[HELP] Weird tank parameters after ~2weeks into fishless cycling

[kotaaro]

ok noted.

sure, will take a picture when im home tonight.

cycling has been going on for around 6 weeks or so...? yes i don't think cycling is that tough as well...

what to do? learn and improve.

[wongce]

That is a trickle chamber. Google the purpose for that.

You have added substrate that would give a place for the bb to colonise. Please take picture of ohf without the pad.

How long has this cycling gone on for? To be honest, all i have to say after all that, if really the cr are not enough, please add more as recommended by wongce and one last thing is patience. Wait another week to two.

Dont recall cycling having so much work. -_-"

Vsg,i think the first problem is added too much ammonia during inital cycling, then tap water is replenishing the ammonia in the tank.No substrate to act as biomedia, Not enough aeration and biomedia...all lumped together. Haha worse case scenario...

Kotaaro, common OHF is quite shallow and might not have enough space for BB to grow. Even if you remove half of the sponge,it might still not good enough. A short cut is to bury a bunch of biomedia like in my tank( my tank is using OHf) but the buried biomedia has total of 8kg not inclusive of aquasoil...lol,but it served me well... You can see the biomedia i buried in the below link

http://theplantedtankblog.blogspot.s...rious.html?m=1

Since you have lack of space,the alternatives i can think off are as follows
1) as per what felix mentioned, add a HOF with bio media only.
2) use your external satelite breeding box as biofilter...add cr/biomedia into it and pump air...note: might be a bit unsighly to have something hangging at the front of the tank,maybe can shift it to somewhere less prominent
3) get more efficient CR or biomedia. A lot of brand of biomedia has good and large space for BB to grow. Some is even as large as floor area of hdb floor area with 300gm worth of biomedia,of course they are more expensive. You can opt for cheaper version as long you are satisfied with the total area written in the packaging.
4) use a air powered sponge filter in your tank...its not the best but at least better than nothing

Above is what i can think off, any bros can help out??

I need a picture of your CR layer and macro shots of CR as i suspect the CR you used is less porous or its for filtration and not efficient for biomedia.

[kotaaro]

thanks for the reply.

wil ltake the shots tonight. but you if notice from my pic in the prevous page, there are some which are on my substrate.

how you know which are for filtration and which are used as biomedia?

[wongce]

Eh,that is a tough question,i'll try my best to answer you;for cheap canister filters, they normally comes with those solid kind of cr which is normally as first layer,those are less porous and mainly for capturing dirt prior going though filter wool etc

For those which are for biomedia, they are mostly porous or a lot of small holes namely biohome,bacteria house, eihem,mr aqua etc. Normally they will state their effective area for BB to grow etc...

Generally,porous ones are for biomedia and is a waste of money to be used to trap dirt,but no one is stopping you if you have the cash to splurge.

Solid ones are for filteration, still can be used as biomedia but less effective as the core of it is more compact and less area for BB to grow.

I hope you get what i mean and i did not confuse you..lol. Good topic for my next blog update..haha

[kotaaro]

thanks for the reply.

so for my case, do you see the need for me to change mine?

i still got a packet of those CR unused, and if i could fit them all or most of them into my OFH and my external breeder box i will do that. would this help to a certain extent?

[Cyberkinetic]

Hi Kotaaro,

how's your tank coming along?

[RonWill]

Still cycling !!!

[kotaaro]

hi, thanks for asking.

Juz did a check on my ammonia level. still at around 1-2ppm.

Have added in a bag of porous CR directly into the tank last thursday as i did not realised that the ones in my OHF are the smooth ones...no wonder BB cant grow efficiently? Thanks for wongce bro regarding this.

Hopefully the wait won't be long now...

[Cyberkinetic]

I see.. good luck and plenty patience yeah!

[Cyberkinetic]

Hi bro, how's your cycling coming along? Been a couple of weeks since.

[kotaaro]

thanks for the corcern

my tank is doing good after swapping out the smooth CR with a more porous CR.

Ammonia is now somewhere in the middle of 0 and 0.25...its so hard to distinguish most of the time...but i'm not taking any chances, since i will be away for a holiday until mid-week of next week, i'm just going to let the tank cycle for another week or so. Should give me 0 ammonia reading by next week and puffers introduced into tank by next weekend

Nitrite 0, nitrate 20. did a WC a few days back due to high nitrate, was afraid ammonia level would spike, but it did not.

Seems like this time round my tank is finally ready. FINALLY!

[RonWill]

Good gawd.... FINALLY!! I don't think we've had anyone in here having so much issues with tank cycling but yep, glad to hear it's all good. It would be best if you stop fiddling with the tank, media, etc and refrain from dosing additives and stuffs that might lead to parameters swaying off again. (in other words, keep those itchy fingers in your pocket!! )

Have a good holiday and enjoy yourself! Much deserved rest after the ordeal you've been through

[Cyberkinetic]

Haha... congrats! I think you've acquired the skill of "patience" as well.

[wongce]

Uncle kotaaro,dont forget my coffee...

Do share cute puffer pictures when they are ready...

[felix_fx2]

Haha... congrats! I think you've acquired the skill of "patience" as well.

He should have acquired the test kit expert badge. Hehe.
Must have been testing everyday.

[kotaaro]

alrite tank's parameters hav nv been better for me.

ammonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 10.

Bought 3 figure of 8 puffers, comm-ing them with my current 3 platys. hopefully the puffers will not be aggresive towards them, i still need them to clean up whatever my puffers cant finish at times

Just one thing, can i go stir my substrate during WC or cleaning?

I tried doing that yesterday, but only a portion of my substrate, and i actually saw this very thin worm! around 1 cm or so. What are those? Will they be harmful to my fishes in the long run??

[RonWill]

Just one thing, can i go stir my substrate during WC or cleaning? I tried doing that yesterday, but only a portion of my substrate...

No hard & fast rules but if you really REALLY have to do it, use a proper gravel cleaner (siphon type). That way, you remove detritus, gunk and remove water for water change as well.

[markus92]

haha wow u really test super often.. if u want to add live plants i suggest putting them in a quarantine tank first and diping them in anti bacteria solutions first if u want to keep ur mind at east

[markus92]

Good luck

[kotaaro]

No hard & fast rules but if you really REALLY have to do it, use a proper gravel cleaner (siphon type). That way, you remove detritus, gunk and remove water for water change as well.

thanks but what do you mean by siphon type? where my gravel WON'T get siphon out of the tank when i do vacuuming? like there's a holding area at the vacuum where the pores are not big enough for the gravel to go through but only the wastes?

if yes how much do these costs?

haha wow u really test super often.. if u want to add live plants i suggest putting them in a quarantine tank first and diping them in anti bacteria solutions first if u want to keep ur mind at east

i already bought the test kits, so why not test often during cycling? haha. going to monitor for a few more weeks. once everything stabilizes, can test less often


Anyway, does anyone know about the worm-like thingy in my substrate? not alot of them, just saw one or two. harmful?