PaddyC's Peaceful Community

Enjoying these updates; thanks.

Enjoying these updates; thanks.

Glad it's being appreciated, thanks for that!! 

That gravel looks fine. It's the 'live' marine stuff you need to avoid but that isn't 'live'.


The really important time to monitor pH is when nitrite appears as that is acidic.

Yeah the lady I spoke to in my "recommended" LFS seemed very knowledgeable and quite gracious in her advice, unlike the pushy know-it-all types you sometimes get at P@H... She told me this stuff is cheap and works well in our soft water (Stirlings water is almost identical to my own and she keeps a fish shop so she clearly knows what works).

I was sooo tempted to do the other 4 tests today but I disciplined myself to just pH today as I feel sometimes you can get bogged down worrying about stuff when sometimes it's better just to leave the biology alone to do it's thing... I'll post my results on Sunday night after my shift, that will be just over 72 hours from the first full ammonia dose 

However, that is also mothers day and my mum will be here having dinner with the missus when I get home, so I won't launch straight into laboratory mode 

Love this guys! 

Quote from: Sue on March 04, 2016, 07:38:26 PM

Fingers crossed that the Safe Start is doing something. It took 28 days for my ammonia to drop and nitrite show up without adding anything........

Oof that must have been frustrating!

It wasn't too bad. I was replacing an internal filter with a sponge filter in my betta's tank and because the two types of filter aren't  really compatible, I couldn't do what I usually do, that is put the old media into the new filter. So as I'd never actually done a cycle using this method, I set up my quarantine tank and cycled the filter in that. But I still had three tanks running so it wasn't nearly as frustrating as having to wait to get fish would have been.

Besides, it was good for me to see what people who have no access to mature media have to go through 

You did say that your friend was changing his media which is why he was happy to give the old stuff to you? If I've understood that correctly, why on earth is he changing his media? That looks like fine, healthy media to me 
All the better for you though

He's went a step further and is replacing his whole filter as his old one is quite bulky and noisy. He's kept some of his mature media and given me the bulk of it as his tank and filter aren't as large as mine and he says my needs are greater than his 

I have paid him in beer, the currency of good pals 

He's had tanks for twenty years and only has 3 or 4 fairly old fish, all over a year old and quite large, so whatever he's been doing til now I reckon he'll just continue. He even commits the sin of rinsing his media under the kitchen tap... I don't want to start telling him he's doing it wrong...

and only has 3 or 4 fairly old fish, all over a year old

Most of the shoaling type fish live to 5+ years, and some catfish and others to 20+, so if they're just over 1, they're still quite young. Perhaps he thinks these are old because he has a high turnover of fish, so perhaps you can gently enlighten him about what you're learning.

Having said that, I was guilty of not keeping up-to-date with fishkeeping practices over the many years when I had my goldfish - everything seemed to be going fine, and, if there was ever a problem, I consulted the pet/fish shop or did a quick google search. It was only when I started tropical fishkeeping, and realised that there were other issues to consider (eg that some fish were suited to certain types of water, temperature ranges, compatibility of fish, etc) and which I knew nothing about, that I had my eyes opened. So, in some respects, I can understand how your friend sticks to what he has always done as he assumes it is fine.

I've told him all about this site, I think he is intrigued... I'll keep hinting at him to check it out 

With the fishless cycle I've just finished, during the first 28 days I also found the ammonia was slowly dropping but no sign of nitrite. So I just ignored it. It did go back up a bit all by itself. I no longer have a nitrate tester as I didn't bother replacing that one when it expired so I don't know what happened there. I just went with ammonia and nitrite readings
The nitrate testers are the least reliable. It is difficult to make a tester suitable for home use, so they are just ball park at best. But they can show an increase or decease. Did you shake the bottle you have to shake? It has to be shaken really well, a lot of people reckon that 30 secs is not enough, it needs to be more like 2 mins together with tapping the bottle on the worktop to break up any solidified reagent.

It is possible in your case that the safe start is really helping so the ammonia is falling and the resulting nitrite being turned into nitrate - with the nitrate test not showing that.

I would test again in 3 days and see what you get then.