Hello all. First of all let me say thank you to everyone on here, if it weren't for all of you I would of lost more fish in the last 10 years......don't want to even think about it.
Secondly, my 120G crashed after 8 years, still no idea what happened but after 6 months of trying to get it turned around I decided to start right from scratch.
Here is what I did,
1) Emptied all water, took out all decorations, heater, filters pumps, etc.
2) I was left with 1.5" of sand in a bare tank.
3) I used a solution of 20:1 (water:bleach) to clean the tank with the sand still in it.
4) I swashed the sand around with this solution and let the sand "soak" for a couple hours.
5) While the sand was soaking, I took all filters, heater, pumps and decorations and washed them with the bleach solution.
6) Went back, swashed the sand around again and drained.
7) filled the tank 1/4 full with tap water and swashed the sand all around, drained.
8) Did step 7 x 5 times (rinse and repeat)
9) Once all decorations, filters, sand, etc were cleaned and rinsed to what I thought was sufficient, I started putting it all back together.
10) I through out all filter media.
11) At this point I must tell you that before I started all this work, my tank had a garbage bag full of java fern and red amazon swords.
12) I did a 40:1 bleach to water solution and dipped only the plants I wanted back in my tank to rid any bacteria or whatever that may be on them.
13) So, now the tank is filled with water, (used Prime for my dechlorinator), brand new filter media.
14)I have 2 HOB aquaclear 110's. 1 filter has sponge, filter floss, charcoal and the other one has half a sponge, filter floss and a huge bag of fluval ceramic rings.
15) Let the cycling begin! No fish, just 6 medium sized red amazon plants and 3 large clumps of java fern.
16) oh and I guess I should mention that I had 1 bala shark left over from the crash and kept him in a bucket.
17) So, May 28th, the day after the tank was filled, "primed" etc. readings were .25 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. ph was 6.4. I live in an area with very soft water so basically kh and gh are zero at all times.
18) Every day the readings were exactly what was expected. Ammonia was climbing and reached 4ppm in a week with 0 signs of nitrite and 0 nitrate. ph was stable at 6.4.
19) I waited for 3 days before testing again, Ammonia dropped to .25 and nitrite was 0, nitrate was 5.
20) I thought wow, that change happened fast! woohoo Time to put in the bala shark!
21) Bala Shark seemed good for a couple days and the readings stayed the same.
22) 25% water change
23) Readings still the same.
24) about 1 week after the bala shark went in, I added 8 small bleeding heart tetras. All seemed fine.
25) Ammonia started to rise to .5 which I expected so I did another water change.
26) Added 8 corys.
27) repeated step 25 and 26.
28) All seemed good with water changes BUT.....
29) after 1 week of adding the corys, 6 of them died. The tetras are all ok and doing well.
30) At this point I will say I haven't seen my amazon plants grow this fast before.
31) So today this is where I sit. Ammonia now 1ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 5ppm.
It's been 2 months and no sign of nitrite and I cannot get the ammonia down. Getting a little tired of the water changes.
I have not cycled with plants before but not even sure what to do or if the plants are affecting the readings?. Is my nitrite test kit not good? I use API liquid tests.
I tested my tap water and it says .5 ammonia, 0 nitrite. (haven't tested nitrate).
Any comments, suggestions, information would be greatful. Thanks for your patience in reading this long winded thread but wanted to give you as much information as possible.
I couldn't find any before pictures but the tank was FULL of java fern so you couldn't see much anyways.
I am attaching a picture I just took.
Secondly, my 120G crashed after 8 years, still no idea what happened but after 6 months of trying to get it turned around I decided to start right from scratch.
Here is what I did,
1) Emptied all water, took out all decorations, heater, filters pumps, etc.
2) I was left with 1.5" of sand in a bare tank.
3) I used a solution of 20:1 (water:bleach) to clean the tank with the sand still in it.
4) I swashed the sand around with this solution and let the sand "soak" for a couple hours.
5) While the sand was soaking, I took all filters, heater, pumps and decorations and washed them with the bleach solution.
6) Went back, swashed the sand around again and drained.
7) filled the tank 1/4 full with tap water and swashed the sand all around, drained.
8) Did step 7 x 5 times (rinse and repeat)
9) Once all decorations, filters, sand, etc were cleaned and rinsed to what I thought was sufficient, I started putting it all back together.
10) I through out all filter media.
11) At this point I must tell you that before I started all this work, my tank had a garbage bag full of java fern and red amazon swords.
12) I did a 40:1 bleach to water solution and dipped only the plants I wanted back in my tank to rid any bacteria or whatever that may be on them.
13) So, now the tank is filled with water, (used Prime for my dechlorinator), brand new filter media.
14)I have 2 HOB aquaclear 110's. 1 filter has sponge, filter floss, charcoal and the other one has half a sponge, filter floss and a huge bag of fluval ceramic rings.
15) Let the cycling begin! No fish, just 6 medium sized red amazon plants and 3 large clumps of java fern.
16) oh and I guess I should mention that I had 1 bala shark left over from the crash and kept him in a bucket.
17) So, May 28th, the day after the tank was filled, "primed" etc. readings were .25 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. ph was 6.4. I live in an area with very soft water so basically kh and gh are zero at all times.
18) Every day the readings were exactly what was expected. Ammonia was climbing and reached 4ppm in a week with 0 signs of nitrite and 0 nitrate. ph was stable at 6.4.
19) I waited for 3 days before testing again, Ammonia dropped to .25 and nitrite was 0, nitrate was 5.
20) I thought wow, that change happened fast! woohoo Time to put in the bala shark!
21) Bala Shark seemed good for a couple days and the readings stayed the same.
22) 25% water change
23) Readings still the same.
24) about 1 week after the bala shark went in, I added 8 small bleeding heart tetras. All seemed fine.
25) Ammonia started to rise to .5 which I expected so I did another water change.
26) Added 8 corys.
27) repeated step 25 and 26.
28) All seemed good with water changes BUT.....
29) after 1 week of adding the corys, 6 of them died. The tetras are all ok and doing well.
30) At this point I will say I haven't seen my amazon plants grow this fast before.
31) So today this is where I sit. Ammonia now 1ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 5ppm.
It's been 2 months and no sign of nitrite and I cannot get the ammonia down. Getting a little tired of the water changes.
I have not cycled with plants before but not even sure what to do or if the plants are affecting the readings?. Is my nitrite test kit not good? I use API liquid tests.
I tested my tap water and it says .5 ammonia, 0 nitrite. (haven't tested nitrate).
Any comments, suggestions, information would be greatful. Thanks for your patience in reading this long winded thread but wanted to give you as much information as possible.
I couldn't find any before pictures but the tank was FULL of java fern so you couldn't see much anyways.
I am attaching a picture I just took.