woody189
Member
this may be a dumb question but here it goes.
I'm setting up a QT tank..10 gal w/ a biowheel. I'm cycling my DT (1st tank ever) and i used tap water. I recently found out my tap had ammonia, about .75ppm
my question is does it make sense to use the tap water with ammonia to cycle my QT...I'll dechlorinate it, but why not just add water w/ ammonia, let it cycle, and then just do water changes w/ RO water...skip the shrimp step...Make sense??
Also, instead of startinga new thread, i'll ask here... how is my tank cycling?? it's a 46 gal w/ 45 lbs cured LR (shipped from online so not fully cured) , 40 Lbs aragonite LS. I have a skimmer, canister filter, and 2 PH's...
my levels after 3 weeks w/ no lights are
ammonia-0
Trites-.75
trates >10
I know i can't add fish yet, and once trites go to 0 do water change to get trates down, but does it sound normal so far?? It makes sense to me cause it means the ammonia is gone and converted to trites, but i'm not sure. i've been seeing a lot of what i think is diatoms on my LR...rusty/brown/orange algae...none on my sand though
when should i add my crew?? when i do the water change to get trates down or earlier?
thanks a lot
I'm setting up a QT tank..10 gal w/ a biowheel. I'm cycling my DT (1st tank ever) and i used tap water. I recently found out my tap had ammonia, about .75ppm
my question is does it make sense to use the tap water with ammonia to cycle my QT...I'll dechlorinate it, but why not just add water w/ ammonia, let it cycle, and then just do water changes w/ RO water...skip the shrimp step...Make sense??
Also, instead of startinga new thread, i'll ask here... how is my tank cycling?? it's a 46 gal w/ 45 lbs cured LR (shipped from online so not fully cured) , 40 Lbs aragonite LS. I have a skimmer, canister filter, and 2 PH's...
my levels after 3 weeks w/ no lights are
ammonia-0
Trites-.75
trates >10
I know i can't add fish yet, and once trites go to 0 do water change to get trates down, but does it sound normal so far?? It makes sense to me cause it means the ammonia is gone and converted to trites, but i'm not sure. i've been seeing a lot of what i think is diatoms on my LR...rusty/brown/orange algae...none on my sand though
when should i add my crew?? when i do the water change to get trates down or earlier?
thanks a lot
