ill be taking a drive down that way later in the week. It wont be enough to fully cycle this size tank but it may help jumpstart it. I can not guarentee it will be snail-free though. Just an idea. Keep up the good work in the meantime! What would I do with the media? Should I wait to see if the cycle works out or is the cycle stalled? I don't know how to pm message. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jessicalee Posted October 10, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 10, 2012 I wont be of much help pm'ing because I dont know how to either (not sure if I even have enough posts to do so yet...). You want to add any cycled media directly into whatever filter setup you presently have but I would drop the amount of ammonia in your tank down to 1-2ppm so you dont overwhelm the bacteria in the cycled media before adding it. I would say that if you have not seen any large movement after week 4, that some detective work needs to be done to figure out why things are not progressing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 10, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 10, 2012 I wont be of much help pm'ing because I dont know how to either (not sure if I even have enough posts to do so yet...). You want to add any cycled media directly into whatever filter setup you presently have but I would drop the amount of ammonia in your tank down to 1-2ppm so you dont overwhelm the bacteria in the cycled media before adding it. I would say that if you have not seen any large movement after week 4, that some detective work needs to be done to figure out why things are not progressing. I'm going to call valuepet today and see if they are willing to give me any cyled media. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 13, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2012 Valuepet didn't want to give me any of their cycled media. Petsmart told me to called the to see if they could save me a piece of their pad. But they told me they change it daily so I don't think that would work. I could be mistaken. The next option I had to kick-start the cycle was to add fish. That's what I did. I will probably get some slack for this, but I really can't afford to keep maintaining an empty tank (for various reasons). I did a 90% water change. Treated water BEFORE it was added to the aquarium with prime. I added the fish two days ago. Today I had my first readings if nitrate and nitrite. Cycle Day 25: ammonia: .5ppm nitrite: .25ppm nitrate: 5.0ppm I know that using fish is sort of the "inhumane" way to cycle tanks. But I am keeping very close watch on the tank. I also have a smaller tank just in case any of the fish show some real damage. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member dnalex Posted October 13, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2012 How many fish did you get to cycle the tank, and what did you get? I pretty much knew that you were going to do this. I'm not going to yell at you, but I would like for you to put a lot of thought into what you are going to do with these fish once you are done cycling. When cycling with fish, you will need: 1. lots of Prime to detoxify the ammonia/nitrites on days where WC is not quite needed 2. lots of WCs. Your parameters will go haywire fast 3. to check parameters daily, including pH. Things will change very quickly, and we need to stay on top of it. Update us daily, OK? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 13, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 13, 2012 How many fish did you get to cycle the tank, and what did you get? I pretty much knew that you were going to do this. I'm not going to yell at you, but I would like for you to put a lot of thought into what you are going to do with these fish once you are done cycling. When cycling with fish, you will need: 1. lots of Prime to detoxify the ammonia/nitrites on days where WC is not quite needed 2. lots of WCs. Your parameters will go haywire fast 3. to check parameters daily, including pH. Things will change very quickly, and we need to stay on top of it. Update us daily, OK? I got 4 small comets (they're feeder fish) about an inch long. I will update as much as I can. I am keeping very close watch on the water. I also remove any food the fish don't eat. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 14, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 14, 2012 Cycle Day 26: ammonia: .5ppm nitrite: .25ppm nitrate: 5.0ppm It is actually a little bit darker orange today so it could be higher. I really hate the color matching on the API test kit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 15, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 15, 2012 Cycle Day 27: ammonia: .5ppm nitrite: .25ppm nitrate: 5.0ppm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 16, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 16, 2012 Cycle Day 28: ammonia: .5ppm nitrite: .25ppm nitrate: 5.0ppm Same as the last three days. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) Cycle Day 29: ammonia: .1ppm nitrite: .25ppm nitrate: 5.0ppm Edited October 17, 2012 by redgold54 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member bodoba Posted October 17, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 17, 2012 Have you been keeping the tank at a stable temp, and what temp is that? Just trying to get up to speed here, missed a bit. You're due for your nitrite spike anytime now. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 17, 2012 72-73F 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member bodoba Posted October 17, 2012 Regular Member Share Posted October 17, 2012 ABSTRACTNitrifying bacteria activity and concentrations depend on specific free ammonia concentration (ratio NH3/biomass), that is a function of temperature, pH, ammonium concentration and nitrifying biomass concentration. So, temperature is a key parameter in the nitrification process producing two opposite effects: bacteria activation and free ammonia inhibition. These phenomena are studied in an up-flow biological aerated filter (UBAF) settled by a nitrifying biofilm (measured as Volatile Attached Solids, VAS). The plug flow allows to disclosure of both effects, activation and inhibition. For Nitrosomonas bacteria only an activation effect was observed; their activity reaches a maximum at 28-29 oC. For Nitrobacter the free ammonia inhibition prevails against the activation effect for values greater than 1 mg N-NH3/mg VAS allowing nitrite accumulation of 80%; this inhibition threshold value for nitrifying biofilm is obtained measuring the specific rate of utilization of substratum per unit of biomass (max/Y) by activity test. The knowledge of this threshold in a biofilm process is fundamental in order to control the nitrite accumulation in nitrifying biofilm reactors Carp I lost the website that I copied that from.... there's some things in there I didn't know, the nitrite accumulate to stay at 80% for the nitrate to take over. The nitrosomas activity max reached at 28C. I did know about the free ammonia. If you are using a heater to regulate your temperature I would try increasing it maybe to 74-76 and see if that speeds things up at all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 17, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 17, 2012 The heater I have doesn't go higher. I'm on ebay at the moment looking for another (higher temp) heater. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 18, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 18, 2012 Cycle Day 3O: ammonia: .5ppm nitrite: .0ppm nitrate: 10ppm 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted October 18, 2012 Admin Share Posted October 18, 2012 Doing good. I would do a 50% water change today 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member redgold54 Posted October 19, 2012 Author Regular Member Share Posted October 19, 2012 Doing good. I would do a 50% water change today Will have to do it tomorrow :-( 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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