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sweetpoison
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@Pepere @Odd DuckContinuing my cycling of his tank. I just just tested and my ammonia is 1.0 no nitrates or nitrites yet. I’m still hitting the tank with three ML of ammonia every other day.

Just a quick dumb question I’m sure but what does the Ammonia readings have to be at to get nitrates?  
 

And ~
 

Im going to get nitrates before nitrates correct?

Edited by sweetpoison
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Fishless cycling, they typically recommend dosing enough to get to 2 ppm on the ammonia. The goal is building enough BB’s to handle a fairly substantial bioload from the time you start adding fish.  I’ve never dosed ammonia, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night, oh, wait, this isn’t a commercial.

I always just blind feed tanks and give them time.  I switch a seasoned sponge filter or a block of well seasoned filter media into the filter from another tank.  I often add some snails, too.  I don’t add fish until my nitrite spike converts to a nitrate spike.  Then I do a challenge feeding to make sure everything converts quickly.  Then I finally start adding fish fairly slowly.

As far as an actual ammonia number, anything will get you there eventually.

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On 7/2/2022 at 12:15 PM, sweetpoison said:

So @Odd Duck

 I’m just waiting to find some nitrates on my testing right ~ now there’s zero.  
 

trying to figure out the next step and what I’m looking for🥴

It can be frustrating, but waiting it out and developing a good population of BB’s is worth the wait in the long run.  Your tank looks good, so it will be worth the wait.  You’ll have time to develop your plan for what fish you want and what order to get them.

😉 

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On 7/3/2022 at 8:49 AM, sweetpoison said:

@Odd Duckthank you for everything and all the time you put into helping me.  I’m not sure which one this resembles

55845B46-F656-4C57-AE2E-7DDC386FBDB7.jpeg

Looks right between which is where you want to be.  Do you have the API Master test kit?  That’s usually more accurate, especially for ammonia.

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On 7/3/2022 at 8:44 PM, sweetpoison said:

No I do not I have testing strips and the Seachrim‘s ammonia dial in my tank ~  I’m not buying a API testing kit I’m going simple this time around😂 I did that for years ~ too much trouble now😂 

Dip and move on🫣

I finally got the test kit and I'm going back to the strips next time. I'm finding that I test way less often when I have to break out the science lab kit every time. With the strips it's just so much quicker and easier... one second dip, thirty seconds to read and you're done. (And in case you haven't heard it here or elsewhere, you can cut the strips in half with a clean, dry scissors to get twice as many tests out of a package!)

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OK I’m supposed to add more ammonia today I think that I’m at 3.0. 

Nitrates almost pink or trying to be pink. No Nitrite.

Continue adding ammonia? What is the next step in one short or two, sentences that I will understand hopefully😂👏

BB58B99E-DBC8-4F35-87AC-0AF983C8BDA1.jpeg
 

on 6/26 I had 0.5 ~ just an FYI 

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@Odd DuckI think I already told you this. I just tested just now and ammonia at 3.0. The Nirates are trying to get to 10 trying to turn pink!

I’m supposed to dose another three ML‘s of ammonia today should I?

I think I should merge all of my threads together I’m getting so confused where everything is🥺

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Your goal is 2 ppm ammonia until you see a nitrite spike turn into nitrates.  Sounds like you’re nearly there!  When you see the nitrite convert quickly to nitrate, that’s when you do a couple more challenges.  As long as 2 ppm converts all the way through to nitrate within 24 hours, you are as ready as possible.  Do a large water change to bring the nitrates back down and you can start gradually adding fish.

Hold off on any that are algae dependent for at least a few months until your tank gets a better balance.  Other than that, I typically add my shyest fish first so they learn the ins and outs of the tank and all the hiding places.  Then gradually add the bolder fish.  In general, if you have enough hiding places, it doesn’t matter as much what order you add the fish other than having algae for algae dependent species.  With your layout, you don’t really have hiding places, so use the shy fish in first as a very general guideline.

I’m getting excited for you since nitrates finally showing up is a good sign.  Now you just need to make sure you have enough BB population to convert fast enough to be reasonably stable.

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On 7/6/2022 at 10:47 AM, sweetpoison said:

Update!  Ammonia is definitely climbing the other two are getting some color I think

It looks like some contamination on the testing which can make it difficult to read the results.  Here's an example video to show what can cause it.  I would highly recommend having a towel or paper towel when waiting for the test results to process. I have the same brand you're using and haven't seen any discoloration like that before!
 

 

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Oh!  So don’t put it on the bottle like at my picture shows?  I was Very careful not to contaminate those strips it goes in my tank out on the bottle and the directions say not to shake off the excess water so that’s probably why it bleeds

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On 7/6/2022 at 12:58 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

It looks like some contamination on the testing which can make it difficult to read the results.  Here's an example video to show what can cause it.  I would highly recommend having a towel or paper towel when waiting for the test results to process. I have the same brand you're using and haven't seen any discoloration like that before!
 

 

I think this video made a world of difference thank you so much!  Tell me what you think ~ the dip sticks look a lot better. With no running or bleeding👏
 

And the nitrates and nitrites  I can actually see them getting pink or can you?  What do you think of that ammonia?

You know I wanted to tell you I am keeping filter flossing in my filter along with all my sponges, to clear up my water. I replace the filter floss every couple days.  That’s not messing anything up is it?

E62AA5B6-136C-4AD8-8A0F-4AAF14BE88B6.jpeg

2F880BED-6E4F-43D1-B298-D8963E9DD7E1.jpeg

Edited by sweetpoison
Forgot the photo
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On 7/7/2022 at 1:46 PM, sweetpoison said:

You know I wanted to tell you I am keeping filter flossing in my filter along with all my sponges, to clear up my water. I replace the filter floss every couple days.  That’s not messing anything up is it?

Not at all. When my tanks are bad (high particulate from a big clean), I'll add floss and usually 3-4 days later I pull it and don't run it after that.

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