Cycling an Aquarium

mrpink6789

Hey lads & ladies,

I bought an Aquarium 2 weeks ago, left it running for about 7 days before I added any fish in. Added 6 fish last Saturday (3 Mollies and 3 guppies) as wanted to cycle the tank with hardy fish. Problem is my Ammonia levels are fine! At 0, I heard they usually shoot up after 24 hours of fish being in to 4.0 and then you should start cycling but even this morning the levels were fine, Nitrite and Nitrate were also fine. I have fed the fish once since Saturday, only a small amount. Should I just keep feeding them small amounts every day until I start to see the Ammonia levels to rise so I can start doing water changes?

Stab*City

mrpink6789 wrote: »

Hey lads & ladies,

I bought an Aquarium 2 weeks ago, left it running for about 7 days before I added any fish in. Added 6 fish last Saturday (3 Mollies and 3 guppies) as wanted to cycle the tank with hardy fish. Problem is my Ammonia levels are fine! At 0, I heard they usually shoot up after 24 hours of fish being in to 4.0 and then you should start cycling but even this morning the levels were fine, Nitrite and Nitrate were also fine. I have fed the fish once since Saturday, only a small amount. Should I just keep feeding them small amounts every day until I start to see the Ammonia levels to rise so I can start doing water changes?

The more you feed the fish the more this will lead to nitrate/nitrite (which is caused by food breakdown and fish poo).. 7 days is more than fine for a freshwater aquarium.. the experts will tell you different but the fish you have are fairly hardy.. yes always small amounts.. to keep the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and everything else at a survivable level just do regular 20% water changes and keep you gravel medium clean.. also make sure the filter is in good working order always..

Cookie_Monster

And so my complete lack of knowledge about this whole area begins to become apparent. My initial question was going to be why would you be cycling with an aquarium

mrpink6789

So I have been testing the water regularly, Ammonia creeped up to 0.25 so I did a water change of about 20%. Ammonia is back to 0 and Nitrite and Nitrate are both are 0 as well. I am feeding the fish a small amount once a day. Should I just continue what I am doing and change the water every couple of days to be on the safe side?

Also I just noticed my pH in the tank is very high (8.4). Any suggestions on what to do here to lower it, should I just get the pH DOWN to treat the water going in? The fish all seem fine, bar the one Molly who causes a bit of agro at feeding time!

Jaden

With High pH, I've found using a coral based substrate helps. pH and water hardness are linked. Having water that is not an extreme of hardness or softness can be useful in getting pH right.

Stab*City

if i remember correctly bogwood can be used as a ph buffer.. but look that one up.. been a while since i used bogwood.. could be it raises the ph but i think it reduces it.. if its close to your taget range then that should be ok.. freshwater tropical fish for the most part are very hardy fish.. bar maybe the discus and a few others..

Cookie_Monster

Stab*City wrote: »

if i remember correctly bogwood can be used as a ph buffer.. but look that one up.. been a while since i used bogwood.. could be it raises the ph but i think it reduces it.. if its close to your taget range then that should be ok.. freshwater tropical fish for the most part are very hardy fish.. bar maybe the discus and a few others..

I would imagine it lowers PH as it has been preserved in acidic water/bog and would tend to leach such acidity back into the water

whitelightrider

To cycle the water do you remove 20% and then add water from a kitchen tap?

Cookie_Monster

whitelightrider wrote: »

To cycle the water do you remove 20% and then add water from a kitchen tap?

wouldn't that contain a fair bit of chlorine and fluoride? or are the levels low enough not to matter?

whitelightrider

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

wouldn't that contain a fair bit of chlorine and fluoride? or are the levels low enough not to matter?

We've our own well at the house so its not from a public scheme. No chlorine added to it, just a filtration system to remove water hardness.

godtabh

whitelightrider wrote: »

We've our own well at the house so its not from a public scheme. No chlorine added to it, just a filtration system to remove water hardness.

If its a tropical tank make sure the water is at the correct temp so you dont give the fish a thermal shock

whitelightrider

godtabh wrote: »

If its a tropical tank make sure the water is at the correct temp so you dont give the fish a thermal shock

Will do. First tropical tank we've owned so we're definite noobs at it!!