Possibly an impatient n00b

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andrewrckt

New Member
Hi everyone I have a new tank question involving chemistry. Like every new aquariamist I am starting to have the itch after 3 full weeks of waiting. I want to make sure I am not messing anything up here.

Currently my tank is showing readings of:

PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm

Last week I added dr Tim’s ammonia solution to the tank which spiked my ammonia concentration to 5ppm. The tank immediately went through and I think did the cycle as nitrates spiked to 5 ppm and then backed down to 0 and nitrates went up slightly and then back down to 0 ppm. Only thing not zeroing completely is the ammonia.

I am using the API master kit (liquid test kit). I was curious on reccomondations. I also added more bio floss, a new carbon bad and ceramic rings to my filter yesterday (I kept the original sponge and biofloss in there, but figured I should replace as I bought them from some else’s set up). I can continue to be patient and wait for ammonia to 0, but I am curious if the accuracy tolerance of the kit. I can add more ammonia to the tank as I did add more stuff to my filter and recycle the tank. Or am I ready to at least start with my clean up crew (peppermint shrimp, snails, and eventually a sand sifting starfish [going to wait for a more established tank for the star fish].

On another note, I have lives and and 30lbs live rock in my tank (40g breeder). I also have been adding stabilizer which is adding beneficial bacteria. I added in two caps yesterday with the addition to things in my filter.

Thanks and sorry if this is just me being impatient. This waiting is killer, but I see the delayed gratification behind this getting it done right.

Andrew
 
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andrewrckt

New Member
lmforbis said:
Ammonia needs to be zero. That is more important than the other two.
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I am debating if adding more ammonia will aid in the generation of bacteria necessary to reduce the ammonia concentration. The fact that I didn’t have the ceramic tubes in the filter makes me think these last 3 weeks were for nothing (besides the bacterial growth in the tank).
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
.25 with the api kit can be a false reading and it's actually 0.

I like cycling a tank with macro algaes. they consume ammonia directly plus co2 and eventually nitrates while returning oxygen and fish food.


my .02
 
A

andrewrckt

New Member
lmforbis said:
Just be patient. It usually takes at least 6 weeks to cycle a tank, sometimes much longer.
Click to expand...
beaslbob said:
.25 with the api kit can be a false reading and it's actually 0.

I like cycling a tank with macro algaes. they consume ammonia directly plus co2 and eventually nitrates while returning oxygen and fish food.


my .02
Click to expand...
I am at about 6/7 weeks now. Still plataued at 0.25 ppm. My wife says it is turning more yellow (between 0 and 0.25ppm), so maybe there is some hope. I did a partial water change (20%) because there was a TON of detritus building up on/in my sand. Cleaned that out some. Hoping that the 0.25ppm is a false reading, but remaining patient still. I might need to start thinking of my clean up crew as I am having a ton of hair algae, aiptasia, and detritus build up (brown stuff). I do have two asterina star fish that appeared as hitchhikers and a snail.

Edit: above I say detritus, but jay0705 corrected me and they are diatoms. Thanks jay!
 
Last edited:
silverado61

silverado61

Well-Known Member
I waited almost twelve weeks before I added anything more than a CUC just to make sure I had the algae situation under control and my ammonia was consistently measuring zero. I kept ghost feeding to keep the bio-load going.
 
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