Author Topic: Cycling my Fluval Edge (Read 101983 times) 295 replies

Sue · « **Reply #180 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:15:45 PM »

Look at it this way. Your tank is about 25 litres (makes the maths easier). If it had evaporated down to 20 litres and had a nitrite of 5ppm, adding 5 litres to bring the volume back up to 25 litres would drop the nitrite to 4ppm.
So topping it up can't have dropped the nitrite from 5-ish to 0.

It looks as though the nitrite eaters are growing !!!!!!

Right, take it slowly, you don't want the nitrite to shoot up again. Add enough ammonia to get 1ppm and see what happens to your nitrite tomorrow. If it's zero again tomorrow add another 1 ppm's worth of ammonia. If it's zero again on Saturday, add 2ppm's worth of ammonia.
If it is not zero tomorrow, don't add any ammonia until it is zero, and then just 1ppm's worth.

Breeders have been developing strains from both pure endler and endler-guppy hybrids for years. There's a man in the US responsible for most of the work, he's known as Adrian HD.

Have a look here Japan blues It looks as though the blues are a hybrid, and presumably the yellow ones are too. Pure endlers are very hard to come by, you have to get them from known breeders. The endlers in the shops are all hybrids.
But just because they are hybrids doesn't mean they are monster fish. They are just as healthy as pure endlers and porbably a lot more healthy than most guppies in shops these days. If you like the looks of them, go for them. I have 4 different colours in my tank. If they'd only keep still, I'd take some photos, but all I ever get are blurs

ColinB · « **Reply #181 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:16:14 PM »

Quote from: jesnon on March 21, 2013, 11:02:16 AM

In good news though this morning I woke up to....

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm (!!!)
Nitrate 20ppm

I'm a little concerned that these results are only because I topped up some evaporation loss I'd left for a few days (that would I guess explain why my nitrate is so low... so I'm not getting too excited yet!) Would that have brought my nitrite levels down to 0 or am I being too pessimistic?

Whatever the case what should I do now!?

The strange thing is that your Nitrates have dropped from 80 to 20 in a day, so I'm not sure what's going on here, I'm afraid.

If it were me, then I'd do a re-test. It may well be 'operator error'.

Sue · « **Reply #182 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:22:55 PM »

Well spotted Colin, I missed that

jesnon · « **Reply #183 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:45:20 PM »

Thanks for the comments RE: the fish Sue, will make sure to check them out when I go to the shop and see what I think to them! The green ones that Maidenhead Aquatics had were pretty cute so I think I'd be happy if I could get a mix of them! Though now you've got me tempted by a little betta too ha.

So I retested my results and:
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate is still between 20 and 40ppm, it's quite reddy. I gave it an extra good shake up and I'm testing in daylight so they're definitely right... perhaps because I was testing last night in the dark and I added some lower nitrate level water that's made the difference? I'm more inclined to think I was wrong on the last two tests though!

I've just added 0.5ml ammonia and I'm waiting for it to mix in to find out if the dose isn't too much for my nitrite eaters... I'm hoping not anyway!

jesnon · « **Reply #184 on:** March 21, 2013, 12:54:04 PM »

One thing I should also say - I invested in a 2.5ml syringe the other day to make my life easier when measuring out 5ml for the tests, so I guess they're more likely to be accurate now??

Sue · « **Reply #185 on:** March 21, 2013, 01:59:43 PM »

Nitrate is one of the most unrealiable to test for in the home. The best we can hope for is a ball park figure. Not shaking bottle 2 enough can give inaccurate results as well.
The syringe will help with ammonia and nitrite though.

And in a 23 litre tank, it'll have to be either a betta or endlers. I wouldn't risk anything with a betta in a tank that small, except perhaps a snail. My bettas have all been fine with a nerite snail in a 25 litre tank. I did try african dwarf frogs with two of them, but that wasn't a success. The plakat (short fins) wasn't the problem, it was the half-moon - the frogs mistook his long fins for food and bit him till he got finrot. You will read that dwarf frogs are good betta tankmates but I'd never mix the two again.

jesnon · « **Reply #186 on:** March 21, 2013, 03:52:56 PM »

Hmm if I had a betta would that mean we couldn't have shrimps too? Tricky!

Sue · « **Reply #187 on:** March 21, 2013, 04:13:21 PM »

Some bettas can live with shrimps but a lot will eat them. If you get a betta that turns out to be a shrimp eater, any shrimps you get could turn out to be expensive fish food.

If you do decide on a betta, they do better (sorry!) with specialised food. There are a few makes, but Atisons (ordinary not pro) is the best though I've never seen it in shops. I see that ebay has stopped selling it, but it is available in other on-line shops. A small pack is all you need; the big ones last way way past their best before date.

jesnon · « **Reply #188 on:** March 21, 2013, 04:33:15 PM »

Ooh thanks for that Sue :-) I'll show my boyfriend a picture of some bettas and see what he thinks.. he might be more interested in the tank with a beautiful betta fish ha! I am really attached to the idea of having shrimp though, but wouldn't want them to end up as food! Tricky, decisions decisions!

Sue · « **Reply #189 on:** March 21, 2013, 06:38:25 PM »

It's a good excuse for another tank

That wouldn't be nearly as bad as cycling this one. If you waited a couple of months, then took some mature-ish media from the Edge, a new tank would cycle much faster

ColinB · « **Reply #190 on:** March 21, 2013, 06:47:16 PM »

See - easy decision. Another tank!

jesnon · « **Reply #191 on:** March 21, 2013, 07:07:44 PM »

Haha definitely sounds like a plan! :-D

We might be moving some time in July and I've heard it's often easier to get and set up another tank in the new place and have them running at the same time to move the inhabitants straight into... so maybe I'll get another tank then! I definitely think I'll be wanting another tank soon enough! I really wanted to have those clown fish eventually, but I'm not sure how difficult marine fish are to keep considering how complicated tropical are!!

Resa · « **Reply #192 on:** March 21, 2013, 07:18:17 PM »

Hi Jesnon,
Bearing in mind that I know squat all, I just thought I'd add my two-pennorth about Tetra Safe Start. I also got some in my tank kit, which I used but probably didn't get any benefit from as I threw most of my tank water away when it all turned brown, from my bogwood. Anyway, tank refilled and cycling started, hubby, (trying to earn Brownie points!) came home triumphant with a new bottle of the Safe Start as he knew I had used all my original bottle. Not wishing to appear ungrateful (and trying to keep him onside with the palaver of setting up my tank) I figured it could do no harm to add it to the tank. After all, if it didn't work, then no harm done and I could carry on as before but if by some miracle it speeded things up...oh, joy!
Anyway, I am convinced it helped. Not wishing to jinx things, my nitrite levels have been consistently zero and I have now had my little fishies for two weeks. I'm sure it can't hurt to try it and you never know, it might just work for you too. By the way, hubby said he went through all the bottles on the shelf and got the one with the longest expiry date. Don't know if that would make much difference but the fact it has a date and contains bacteria, I guess it makes sense that it can become stale.
Good luck and I hope you can very soon get your little fishies! I also have a little betta fish (in his own tank) named Rafe and I love him! He is the most beautiful midnight blue...in fact, thinking about it, most of my fish are blue. Guess what my favourite colour is

Resa

Resa · « **Reply #193 on:** March 21, 2013, 07:28:48 PM »

Hi Jesnon,

Me again.....just spotted your new post re. clown fish. My son has had a marine set up for about 100 years...well, maybe not quite that long, but anyway, in the early days I used to dread asking him how his latest fish was, as he definitely had some casualties, which aside from the upset of losing a little chap you have taken care over choosing, they cost SO much!!! He has though, still got one of his original fish, I believe it is a foxface, and he has grown huge (the fish...not my son!) 'Foxy' is now well over ten years old! I have to admit marine tanks certainly are beautiful and the fish are such vibrant colours. I would love to have one myself one day. Even without fish, the different corals and anemones are stunning.

Resa

jesnon · « **Reply #194 on:** March 21, 2013, 07:46:56 PM »

Your cycle did seem very fast to me Resa, so maybe that's what did the job! I went out earlier and bought some safe start just to try it (I figured it was worth a try if nothing else) and I've added it to the tank, I'll leave it as late as possible before testing today and see what happens (I didn't dose ammonia until around 1pm so I won't be able to test after 12 hours as I'll probably be in bed, but I'll leave it until around 11!). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my nitrite eaters, combined with the bottled bacteria, will result in lots of 0s from now on :-)

I do think bettas are stunning little fish, and having just one I guess it would be easier to discover their 'personality' a bit more than a larger group of smaller fish. Though I showed my boyfriend (who I expected to be more excited about the bettas than endlers) and he said they look 'poncy'!! There's no winning haha.

Ooh well I'm glad to hear of your son's success! Maybe it's something for me to try further down the line when I've built up some experience with fishes!

chrisp · « **Reply #195 on:** March 21, 2013, 07:51:10 PM »

resa

i think il try a bottle of 'tetra safe start' reading what u said. anything just to try and get things goin. ive already added some matured gravel to my filters to see if that would help. im on day 5 of my cycling process now. when do you add the bottle? soon as or towards the end of the cycle?

Resa · « **Reply #196 on:** March 21, 2013, 07:58:34 PM »

Hi Jesnon,

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your little bugs to do their stuff! I am sure it made a difference to my cycle time.
Men! What are they like??? I'm sure they just try and be contrary

Have a good evening.

Resa

Resa · « **Reply #197 on:** March 21, 2013, 08:08:49 PM »

Hi Chrisp,

It can't hurt, can it? Don't forget though, as Sue said, only the Tetra Safe Start. From all the reading I've been doing since starting out on this fishy lark...and believe me, I've done LOADS of reading, this is the only filter starter that seems to have any effect and has got quite a lot of positive comments.
You add it straight away, but not all at once. It tells you on the bottle the dosage you need depending on your tank size. You use a course of it over three days, as I recall.
The only downside of you doing it is we won't know if it is the safe start or your gravel that does the trick. Never mind, the important thing is that you get there as soon as is safely possible for your future little bubble
-blowing residents

Good Luck!

Resa

chrisp · « **Reply #198 on:** March 21, 2013, 08:12:45 PM »

lol ok thanks

Sue · « **Reply #199 on:** March 22, 2013, 08:44:41 AM »

The main work done on filter bacteria was by Dr Tim Hovanec in the USA. He is the one who discovered that the nitrite eaters were not the species originally thought. Early 'bottled bacteria' products contained the wrong one. The company he worked for introduced a product called Bio Spira which, if stored correctly, actually worked.
I'm not 100% sure on the details, but it is something like Tetra bought the company that marketed Tim Hovanec's product, and Safe Start is the follow on product from Bio Spira. In the UK, there used to be a product similar to Bio Spira called Bactinettes, but that has long gone.
Tim Hovanec formed his own company and markets a product in the USA, Dr Tim's One and Only, but it is very hard to get in the UK and as it must be kept under strict conditions all the time I wouldn't like to risk spending my money on something that may have been stored incorrectly during transport.

Safe Start is the product that works in more cases than any other. But it too is dependant on correct storage. While it isn't as bad as One & Only, if it has got too hot or too cold or been on the shelf too long it won't work. But it does not work instantly as a lot of shops would have you believe. Even when it works perfectly it takes several days. The instructions should be followed to the letter - I think they include not doing any water changes? which is why I personally would only use it for a fishless cycle.

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Cycling My Fluval Edge

Cycling My Fluval Edge

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