MyFish Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 (edited) Update #4 twelve or thirteen days running and my reading is good. need to wait and add ammonia and see if ammonia will be used by bacteria and plants. Waiting on my Fritz liquid ammonia shipment. Should be here soon. Yes, I’m doing things backwards…lol. Guess that’s what happens when you’ve been out of the hobby 20 years- you forget stuff. Edited January 20, 2022 by MyFish Added 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gannon Posted January 20, 2022 Share Posted January 20, 2022 Great tank! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyFish Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) 👮🏼♀️ Emergency 🚨 Okay I’m dumb founded. my tank is still not cycled. I think my canister filter is not working problem because of the flow rate too high to get the bacteria to multiply in the media. I purchased a HOB aquaclear yesterday because my nitrites were 5ppm. I added prime and the whole bottle of tetra safe start to help last night. tested in morning and no change still 5ppm. Did a 5 gallon water change. Trying to keep Gary and turbo alive (my cycle mystery snail buddies). im getting rid of my canister (penn plaxx 1500 and keeping the HOB once the bacteria start their J.O.B. I’ve never had this problem in the past. BTW my horn wart is growing crazy; so I know it’s utilizing the nitrogen and waste… should I keep adding bacteria? The API I added in the beginning didn’t do much; although it did remove the fritz ammonia I added, it took 48 hours to do so, but then my nitrites went sky high. That’s when I got the HOB and added the whole bottom of tetra safe start. I read that API doesn’t use water bacteria, but terrestrial. tetra safe start uses 2 strains of water bac. So I dosed it with that. I know know what others go through I feel like a PLEB. Confused 😐 PS: still have the canister running with the aquaclear 75 Edited January 28, 2022 by MyFish Add pic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndEEss Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 First and foremost, a Penn Plax 1500 is rated at 350gph. Which means that, when accounting for head and resistance due to filter material, it's pushing about half that. So, at best, 200gph. That's below the level of many HOBs. Also, that flow rate won't prevent BB from growing on your media; I don't know that that's even possible or a legitimate problem or concern.. Plenty of people use FX6s with 2-3x the flow rate. When did you first start adding ammonia and BB to your tank? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyFish Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 Well I believe the 350 GPH is pretty accurate. You should have seen the water movement…lol. About 4 weeks running and the flow Finally slowed down. (I was using spray bar) The ammonia I added 2 1/2 weeks after running. Because I was not getting any readings on nitrite or nitrate. I just wish I could rebuild this whole tank but that’s just too much to ask. I do know I’ll never use Fluval Stratham again Unless I am making a plant only tank. The 5 gallon water change I did today 10% helped lower the nitrates by half. By the end of the day I am hoping the HOB will catch up. I’m going to add another bottle of tetra start I’m thinking… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Are you still actively adding ammonia at all? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyFish Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 No, I haven’t added any ammonia since. That’s why it’s odd. The only thing I can think of is the canister filter never populated. Maybe due to the high volume of water though in the bacteria could not populate the ceramic rings, but that seems odd as well. I could of had a bad bottle of API… but three my Ammonia would not have went to zero after 48 hours… I’ll just stick to tetra safe start and see what happens in the next 48hours. Unless you have any other suggestions… thank you for picking your brain with me 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) This may be a strange question but you said it ran for weeks with no ammonia and you did it backwards. We’re you ghost feeding a decent amount? 2 mystery snails in a decent amount of water will not produce enough ammonia to cycle your tank. Add hornwort that takes in the ammonia and there is nothing left to grow beneficial bacteria. You will only ever grow enough bacteria to handle the amount of ammonia available after the plants take their share. It also takes weeks longer to grow the bacteria that eats nitrite so no ammonia excess to convert to nitrite then the nitrite bacteria has not grown. Hope that makes sense Edited January 28, 2022 by Guppysnail 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laritheloud Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 I'm quite confused about how you cycled your tank. When you did an initial cycle, you ran it for weeks with no ammonia, correct? Did you add ammonia and bottled bacteria at the same time, or did you just add the snails and the bacteria? Because what I'm seeing here is the normal course of a cycle. Ammonia and bacteria added to the start, ammonia is consumed by the bacteria, bacteria produces Nitrite, another bacteria consumes nitrite and converts to nitrate. The tank is not cycled until both ammonia and nitrite read as ZERO in twenty-four hours or less after the tank is dosed with ammonia. My 20 gallon took over 8 weeks to fully cycle (fishlessly), for instance. I do not think your canister filter is negatively affecting your cycle at all. Please leave it where it is. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyFish Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 I atarted it I believe on Jan 9. I added api QuickStart and let it run I added fish food for a couple days. Never saw ammonia spike not nitrates. So I purchased Fritz’s liquid ammonia fish fuel about 2weeks after. I added and 48 hours later ammonia at zero. I added 1/2 amount of ammonia again and it didn’t clear fast it took about 3 days. So I waited. Till zero. Then I added my snails a couple of days ago and tested nitrites. That’s when I posted the purple reading. I then added a full bottoms of tetra safestart ( because I read their two marine bacteria strains are the best) The nitrates were tested today and are zero. I’ll never use API bacteria again… I found out they use terrestrial bacterial and you gave to continually add it to your tank every couple weeks otherwise they will not last. API has some good products but I’ll choose another bacterial starter for my tanks in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyFish Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 Update 7 added some $1 poster board to the rear. Sorry to report Gary the snail 🐌 look dead, he hasn’t moved in two days. Although (snails can sleep for 36 hours) in any event his decomposition is feed my starter bacteria…yes I know it’s a morbid thing to leave him in there. I will remove him before I add fish. Turbo is hiding out in the center 🪵 log. Today I put together my Co2 reactor and am waiting till the pressure builds to connect it. pics below. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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