Cycling

mburrou1

New Member
I am just beginning to cycle my 30 gallon tank. I had my gravity at 1.022. I put in two Damsals (blue with yellow tail?) and they seem to be doing fine. The day after I put the fish in the tank the gravity went up to 1.025. Is this normal? What should I do?
Please forgive me I am very new to this.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
You're forgiven!

And I suppose you mean specific gravity [salinity levels] not just gravity?
This sounds somewhat unlikely, however, you didn't say when you started cycling?? If you did your salt mixture and then took salinity readings right after the mix, then you probably just got an off reading due to the the salts not completely mixing yet. Hobbiest commonly "age" salt mixed water just so that we make sure that the salts are all dissolved very well before it ends up in the tank. "Aged" means the water is mixed and left with areation for at least a few days, if not more, before using it in our tanks. Some hobbists have a constant supply of "aging" water going at all times.
The other thing you need to look at is evaporation. Is your tank losing a lot of water due to evaporation? Any time that you add water due to evaporation loss, you need to add FRESH water, not salt water [water evaporates from the tank, not salt, thus when you add water due to evaparation, you need to replace the water, not the salt].
[This message has been edited by beth (edited 02-22-2000).]
 

mburrou1

New Member
Thank you for your responses. I set up the water and salt on Saturaday, checked the salinity on monday afternoon and then added the two fish. The water was perfect according to the pet store. I have not added any water at all, but I am planning to only add distilled water from the grocery store.
Should I do a small water change to reduce the salinty? The fish seem to be doing very well. Eating well, breathing looks good.
 

kris

Member
RR is right it is not so much the number that matters (see post on specific gravity) but the consistancy of that number.
 
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