Possibly an impatient n00b

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
 

andrewrckt

New Member
Ammonia needs to be zero. That is more important than the other two.
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

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
 

andrewrckt

New Member
Just be patient. It usually takes at least 6 weeks to cycle a tank, sometimes much longer.
.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
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!
 
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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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