Cycling my new tank with Dr. Tim's

[dundadundun]

looking good, jannika.

 

[GoldLenny]

"pinch" is a bit vague. ISTR that 0.5 tsp/10 gallons is the amount recommended.

I'm pretty sure a "pinch" is a commonly used measurement, especially in cooking. Unless you have really big, wide, frying pan sized finger tips, you can only hold so many salt granules in a pinch between your thumb and index finger.

Here's more info about a pinch, a dash and a smidgen. LOL
http://www.accuracyproject.org/pinchdash.html
http://www.dutchovendude.com/cooking-measurement.shtml

It seems a "pinch" is about 1/16th of a teaspoon. When using that little amount of salt, if you do have big fat fingers, then you might end up with two pinches of salt but neither amount will adversely affect anything and both will protect against nitrite poisoning (brown blood disorder).

From: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml

Nitrite is toxic, as you know. Fish that are stricken with nitrite poisoning get lethargic. With higher levels they may gasp as if they were suffocating and die with their gillcovers open wide. The nitrite ion has the damaging habit of occupying the place on a hemoglobin molecule where oxygen ought to be carried. The resulting molecule, called "methemoglobin" carries no oxygen. Under the influence of high NO2 levels, the fish may suffer from "brown blood" syndrome or methemoglobinemia (yeah! "Me-THEME-o-Globe-anemia").

Though the main effect of nitrite is on the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells, it's recently been shown to suppress chloride cells in the gill lamellae, which play a major role in maintaing a balance of salts. (Download the abstract of a 2002 paper read by O.T. Ferreira da Costa and M. N. Fernandes of the University of Sao Carlos, Brazil, "Chloride cell changes induced by nitrite exposure...")

How much salt should you be adding to counteract nitrite? It is the chloride ion of salt that is effective, not the sodium ion. In order to be effective, the chloride-to-nitrite ratio should be five to one. So if nitrite tests at 1 ppm, you should add enough salt (as a temporary measure) to give a chloride level of 5 ppm. This corresponds to about 8.5 ppm of NaCl (table salt); very little--— a fifteenth of a teaspoon or just a pinch-- in ten gallons. In fact, your water quite likely already carries this much salt, without any extra dosing at all; at any rate, your normal partial water changes will dilute out additional salt after the crisis has passed.

By the way, that useful chloride ion could perfectly well come from another source: you could use potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride, and plants would benefit from the potassium. Calcium chloride, CaCl2, has two chloride ions; though not as cheap as rock salt, calcium chloride proved in trials more than twice as effective. Check this abstract of an article reporting nitrite trials with striped bass, Morone saxatilis, (a marine fish, however). (Check correspondence at Patrick Timlin's website).

 

[Jannika]

Day 10, Thurs. 9/16

Did a 25% water change, added 1 teaspoon dissolved salt.
Fish don't appear stressed at all.

 

[GoldLenny]

I do see what looks like a 0.25ppm level for Nitrites. Your Ammonia Alert card seems to be holding in the Safe range after only going into the Alert range for a day early on so your ammonia eating bacteria seem to be doing fine and the nitrite eating bacteria are also doing well.. just not 100% yet. They are obviously working since you wouldn't have nitrates without them... at least not at the 20ppm to 40ppm level that you seem to have.

I think that's the highest your nitrites have gotten so far.. right? Considering you have hard water, you probably have enough salts (chloride) in your water that you don't even need the pinch per 10 gallons added but that low level won't affect anything except protection against nitrite poisoning so it doesn't hurt to add that level.

 

[Jannika]

Day 13, Sunday 9/19

Still showing low level nitrite @ .25
Nitrate remains @ 20 (it always looks redder in the pic)
Ammonia Alert reports no free ammonia
API reports .25 ammonia

No further casualties, fish are active & eating.
Will do another 25% water change and maybe add another teaspoon of salt.

 

[GoldLenny]

The colors look like 0.0ppm for ammonia (yellow) and nitrite (sky blue) on the API test tubes... at least they do to me. The nitrates look like 10ppm although the card is kind of washed out by the flash but the color is more orange than red so it's not up to the 20ppm level. I think you did a recent PWC which lowered the nitrates... right?

I should add... it's neat how you set up your color chart cards on little stands for taking photos. Do you take photos of your test tubes that often? Or did you do it just for this thread?

 

[Jannika]

The colors look like 0.0ppm for ammonia (yellow) and nitrite (sky blue) on the API test tubes... at least they do to me. The nitrates look like 10ppm although the card is kind of washed out by the flash but the color is more orange than red so it's not up to the 20ppm level. I think you did a recent PWC which lowered the nitrates... right?

I should add... it's neat how you set up your color chart cards on little stands for taking photos. Do you take photos of your test tubes that often? Or did you do it just for this thread?

I sometimes take pictures of my test results so I can remember them later, and the stands I made so I can do them all at once.

The problem with posting the pics is that everyone's monitor is different, and Lenny, I think yours might need calibrating. :grinyes:

I ended up doing probably a 50% water change, and today the nitrite and even the API ammonia are down to nothing. The nitrite still has a very very slight blue tinge, but I do believe it's cycled. I might give it another day or two before moving my beloved froggies in though, just to be on the safe side.

Day 15, Tues. 9/21