Fishless Cycle with Ammonia AND Stability?

[velanarris]

Ok then tc.

 

[ward1066]

Hmmm... I haven't been recording the nitrate levels. My understanding was that you didn't need to worry about them when doing a fishless cycle since at the end of which you do like a 90% water change....



Thanks for that. It will probably be at least a week before fish enter tank after it is cycled since I'll have to special order what I want. The store I deal with is primarily africans (Seriously about 90% or more of the fish in the store are african cichlids. It didn't used to be that way, but I guess africans are the big seller in my area so they stock what moves...) so anything else you want you need to order in.

My original plan was to order in two mortoro stingrays as the tank's only inhabitants, but I'm having second thoughts after reading up on them on this site. I've owned a motoro in the past, she was in a 135 gallon with a bunch of my discus, but I never knew they required such massive aquariums when fully grown. I really want to go with a couple rays, but I don't know if I want to ugrade to like a 300 gallon in the near future.... So I may have to go with something else which is a bummer because I already put all that damn sand in the tank!

well..nitrates are a good indicator where you are in your cycle, it might be a little early to measure it because you might have some in your tap water, but if you got a reading of 10ppm that is a good sign that your cycle is progressing really fast. just watch that yur ammonia doesnt go to zero really fast or you might starve your bacteria that you built up.

 

[Rob Martin]

Well, thus far I'm not overly impressed with the Stability guys. Here's the readings:

Day 1: Got ammonia up to 4ppm. Added 12 capfuls of Stability.

Day 2: Ammonia reads 2ppm, Nitrites 0ppm (what's going on here?)
Added 10 mls of ammonia, Added 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 3: Ammonia reads 4ppm once again, Nitrites 0ppm
Added 10 mls of ammonia, Added 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 4: Ammonia now reads 6ppm, Nitrite 0ppm
Add 10 more mls ammonia, Add 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 5: Ammonia still holding at 6ppm, Nitrite still at 0ppm
Add 10 more mls ammonia, Add 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 6: Ammonia still holding at 6ppm, Nitrite still at 0ppm
NO Ammonia added, Add 8 capfuls of Stability (bottle now empty)

Day 7: Ammonia STILL holding at 6ppm, Nitrite STILL at 0ppm.
NO Ammonia added, No Stability added.

So, what gives? First some ammonia seems to just dissapear without any nitrites showing up. Then the ammonia seems to hold steady despite me adding more each day to the tank. Now, after an entire bottle of stability ammonia is still holding at 6ppm and I am still reading no nitrites.... Not a fan of stability thus far. Any ideas?

 

[ward1066]

Well, thus far I'm not overly impressed with the Stability guys. Here's the readings:

Day 1: Got ammonia up to 4ppm. Added 12 capfuls of Stability.

Day 2: Ammonia reads 2ppm, Nitrites 0ppm (what's going on here?)
Added 10 mls of ammonia, Added 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 3: Ammonia reads 4ppm once again, Nitrites 0ppm
Added 10 mls of ammonia, Added 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 4: Ammonia now reads 6ppm, Nitrite 0ppm
Add 10 more mls ammonia, Add 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 5: Ammonia still holding at 6ppm, Nitrite still at 0ppm
Add 10 more mls ammonia, Add 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 6: Ammonia still holding at 6ppm, Nitrite still at 0ppm
NO Ammonia added, Add 8 capfuls of Stability (bottle now empty)

Day 7: Ammonia STILL holding at 6ppm, Nitrite STILL at 0ppm.
NO Ammonia added, No Stability added.

So, what gives? First some ammonia seems to just dissapear without any nitrites showing up. Then the ammonia seems to hold steady despite me adding more each day to the tank. Now, after an entire bottle of stability ammonia is still holding at 6ppm and I am still reading no nitrites.... Not a fan of stability thus far. Any ideas?

sometimes too much ammonia can crash your biological filter and hamper its growth. I would say you added too much ammonia, way more than a group of fish would probably excrete in a week. I would do a water change and get your ammonia levels down to a lower level and try again.

 

[Rob Martin]

Ohhh....... Poop. Thanks man. I'm gonna go do a water change right now.... crap.

 

[NOLAGT]

sometimes too much ammonia can crash your biological filter and hamper its growth. I would say you added too much ammonia, way more than a group of fish would probably excrete in a week. I would do a water change and get your ammonia levels down to a lower level and try again.

Agreed...from the reading I did they said if you add too much it will slow the cycle down. You should only add AMN the next day to get back to your target of 4-5ppm. So my guess is since you added the same 10mls every time it got the AMN to high and put the brakes on something.

In my case...on my 240...I used safestart. And so far I added 16 fish (two @ 4" two catfish @ 3" and the rest a solid 2-3") into a 240 gal african tank. I dumped in 4 bottles (really for 300gal) of safestart when I added the fish. I am now on day 9 and after feeding the fish till there belleys are plump twice a day and my AMN ITE and ATE read 0. I would think after 9 days of double feeding fish I would have some AMN if it were a regular setup.

 

[ward1066]

Ohhh....... Poop. Thanks man. I'm gonna go do a water change right now.... crap.

yeah i dunno even how the spores deal with a higher concentration either. in a normal cycle the ammonia gradually increases over time. With a fishless cycle you are dealing with higher concentrations. maybe try keeping the ammonia around 2ppm or less and see if the bacteria does better. good experiment though. keep us updated.

 

[velanarris]

Well, thus far I'm not overly impressed with the Stability guys. Here's the readings:

Day 1: Got ammonia up to 4ppm. Added 12 capfuls of Stability.

Day 2: Ammonia reads 2ppm, Nitrites 0ppm (what's going on here?)
Added 10 mls of ammonia, Added 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 3: Ammonia reads 4ppm once again, Nitrites 0ppm
Added 10 mls of ammonia, Added 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 4: Ammonia now reads 6ppm, Nitrite 0ppm
Add 10 more mls ammonia, Add 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 5: Ammonia still holding at 6ppm, Nitrite still at 0ppm
Add 10 more mls ammonia, Add 12 capfuls of Stability

Day 6: Ammonia still holding at 6ppm, Nitrite still at 0ppm
NO Ammonia added, Add 8 capfuls of Stability (bottle now empty)

Day 7: Ammonia STILL holding at 6ppm, Nitrite STILL at 0ppm.
NO Ammonia added, No Stability added.

So, what gives? First some ammonia seems to just dissapear without any nitrites showing up. Then the ammonia seems to hold steady despite me adding more each day to the tank. Now, after an entire bottle of stability ammonia is still holding at 6ppm and I am still reading no nitrites.... Not a fan of stability thus far. Any ideas?

Still want me banned tcar?

 

[bobgobucks]

Still want me banned tcar?

Instigator. I have an idea, velanarris: Stick to facts, what you KNOW and try to come up with some positive input instead of derailing a thread which, without your crap has actually been quite informative.

Anyone here ever used a product called TLC? Anyone ever heard of it?

 

[NOLAGT]

I have heard of TLC...dont know if it really works or not.