Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Nearly on April 01, 2021, 07:58:10 PM
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Hello everyone, can I ask for some opinions please?
I’m new to fish keeping, but trying to do things properly. I’m also under offspring pressure to get fish asap.
I’m trying to put together a planted nano tank (32l) to house a handful of Endlers Livebearers.
I’m also trying to do a fishless cycle, but am worried because nothing seems to be happening.
I live in London so my water is quite hard (out of the tap it’s around 180kH, 180gH, pH 7.5-8). This has been treated with Tetra’s Aquasafe.
My thought was to push the cycle faster, to keep small people happy.
So I dosed the tank to 2ppm ammonia (Dr Tims), added a double dose of Tetra’s SafeStart bacteria, heated it to 26C, and kept an eye on it. After 9 days, ammonia had dropped to 1ppm, so I topped it back up to 2ppm. Nitrite has stayed stubbornly at 0. Nitrate is around 20-40ppm (but that’s how the water comes out of the tap).
We’re now at day 13 with no sign of bacteria development (no nitrite). I’m using APIs master test kit to test for Ammonia and NO2. Reading across the internet suggests that I should have seen some bacteria development around day 9 if I’d done nothing but put Ammonia in the water.
Does anyone want to hazard an opinion at what’s happening? I’ve obviously proved that the money spent on SafeStart was wasted (I’ll put it down to a dead batch), but even so should I have seen something by now, or are my expectations too high?
If things are going slower than expected, what do you think I’ve done wrong?
Can I try dumping another load of bacteria (bought from a different store, maybe a different brand) in the tank?
I don’t know if it’s relevant, but the plants are all showing new foliage, and in the last two days we’ve had a bloom of brown algae (cleaning the tank tomorrow).
Thanks for your help,
Nearly.
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Hi, welcome to the forum.
You won’t always see nitrite in a cycle. That’s because the nitrite-eaters start up as soon as there’s nitrite present, and if the ammonia-eaters are slow they’ll catch up, so nitrite goes straight through to nitrate without ever building up enough of a presence to register on a test.
The fact that your ammonia went from 2 to 1 is proof that the cycle has started.
Not all brands of bottled bacteria work. Tetra SafeStart is one that does (it’s Dr Tim’s formula).
How much ammonia have you added in total?
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Thanks for taking the time to answer.
I’ve added a total of 2.3ml of Dr Tim’s Ammonium Chloride (2 doses, 1.5ml and 0.8ml) which at 40mg/ml concentration is 92mg (60mg and 32mg).
So I can stop worrying and just keep monitoring until the 2ppm ammonia doses disappear overnight? The drop in ammonia can’t be accounted for by the plants or algae?
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The drop in ammonia can’t be accounted for by the plants or algae?
Possibly, I’m not sure. But a cycle will work without adding bacteria, so I’d just let it sit with an ammonia presence, and if you monitor the nitrates as best you can (compare it visually to a tapwater test?) that’ll show you its working.
I would expect some movement after two weeks though, and you seem to have pretty optimal parameters for cycling.
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Of course there’s also nothing wrong with adding more bacteria.
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Plants absolutely can and will use ammonia. But this also means they will support aquatic life so if you are seeing a drop because of their presence your tank is still able to support fish life if that makes sense.