Water parameters

[sweetpoison]

On 6/17/2022 at 8:24 AM, modified lung said:

 

Make sure not to go much over 5 ppm ammonia.

How do I make sure of that? I guess that number would be on my ammonia dial on my aquarium. Or when I test which I don’t have strips yet, and let’s say it is over five ~ do a water change?

On 6/17/2022 at 8:30 AM, modified lung said:

MY SWEET, INNOCENT EYES!!!!!!

So funny!!😂😂

[modified lung]

On 6/17/2022 at 9:39 AM, sweetpoison said:

How do I make sure of that?

When I said 5 ppm ammonia, I really meant 5 ppm total ammonia. Most test kits measure total ammonia. 

The Seachem dial only measures the toxic part of the total ammonia which is called free ammonia.

Free ammonia (which is measured by the seachem dial) is usually just a small fraction of total ammonia.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

My mind is spinning. I thought about using ammonia and I’m kinda glad I didn’t. I’m ghost feeding, using old tank gunk, and doing fritz zyme. Ammonia seems complicated!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/17/2022 at 1:57 PM, Pepere said:

peeing in your tank?

Have you tested this method? 🤣

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/17/2022 at 3:05 PM, Pepere said:

I know how much has been put in, and know how quickly it is metabolized to determine and end point.  It works for my mind.  I like having concrete known variables.

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience!

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/16/2022 at 8:55 PM, sweetpoison said:

just wait…

How long has the tank been setup?  At minimum you're looking at a month before you can do much with the tank, honestly.  If you're adding bacteria, it might be 2-3 weeks.  That's about how long I usually wait for a "new tank".

On 6/17/2022 at 10:48 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

My mind is spinning. I thought about using ammonia and I’m kinda glad I didn’t. I’m ghost feeding, using old tank gunk, and doing fritz zyme. Ammonia seems complicated!

All you really need to do is drop in some food every day or every few days.

[sweetpoison]

On 6/17/2022 at 12:34 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

How long has the tank been setup?  At minimum you're looking at a month before you can do much with the tank, honestly.  If you're adding bacteria, it might be 2-3 weeks.  That's about how long I usually wait for a "new tank".

All you really need to do is drop in some food every day or every few days.

“How long has the tank been setup?”

About a week and a half.  I just hit it with a ammonia for the first time yesterday

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/17/2022 at 1:01 PM, sweetpoison said:

About a week and a half.  I just hit it with a ammonia for the first time yesterday

Yeah, you got time.  No rush.  Take the time to look up cool designs, figure out what you want to do in the tank, research, and just wait for sea monkeys to show up somewhere.  It's a "slow" part of the hobby for sure, but necessary!

[sweetpoison]

On 6/17/2022 at 12:34 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

 

 

On 6/17/2022 at 10:38 AM, Pepere said:

I would not dose the tank with ammonia every day.

 

I would test the tank for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates daily.  

once ammonia and Nitrites are below 0.25 ppm, I would then do a water change if nitrates are above 20 ppm and then dose tank with ammonia again.

 

I would repeat that action until you test water 24 hours after a dosing and get a reading of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites.

Perfect!  Thank you so much I am gonna keep you posted!  Don’t forget about me☺️

[sweetpoison]

On 6/17/2022 at 1:03 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yeah, you got time.  No rush.  Take the time to look up cool designs, figure out what you want to do in the tank, research, and just wait for sea monkeys to show up somewhere.  It's a "slow" part of the hobby for sure, but necessary!

Have you seen my tank? It is all ready set up sand, plants and everything just no fish😂

or anything else actually!

And lots of sand dust everywhere it’s driving me nuts!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/17/2022 at 3:34 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

All you really need to do is drop in some food every day or every few days.

Yeah I’m not overly concerned with it because I’m using an old gunky established filter. I’m just adding some food to see how the tests run, really.  🙂 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/17/2022 at 1:09 PM, sweetpoison said:

And lots of sand dust everywhere it’s driving me nuts!

You can gravel vac and clean it up a bit?  I think sand can be tricky but I loved having it. I'd look forward to WC day because I got to feel like I was at the beach so to speak.  If you look at the top of the sand and see a bunch of fine particles, try to gravel vac it out.  It will eventually find it's way down a drain or something if you don't remove it manually.  Second to that, I run my fingers through the substrate, get it into the water column and then let it settle on the surface.

You can also dose at that point for the sake of ease, clarity, and then run a fine pad on your filtration.

[sweetpoison]

Here’s what I did!  I got some filter floss and I just put it in my tank filter. Help clear it up. Because every time I go move a rocker plant it all clouds up again I’m so tired of it. So I was going to vacuum it all out and clean it up but then is that OK to do that in the middle of hitting it with ammonia ?

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/17/2022 at 2:00 PM, sweetpoison said:

Here’s what I did!  I got some filter floss and I just put it in my tank filter. Help clear it up. Because every time I go move a rocker plant it all clouds up again I’m so tired of it. So I was going to vacuum it all out and clean it up but then is that OK to do that in the middle of hitting it with ammonia ?

Yes it's fine to do.  If you're concerned you can add more ammonia.  No big deal.  The basic idea is to get it to where you're happy, then let it sit and cycle and it's going to do things over that time where you might want to move something, tweak something, clean something, and that's all part of the process.

[Misa]

On 6/15/2022 at 6:01 PM, Torrey said:

Boldly screw up in a fully committed kind of way, just to see what happens next (it's the secret to having fun)

Love this! (Fish goals!)

[sweetpoison]

Thank you so much!

[sweetpoison]

I have decided to tear down my tank I hate it!  I can’t deal the cloudiness this sand anymore and I hate the black background😡 I’m off for a week next week and I’m gonna do it then👏
 

It’s gonna look so cool I’m gonna love it.

Until of course I don’t🥴

Please don’t forget me you guys cause I’m not gonna hit the tank anymore with ammonia because I’m gonna take all that water out anyway when I start over…yes?

 

[Torrey]

On 6/18/2022 at 4:40 PM, sweetpoison said:

I have decided to tear down my tank I hate it!  I can’t deal the cloudiness this sand anymore and I hate the black background😡 I’m off for a week next week and I’m gonna do it then👏
 

It’s gonna look so cool I’m gonna love it.

Until of course I don’t🥴

Please don’t forget me you guys cause I’m not gonna hit the tank anymore with ammonia because I’m gonna take all that water out anyway when I start over…yes?

 

As long as you are having fun, it sounds great!

[sweetpoison]

Thank you, Torrey!  I can’t wait for you to see it!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@sweetpoison I didn't think this was helpful or productive to share this earlier because your tank was already set up, but I recently posted in my journal about how I add sand with zero clouding.  Here's the link.  There's A LOT of photos of the rinse process, but if you get to the bottom of those, there is a video I recorded of the sand-adding; there is a special way I do it.  I posted another right below it where I stirred up the sand with my hand and the result of that.  If you're interested it is here.

I'm looking forward to seeing your new setup soon!

[sweetpoison]

Thank you so much!  I’ve had sand in all my tanks throughout the years but this time I did not rinse it ~ it was my fault and it was never gonna clear up😡 far as my patients were concerned😂. I got everything out here so it looks like now I’m still working on the sand mess!

[sweetpoison]

On 6/17/2022 at 10:38 AM, Pepere said:

I would not dose the tank with ammonia every day.

 

I would test the tank for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates daily.  

once ammonia and Nitrites are below 0.25 ppm, I would then do a water change if nitrates are above 20 ppm and then dose tank with ammonia again.

 

I would repeat that action until you test water 24 hours after a dosing and get a reading of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites.

@PepereOK thanks up and running and I just tested for the first time everything and then I’m going to follow the directions above from you. I have not hit this tank with ammonia yet I am going to right now and every other day correct?

[sweetpoison]

On 6/26/2022 at 9:17 AM, Pepere said:

well, there are many ways to cycle a tank, but this is what I like to do.

 

I test every day. When Ammonia and Nitrites read zero, or at least below 0.5 ppm, I re dose.  
 
take a note of how many days it takes to get to that level and write it down.  
 

If nitrates are above 40 ppm, do a 50% water change before redosing.

again test daily and make note when ammonia and nitrite are below 0.5.

 

I repeat this cycle until I can get a dosing that would initially raise ammonia level to 2 ppm that completely metabolizes to 0 ammonia and 0nitrites in 24 hours.

 

At this point you have a robust colony of nitrifying bacteria that should easily take care of a reasonable fish bioload.

 

my attraction to this method is you know how much ammonia is dosed and how long it takes to metabolize to be ammonia and nitrite free.

Other people like just adding the amount of food daily they would normally feed intended fishload.  An experienced fish keeper might very well be able to pull this off easily, but in my mind it was easier dosing to a known ammonia level.

 

I will test every day.  I’ve only hit it with ammonia once…started today. When do I hit it again with ammonia or do I just keep testing until my nitrites read zero?

 

[Georgiapeach88]

On 6/15/2022 at 9:01 PM, Torrey said:

I'm ORD (out of reactions for the day) and wanted to say thank you for the chuckles (I appreciate blunt honesty, like "said no one ever"), and the sincere HONEST help in here.

@sweetpoison if you managed to keep discus thriving in more than one tank, then my recommendation is....

 

Breathe. Trust yourself to listen to your tank. I love Cory's video using M7M's for cycling tanks... I love his video explaining the difference between cycled and seasoned even more. You said you want a little easier this time round (and not doing daily water changes) so I offer you a challenge:

Go slow.

Pay attention to your tank, and what order the different algaes show up.

Pay attention to the things you didn't get to pay attention to when you had discus (also my favorite species I've bred so far, and way more work or energy than I am currently willing/able to invest)

Play

Have fun

Ask questions

Boldly screw up in a fully committed kind of way, just to see what happens next (it's the secret to having fun)

And never stop asking questions, the worst thing we do as a society is shame people into not asking questions for fear of looking foolish. Your questions reinvigorate the hobby with fun. It's supposed to be fun, right?

Welcome to the forum!

Corys vdo for cycling your tank is definitely best one yet to simplify it. Took myself a while to get is all down last yr as newbie to the hobby. And for months I have seen tbe ORD written and had no idea what it meant 😂😂 thanks for Clarifying. I was to shy to ask lol.  

[sweetpoison]

I already forgot what ORD means and it’s my post😂😂

On 6/26/2022 at 1:35 PM, Pepere said:

I add amonia again after testing shows zero Ammonia, zero nitrites.

Okay Pep ~I just tested and I’m not really sure if it’s safe and going to be stressed😂
 

and I’m adding ammonia since I didn’t add it yesterday.  I’m gonna test to my other two things……..which are nitrites and nitrates🙄

I was wondering when I kept discus I remember and correct me if my wrong ‘cause it’s been a few years ~ it’s okay to have nitrAtes at least 10, but never okay for nitrites?