cycling question
- Thread starter Dave11
- Start date
Could be wrong if the LFS reuslts come back the same, then it's my suspicion that if your doing 50% water changes per day that your not giving the bacteria enough amonia to work with. It's good for your fish to keep it the tank as clean as pos during the cycle, but no amonia means no food for the bacteria. I'd drop to around 30% per day instead and see if that helps.
That's not true. The bacteria will continue to grow no matter what--what shows as 0 on hobbyist kits is not actually 0 ammonia present--and Dave11 is showing 1 ppm. There is always some ammonia present in a stocked tank, that the bacteria are processing--we just don't detect it below ~.01 ppm. Keeping the levels as low as possible will not inhibit the bacteria, it just is better for the fish.
Have you tested your tapwater? If it contains ammonia, your partial water changes might not be reducing the ammonia as much as you'd like.
Some water conditioners remove ammonia, most don't. Amquel+ removes ammonia and does not interfere with the cycle. (You will get incorrect results with some test kits however--the kind that turn green with higher levels of ammonia will work correctly.)
Some water conditioners remove ammonia, most don't. Amquel+ removes ammonia and does not interfere with the cycle. (You will get incorrect results with some test kits however--the kind that turn green with higher levels of ammonia will work correctly.)
the LFS checked the water and found trace NO3. not quite the color for 0, not quite the color for 5. the ammonia came up at 2 ppm which is what i got this morning when i checked. i reread the test instructions and noticed that i hadnt been shaking the tube for a full minute as directed, but still got a 0 reading when i retested. maybe its the reagent? i remembered to buy the dog food but forgot to get a new test kit today, so back to the LFS tomorrow.
the tap water reads 0 ppm ammonia.
the tap water reads 0 ppm ammonia.
