Birds are cool, but don't give up on the fish yet! Give it time and do it right... when it's all settled, PM me your address and I'll hook you up with some cool fish &/or shrimp &/or plants. It's obvious that you are trying to do things the right way, that goes a very long way.
i cant take the wait any longer
- Thread starter katuuuz
- Start date
Birds are cool, but don't give up on the fish yet! Give it time and do it right... when it's all settled, PM me your address and I'll hook you up with some cool fish &/or shrimp &/or plants. It's obvious that you are trying to do things the right way, that goes a very long way.
forgive me, reading that through again, i've decided to repost. i won't tear my tank down, i am willing to wait it out... it's just so annoying. i set this one up... waited a week, got bored, went out bought and setup a 20 gal. still no readings on my 46. so i go out again and buy a 3g eclipse to one day house a betta... up and running, still no 46g results. i currently have 3 tanks cycling (2 fishy, one non-fishy) and now i'm bored waiting on 3 tanks! ((let alone i now have tripple water changes!))
i have to develop some patience i must say. nonetheless, thanks for bearing with me.
see you all tomorrow.
i have to develop some patience i must say. nonetheless, thanks for bearing with me.
see you all tomorrow.
Hey, look on the bright side... it's only triple water changes once all 3 cycle, since you don't have to change water on the fishless tanks for the moment, lmao (unless ammonia gets high enough to stall the cycle, so keep an eye on that).
No prob.... I can really relate. I went from 1 tank to 16 in about 6 months.
Now I'm buying corals and setting up reefs... :swear:
They need to feature me on an episode of Intervention.
One thing that greatly speeds up my cycles is to get media or gravel from an existing tank to introduce bacteria. If there are just NO bacteria to start with, it's hard to expect them to reproduce and populate the tank as needed.
Go to your local fish store (preferably not petsmart or petco, they don't give anything away for free) and ask for a used filter from a healthy tank, or a handful of gravel from a healthy tank. If you know anyone with an established aquarium, they'd also be a great source of bacteria laden rocks.
This method introduces a small risk of bringing home unwanted pests such as snails or other things, but you'll likely get those as you purchase plants and fish anyway.
I also have a silly question, as you appear to have educated yourself well. Are you using a water conditioner such as Stresscoat? If not, whenever you do your water change, you're introducing chlorine and/or chloramines, and you're killing off your helpful bacteria before they can get established.
Go to your local fish store (preferably not petsmart or petco, they don't give anything away for free) and ask for a used filter from a healthy tank, or a handful of gravel from a healthy tank. If you know anyone with an established aquarium, they'd also be a great source of bacteria laden rocks.
This method introduces a small risk of bringing home unwanted pests such as snails or other things, but you'll likely get those as you purchase plants and fish anyway.
I also have a silly question, as you appear to have educated yourself well. Are you using a water conditioner such as Stresscoat? If not, whenever you do your water change, you're introducing chlorine and/or chloramines, and you're killing off your helpful bacteria before they can get established.
Pretty light load for a 46 gallon tank. With water changes whenever you see ammonia, you may never see nitrites and it may be a long time before you see appreciable nitrates.
As you test and do WCs, the time between WCs will increase slowly.
As you test and do WCs, the time between WCs will increase slowly.
Where are you located in CT? Maybe I could give you something to get it cycling quicker. Or someone else here in CT could.
One question...How long does it usually take for your tank to get to .25ppm ammonia?
One question...How long does it usually take for your tank to get to .25ppm ammonia?
You really need to find someone locally with an established tank. One or two real good squeezes of a sponge from their filter into your water would cycle that thing real fast. Scoop up some of their gravel into some pantyhose with a knot at the end and plop that into your tank until it cycles.
Once when I was expecting a long period to cycle a new tank setup, I bought a ton of plants... figuring those wouldn't be harmed through the imbalance like fish would be. There must have been a lot of starter bacteria in the slimy film covering the foliage, because my tank cycled right away after that. If you try this, pick off anything visible that shouldn't go in there (like pond snails, damaged or decaying leaves) and don't rinse it under the tap first.
Whatever you do, don't get discouraged. You'll get there and, believe me, it's very much worth waiting for.
Once when I was expecting a long period to cycle a new tank setup, I bought a ton of plants... figuring those wouldn't be harmed through the imbalance like fish would be. There must have been a lot of starter bacteria in the slimy film covering the foliage, because my tank cycled right away after that. If you try this, pick off anything visible that shouldn't go in there (like pond snails, damaged or decaying leaves) and don't rinse it under the tap first.
Whatever you do, don't get discouraged. You'll get there and, believe me, it's very much worth waiting for.
wow, come home from work to heaps of help. first of all thank you. i actually asked my lfs guy, the notorious Ed, for some media and he didn't look too pleased, and never really answered me to be honest. the reason my load is so light is because from what i understand fishy cycling is dangerous to fish, so i didn't want to over-pile, and as severum and hooked said last night, the bigger the bioload the more catch-up the bacterial colony will have to do.
it usually takes about 2-3 days to show ammonia, (used to take 24 hrs.) i added plants a few days ago, but nothing yet. if anything they can be the reason the ammonia isn't comming on as fast.
as far as dechlorinator, of course i use it!! .. but now that you mentioned it, it may just have something to do with my problem. i add respective amounts of stress coat for every water change. i always add my tap water via the python and THEN dose with stress coat. i can't really devise a way to treat the water first, and dont really want to do it a gallon at a time in a milk jug or something. do you think in that short 5 minutes or so before i dechlorinate the newly added water that it would kill the bacteria? i've heard of adding water, then dosing before... but is that only for already established plants??
cripe, if need be i'll go to the lfs and stick my hand in the tank and grab a handfull of gravel while Ed's in his office. haha just kidding. if you see a crazed person on the news arrested for holding up a pet store for used gravel, you'll know why i've disappeard.
it usually takes about 2-3 days to show ammonia, (used to take 24 hrs.) i added plants a few days ago, but nothing yet. if anything they can be the reason the ammonia isn't comming on as fast.
as far as dechlorinator, of course i use it!! .. but now that you mentioned it, it may just have something to do with my problem. i add respective amounts of stress coat for every water change. i always add my tap water via the python and THEN dose with stress coat. i can't really devise a way to treat the water first, and dont really want to do it a gallon at a time in a milk jug or something. do you think in that short 5 minutes or so before i dechlorinate the newly added water that it would kill the bacteria? i've heard of adding water, then dosing before... but is that only for already established plants??
cripe, if need be i'll go to the lfs and stick my hand in the tank and grab a handfull of gravel while Ed's in his office. haha just kidding. if you see a crazed person on the news arrested for holding up a pet store for used gravel, you'll know why i've disappeard.
