DarkSoul
09-10-2007, 9:39 PM
so its been a good and a bad discovery tonight, what with the bugs(bad) and now having nitrAtes(good), or so it seems anyway.
I just did a test on some water I took lastnight, but didnt test yesterday, and I am about to do another test on water taken today, which will hopefully yield higher nitrate results, though i am doubtful, and would think that the plants are consuming the nitrates, so they wouldnt show.... I may just have an anomalous reading from the water sitting all night.
Anyway, the big question here I guess is this; Would it be fesable to determine the cycle status by introducing some ammonium chloride to the water, and checking if it is gone by tomorrow?
I have some strong solution I made, 38.5%, and one drop would probably bring the tank to around 1ppm or so of ammonia.
I have read ammonium chloride is a less harmful subtance than regular ammonia generated by waste/gill functions, or ammonium hydroxide(cleaning ammonia).
Either way, If I were to do this, Im sure it would be best to remove the betta, and contain him in his cup overnight (man that would make me feel bad, having to put him back in there... but better than ammo poisoning).
So, how should/could I go about determining the status of my cycle?
Up until I added plants, Ive never had an ammonia reading higher than 0.25, if that, and once I added plants/fish I've not seen ANY ammonia/nitrites/nitrates).
I just did a test on some water I took lastnight, but didnt test yesterday, and I am about to do another test on water taken today, which will hopefully yield higher nitrate results, though i am doubtful, and would think that the plants are consuming the nitrates, so they wouldnt show.... I may just have an anomalous reading from the water sitting all night.
Anyway, the big question here I guess is this; Would it be fesable to determine the cycle status by introducing some ammonium chloride to the water, and checking if it is gone by tomorrow?
I have some strong solution I made, 38.5%, and one drop would probably bring the tank to around 1ppm or so of ammonia.
I have read ammonium chloride is a less harmful subtance than regular ammonia generated by waste/gill functions, or ammonium hydroxide(cleaning ammonia).
Either way, If I were to do this, Im sure it would be best to remove the betta, and contain him in his cup overnight (man that would make me feel bad, having to put him back in there... but better than ammo poisoning).
So, how should/could I go about determining the status of my cycle?
Up until I added plants, Ive never had an ammonia reading higher than 0.25, if that, and once I added plants/fish I've not seen ANY ammonia/nitrites/nitrates).