cycling question...

[StevieM]

calling all experts :
I had some problems with med's destroying my bacteria colonies about a month to a month and a half ago. Based on test readings afterward I basically had to start all over again after being on the brink of cycling my tank the first time ( 0 ammo, 2.5ppm Nitrite and dropping , 20ppm Nitrate ) . For the last month or so I've been getting mixed readings. The day after my weekly H20 change last week my tanks parameters were :

Ammo approx 1.0 ppm
Nitrite .50 to .75 ppm
Nitrate 0 for the last month
Ph 6.0 ( maybe lower , my kit only goes to 6 )

Today is water change day and last night I read :

Ammo approx 1.0 - 1.5 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Ph 6.0 ( maybe lower, my kit only goes to 6 )

It has been going up and down like this for the last month and the only thing that stays consistant are 0 ppm Nitrates and the ammo levels!! I am doing a fishy cycle STILL , lightly planted, little driftwood. I am gradually increasing my pwc routine to twice a week ( less volume more often) and don't really know if I should vacuum the gravel heavily or not? ( following debates on here!) I still have white spots on my Bio-Wheel from the meds..does this matter? Sorry for the long post...I am patient but I don't want to stress the fish out more than I have to. If I knew then what i know now!!! Can anyone say Fishless Cycle??? thanks all,

steve

 

[famman]

The proverbial mini-cycle. The plants are contributing to your instability at this point by taking up ammonia the bacteria need. Trouble is if you remove the plants, you'll stress the fish. You have underdeveloped bacteria colonies.
Your current methods will work if you are patient. I like the ptc twice weekly, keep it up I think you're getting close, raise the water volume per change.
What are your KH/GH? Maybe some crushed coral to raise your PH a tiny bit?
good luck

 

[StevieM]

that's kind of what I was thinking...when I initially started, it was all plastic and some of those apon bulbs I got at Wal-Mart one day for the heck of it. Then they started taking off and things were going quite well. A couple more plants here and there..nothing major, but I just had a feeling that the plants were definitely slowing the process down in some way. Would it work to maybe take one or two of them out for now? Thanks for the input....any more advice from those in the know is greatly appreciated! I added carbon to the filter to strip the meds out, but it is before my bio-wheel. Do i need to be worried about those spots on the wheel? They look like little white specs which showed up the day after I added the Kanacyn to my tank.

steve

 

[ewok]

bring the ph up. ultra low ph can actually inhibit or kill bacteria was my understanding. in this case i think i would resort to baking soda added gradually with water changes. NO more than 7 and actually i would only raise it enuf to get a solid 6.2 or 6.4. having the ph slightly below neutral right now is a good thing, but if you can't tell where it is and it could be extremely low it is a bad thing. i'm not sure i would add shells or coral at all as you really do not want it to continue rising past 7.

sort of too late, but you should have removed the bio-wheels during treatment i would think. it would have been alot better. if you see deposits of some sort on them i think they may need to be cleaned somehow. this could also be inhibiting your bacterial growth, if they are saturated with meds. hopefully swishing them in a bucket of tank water would be enuf to remove the deposits, do NOT handle the wheels by anything but the ends. your fingers touching the biological media could also cause problems.

i would say vacuum the gravel to your hearts content, everything seems sort of wacky atm and i doubt this added instability will hurt much. however decomposing organics in the substrate can also cause problems. the additional water changed here would also be beneficial......

last point, more water changes period. i would increase the amounts there maybe even all the way to 10-20% a day. this might also void my advice as to raising the ph as this will do it naturally unless you have extremely soft water to begin with.

good luck

edit: ah yes, the plants aren't entirely helping matters either, but i'm not sure removing them atm would be a good plan. they do remove some of the stuff that you need to cycle, but there appears to be plenty available anyway.

 

[famman]

Do you have substrate for the plants like florabase or flourite? If not, personally I'd take out all the plants. This would let you proceed with a normal cycle. You could add a few plants after the cycle is complete, after proper quarantine of course. Add a little crushed coral in sock (1/3 cup? depends on tank size) to the HOB to raise ph maybe 1/2 point to see if it's stable like that; gentle, gentle goes the ph change.

One the other hand, if you do have plant substrate, stuff the darned tank completly full of plants and basically forget the biowheel, it'll never see ammonia if you do that. Your ph is very low.

What were the meds for? If the meds are done remove the carbon


The white spots on your biowheel may be merely bacteria culture.
other opinions please?

good luck

 

[StevieM]

you guys are a huge help....I can't thank you enough for your info. Allow me to give you a further rundown on the tank in question. The substrate is just a basic black colored rock that you buy, not the smaller size...but the medium sized gravel. I didn't really know enough getting into this to even know what I really wanted in a tank , other than fish. I feel that the spots on the wheel are due to meds, they still have the same sulphur smell that the medication had when i opened the capsules. I was treating for a Columnaris fungus on one of my fish, which at that point was starting to show up on another one as well. I will definitely adhere to your suggestions and try upping the water changes. I'll try that to keep the Ph a little more where I want it to be first, I'm worried the coral might make the Ph continue to rise above where i want it to be. As for feeding, the neons, rams, and bristlenose i have get a small amount of flake every other day and i occasionally mix it up as well....let me know if that is too much. Thanks again everyone!

steve