Unsure..

[Guest Lorelei]

hi everyone! i'm back.

after waiting around for weeks, i finally got a hold of a bottle of One and Only. WOW! my tank was cycled in four days! then, i put ammonia so i had 4ppm in the tank and it was removed in a day and a half to two days.

but now i'm all paranoid about putting my fish in the tank.

there is zero ammonia, zero nitrItes, and i would, of course, do a water change to bring the ammonia to a tolerable level. but i can be almost positive that my fish won't die unless something else went wrong? like, he'll be OK in there for sure? he is only 1 fish and i put ammonia as if there were more, lol.

also, my tank is cloudy. it has been ever since my attempts to cycle with stability and stresszyme (lololol). how do i make it not cloudy anymore? just change the water? get some unclouding formula?

FINALLY, if i clean the gravel with a syphon, will it mess up my biofilter so much that i shouldn't put him in until i 're-cycle' the tank? i left my hood open like an idiot for weeks by accident and now there's all this dust and it's gross, which is contributing to the cloudyness.

heeeeeeeeeelp i'm so worried and paranoid! D:

thanks you all!

-- Lorelei

[CountryLovah]

there is zero ammonia, zero nitrItes, and i would, of course, do a water change to bring the ammonia to a tolerable level. but i can be almost positive that my fish won't die unless something else went wrong? like, he'll be OK in there for sure? he is only 1 fish and i put ammonia as if there were more, lol.

Hi! : ) I am just a little confused. You said the ammonia is zero,but then you said you would do a water change to bring the ammonia to a tolerable level.. Do you mean the nitrates?

If you are seeing zero ammonia, zero nitrates, and the nitRATES are starting to climb, then your tank is fully cycled. If you added 4 ppm of ammonia, and it went back to zero after a few days then it looks like the one & only worked well! Just make sure you get the nitrates under 20 with water changes, and that the ammonia and nitrite are still zero. If all those things are true, you should be just fine.

Cleaning the gravel shouldn't mess up your bio-filter. But I would clean it before you put in the fish. Most of the BB's are stored in your filter and filter media (cartridges, etc.) As long as you leave those in tact, the cycle should be safe. If you need to clean them, just rinse and clean them in old tank water to preserve the bb's..

I can't help with the water cloudiness, but I would shy away from the products for now. Hopefully someone with more answers in that department can help you with that : )

[Guest Lorelei]

there is zero ammonia, zero nitrItes, and i would, of course, do a water change to bring the ammonia to a tolerable level. but i can be almost positive that my fish won't die unless something else went wrong? like, he'll be OK in there for sure? he is only 1 fish and i put ammonia as if there were more, lol.

Hi! : ) I am just a little confused. You said the ammonia is zero,but then you said you would do a water change to bring the ammonia to a tolerable level.. Do you mean the nitrates?

If you are seeing zero ammonia, zero nitrates, and the nitRATES are starting to climb, then your tank is fully cycled. If you added 4 ppm of ammonia, and it went back to zero after a few days then it looks like the one & only worked well! Just make sure you get the nitrates under 20 with water changes, and that the ammonia and nitrite are still zero. If all those things are true, you should be just fine.

Cleaning the gravel shouldn't mess up your bio-filter. But I would clean it before you put in the fish. Most of the BB's are stored in your filter and filter media (cartridges, etc.) As long as you leave those in tact, the cycle should be safe. If you need to clean them, just rinse and clean them in old tank water to preserve the bb's..

I can't help with the water cloudiness, but I would shy away from the products for now. Hopefully someone with more answers in that department can help you with that : )

OMG i am so out of it! yes, i meant nitrAtes, rofl! i would bring the nitrAtes down with a water change! :-P

in the 2 days that it takes for the 4.0ppm ammonia to go to zero, there's a period of time when the nitrItes climb to 2.0-3.0. then it goes down and turns into nitrAtes. does that happen to anyone? is my fishie gonna be especially stressed out over this time in his tank? or will it speed up as time goes by? then again my fish will not be producing 4ppm of ammonia in a single day...

thank you so much for your help, countrylovah! sorry about my ridiculous posts, hahahaha, i just love my fishie too much.

[CountryLovah]

LOL Alright that makes Much more sense : ) Your posts aren'y ridiculous, you just want to do everything right, and that's a GOOD thing : )

in the 2 days that it takes for the 4.0ppm ammonia to go to zero, there's a period of time when the nitrItes climb to 2.0-3.0. then it goes down and turns into nitrAtes. does that happen to anyone? is my fishie gonna be especially stressed out over this time in his tank? or will it speed up as time goes by? then again my fish will not be producing 4ppm of ammonia in a single day...

This is very normal during the fishless cycle. Actually it means you did everything right. When you add your fish you won't run into that problem.. The fish will produce much less waste, and it will be produced gradually (not just 4ppm at once like with a fishless cycle). It should be slow enough that the bacteria can convert the waste being produced to nitrite, then to nitrate without you even noticing them climb.. If you do see them, it will be far less of an amount.. I would just feed lightly the first few days. You could even skip feeding the first day actually.

Out of curiousity, did the One & Only you bought come in the fridge? I bought a bottle that was NOT cold (even though I know it is supposed to be) and have been using that in an experiement I am doing. A few days ago I actually found a store that kept is stored cold, and I am going to add it to one of my tanks and see how it works.. So I was curious if yours was cold not not. Thanks : )

[Guest Lorelei]

thank you so much countrylovah!!! you made me feel much better about this.

yes, my One and Only was cold. they don't supply it anywhere around where I live, so the one day my mom went to Brooklyn I had her buy it and she brought an igloo with icepacks in it to carry it back for the 2 1/2 hour car ride. i told her that if it was anywhere besides a fridge when she went to the store, to not buy it.

in any case, my standstill tank that i had no seeding for suddenly had nitrIte and nitrAtes readings after being there for EIGHT HOURS. it was incredible and i was so happy!

is your warm one and only working at all?

[CountryLovah]

I think I remember you posting actually about taking a cooler to NY!!! I didn't realize that was you! : )

I am about to go test the water in the tank I added the COLD One & Only to.. I am soo curious to see what happens with it!

As for the warm one.. It's kind of a long story, but it appears to be helping but not as quickly. Here is a link to the thread where I am explaining my little experiement. It's kind of long though LOL

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=71629

[Erinaceus]

It's seems Sue gave all the advice you needed, Lorelei (and I would expect nothing less from her ).

About the water being cloudy, is that still the case (I just ask because it sometimes clears up after a day)? It's most likely either fine gravel, or perhaps floating algae (do you have any in your tank?). I would think it's rather the firs than the second. Normally, the (mechanical part of the) filter should clear it up in a couple of days at most, and in that time it may also have set again even faster. In the latter case it might be possible that it comes back the next time you clean/disturb your gravel, but a number of water changes / gravel cleanings should do away with most of it.

As a general tip, it's always best to 'wash' your gravel (e.g. under the tap in a sieve, or in a bucket maybe) before you add it to your tank, because even larger gravel can (and often will) have smaller gravel particulates that stick to it and start floating when the gravel is disturbed.

[Guest Lorelei]

oh man your experiment is so cool, Sue!! thanks for taking the time to go through all that trouble! it is very useful info.

erinaceus, i did something like a 90% water change rofl, kicked up a lot of gross stuff that had been collecting in the gravel, put in new water... and that cleared it all right up! i think it was the crap in the stresszyme that made it cloudy, and the accumulation of dust from leaving the hood up. i had washed the gravel before putting it in, and used regular sized gravel without colouring, after a bad run in with black and purple gravel from wal*mart. D: that stuff was AWFUL, it almost turned my fish's little tank black! :'(

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Y'ALL, FOR YOUR ADVICE! Mad Eye is FINALLY in his big tank, and he looks so happy! he swims around a lot and really fast and he messes with the gravel and it's sooooooo cute.

[Erinaceus]

oh man your experiment is so cool, Sue!! thanks for taking the time to go through all that trouble! it is very useful info.

erinaceus, i did something like a 90% water change rofl, kicked up a lot of gross stuff that had been collecting in the gravel, put in new water... and that cleared it all right up! i think it was the crap in the stresszyme that made it cloudy, and the accumulation of dust from leaving the hood up. i had washed the gravel before putting it in, and used regular sized gravel without colouring, after a bad run in with black and purple gravel from wal*mart. D: that stuff was AWFUL, it almost turned my fish's little tank black! :'(

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Y'ALL, FOR YOUR ADVICE! Mad Eye is FINALLY in his big tank, and he looks so happy! he swims around a lot and really fast and he messes with the gravel and it's sooooooo cute.

I'm glad everything worked out. Your goldie is lucky to have you .

[CountryLovah]

Sounds like everything worked out GREAT!!! : ) Now you need to post some pics of him in the new tank of course!

[Erinaceus]

Now you need to post some pics of him in the new tank of course!

Obsiously. That goes without saying, doesn't it?

[vickielm]

When my tank first cycled it was so cloudy for a week that I couldn't clearly see the fish. This is pretty normal as it is bacterial bloom. I've also had this happen when I do 100% wc, although not as badly as the first time. It should clear up shortly!