Cycling with TBS start to finish
- Thread starter landlord
- Start date
For what my two cents are worth. I agree with hdtran. water changes are your best bet. I'm surprised your ammonia shot up so quick. I haven't added any fish yet, still waiting on my second shipment. but the amount of crabs and other life in the tank has got to be producing waste (ammonia). Spent about an hour last night lwatching the live sand. there are so many critters in it that it's hard to take your eyes off of it. Sorry for the late reply, but I'm only on line at work right now.
Keep us posted Landlord.
Keep us posted Landlord.
landlord
New member
The water changes are helping. The chemicals are starting to come down a bit. Last night I just tested the big three
Ammonium: .20
Nitrite: .8
Nitrate: 30
Hy was right this will be a lot of work. On the plus side, the tang and the TBS critters are algae eating freaks. All of the nasty hair algae is being gobbled up and the snails are making short work of the crud on the glass. Will do another water change here in a few days. The in-laws just do not see my fascination with this all. They're like "The rocks are nice Kurty, but wouldn't you like us to get you one of those bubbling treasure chests." I did not reply.
-landlord
Ammonium: .20
Nitrite: .8
Nitrate: 30
Hy was right this will be a lot of work. On the plus side, the tang and the TBS critters are algae eating freaks. All of the nasty hair algae is being gobbled up and the snails are making short work of the crud on the glass. Will do another water change here in a few days. The in-laws just do not see my fascination with this all. They're like "The rocks are nice Kurty, but wouldn't you like us to get you one of those bubbling treasure chests." I did not reply.
-landlord
oraclenick
New member
Patience
Patience
Dude, I go on vacation for a couple of days and you go and add more fish. How many times have I told you to be patient!
Priority is keeping the fish alive now. You should probably move both the percula and tang to the FO tank.
Do not add anything to the tank until you get the next shipment of LR and let the tank settle to all 0's for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Then you can start to add the fish from the FO tank back into the show tank.
The tang should be the last one added
Patience
Dude, I go on vacation for a couple of days and you go and add more fish. How many times have I told you to be patient!
Priority is keeping the fish alive now. You should probably move both the percula and tang to the FO tank.
Do not add anything to the tank until you get the next shipment of LR and let the tank settle to all 0's for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Then you can start to add the fish from the FO tank back into the show tank.
The tang should be the last one added
landlord
New member
Just performed another massive water change. I will do the testing in a bit to see how things are going. All fish and livestock seem to be doing very well dispite the trauma I have placed on them.
Hy - What is the name of the editor you use for cropping your images? and is it a free download?
oraclenick - You of all people should know I have the patience / attention span of a medfly drinking espresso. But thanks for the advise. I will attempt to exercise more patience.
thanks
-landlord
Hy - What is the name of the editor you use for cropping your images? and is it a free download?
oraclenick - You of all people should know I have the patience / attention span of a medfly drinking espresso. But thanks for the advise. I will attempt to exercise more patience.
thanks
-landlord
landlord
New member
Just did a 25% water change again. The clownfish didn't fare very well in the FO tank. He has died 
The tang is as gregarious as usual. I will post some test results after the filtration runs for a bit.
Hy - Thanks for the software info. I will try and crop some of the pics I have taken with my mothers camera. The colors look well.
-landlord
The tang is as gregarious as usual. I will post some test results after the filtration runs for a bit.Hy - Thanks for the software info. I will try and crop some of the pics I have taken with my mothers camera. The colors look well.
-landlord
hdtran
New member
Your chemistry disturbs me. I just can't believe a nitrate reading of 13-14ppm one day, and 30ppm the next.
Run a baseline test (test your freshly made water); maybe do a couple of dilutions (a sample with 50% freshly made water and 50% tank water).
And don't be shy about doing a 50% water change. You've still got a tang pooping away in your 75g tank. If you only have a 20g container, do the 50% change in these steps: First, drain 50% of the tank. Next, refill with 20g of freshly made & equilibrated water. You've now got some breathing room: Make up another 20g of water & get it equilibrated (this will take you maybe 20-30 minutes), and fill up the rest of your tank.
Do a water test immediately before, and after the water change. Your chemistry should be cut in half (except for SG, pH, alk., & calcium
)
Run a baseline test (test your freshly made water); maybe do a couple of dilutions (a sample with 50% freshly made water and 50% tank water).
And don't be shy about doing a 50% water change. You've still got a tang pooping away in your 75g tank. If you only have a 20g container, do the 50% change in these steps: First, drain 50% of the tank. Next, refill with 20g of freshly made & equilibrated water. You've now got some breathing room: Make up another 20g of water & get it equilibrated (this will take you maybe 20-30 minutes), and fill up the rest of your tank.
Do a water test immediately before, and after the water change. Your chemistry should be cut in half (except for SG, pH, alk., & calcium
)
landlord
New member
I will be performing another 25% water change this evening. I will post a chemistry test immediately before the test and then right after. The difficulty that I am having with the tests is the Nitrite and Nitrate can only get so red on the color scale. Hard to differentiate accurate values. We will try however.
-landlord
-landlord
delta
Premium Member
do your test kits have a high and low range if they do they came with a graduated syringe or dropper, in which you only use part of your tank water and some RO\DI water which will dilute the test solution and then you can calculate the results.
but not sure of your test kit
but not sure of your test kit
landlord
New member
12/27/03 - Day 36
sg: 1.025
temp: 80
ammonia: 0
nitrite: .1
nitrate: 15
Notes:
I haven't fallen off the planet yet. I have been trying to keep my hands out of the tank for a bit. The more I try the worse things get. I haven't had my fingers in the tank for several days now except to add water. The water changes seem to be bring down the Nitrate level but they seem to be having a negative effect on the cycle as a whole. The Nitrites are not being converted. I did a Nitrite test on the water I used and it was negligible so I am at a loss. I am quite pleased with the Nitrate reduction but do not have any explanation on the Nitrites. Being confused, I have resigned myself to keeping hands out of the tank and letting the cycle take it natural course.
-landlord
sg: 1.025
temp: 80
ammonia: 0
nitrite: .1
nitrate: 15
Notes:
I haven't fallen off the planet yet. I have been trying to keep my hands out of the tank for a bit. The more I try the worse things get. I haven't had my fingers in the tank for several days now except to add water. The water changes seem to be bring down the Nitrate level but they seem to be having a negative effect on the cycle as a whole. The Nitrites are not being converted. I did a Nitrite test on the water I used and it was negligible so I am at a loss. I am quite pleased with the Nitrate reduction but do not have any explanation on the Nitrites. Being confused, I have resigned myself to keeping hands out of the tank and letting the cycle take it natural course.
-landlord
