Sorry i was out all day I wanted to get you readings.
To me ammonia and nitrites look to be zero.
8 year old BD Male passed away.
- Thread starter Black_Diamond
- Start date
To me ammonia and nitrites look to be zero.
Looks good mate. Test your tap water for nitrates. You level looks to be 40-60 which is not crazy high, but once you add your FRT & ray I would that to be my maximum nitrate level on water change day if possible. They will tolerate higher but in the spectrum of their health and welfare I wouldn’t let the nitrates get any higher than that.
This is the tank water today
Looks good mate.
So your tap water has about 5ppm nitrate so you’ll never read 0 even if you did a 90%+ water change.
For your current bioload you have a cycled filter.
Each time you add to the load (extra fish, turtle or stingray) you will see ammonia/nitrite become present again for a short period of time as your beneficial bacteria colony grows to consume the newly available food source. This is called a mini cycle and is normal. If your greatly increase the bioload in 1 hit this mini cycle can be detrimental. Take it easy, back of feeding, use Seachem Prime at detox dosing, do an extra water change and don’t forget salt to help fish deal w nitrite poisoning.
All the best mate
So your tap water has about 5ppm nitrate so you’ll never read 0 even if you did a 90%+ water change.
For your current bioload you have a cycled filter.
Each time you add to the load (extra fish, turtle or stingray) you will see ammonia/nitrite become present again for a short period of time as your beneficial bacteria colony grows to consume the newly available food source. This is called a mini cycle and is normal. If your greatly increase the bioload in 1 hit this mini cycle can be detrimental. Take it easy, back of feeding, use Seachem Prime at detox dosing, do an extra water change and don’t forget salt to help fish deal w nitrite poisoning.
All the best mate
Thank you so much for all your help I truly appreciate it! I will keep posting progress on this thread for sure!
No worries mate! All the best. Looking forward to tracking your progress 
In your opinion should I add the fly river yet or hold off like a week? My rays arent ready yet for a couple weeks but the FRT I can get soonerNo worries mate! All the best. Looking forward to tracking your progress
You can add the FRT mate. Your tank is as cycled as it’s gonna get with the current waste load. I would wait at least 3-4 weeks between adding it and a ray though. Let your filter catch up in the bioload of each additional tank mate before adding the next. It’s the only way to do it safely
