I am a little confused with my tank, I set up my 10g close to 2 months ago with 10lbs live sand, 12lbs live uncured rock, hob filter, skimmer, and powerhead. I began testing the water about a week into it. I have never had ammonia spike above .25, trites and trates are also very low the entire time, ph is 8.2, water temp is 78, Last week I put a uncooked cocktail shrimp in the tank to try to raise the ammonia but no look the shrimp is basically completely gone now(kind started flaking off into the water as it decomped) Is it possible I missed the cycle the fisrt week? I have been using seachem ammonia alert as well as a test kit and niether have shown anything really. I have had algea blooms as well as red slime for a little while(which has for the most part cleared up) algea is still growing thou. So should I continue to wait to see something or is it possible I missed it? I have no live creatures in the tank unless they came in on the rock and I have not seen them. Should I start to slowly add a small clean up crew to the tank? Thank You to everyone for any help on this topic as well as all the info I have picked up from this site.
need help with cycle
- Thread starter forman
- Start date
TimSchmidt
New Member
Hmm maybe take your water to a LFS or two and see if what their tests tell you. Maybe your test kits are bad?
Tim
Tim
If your readings are still questionable I would get another test kit and also take it to the LFS for cross refrence , while it is possible to have "missed" they cycle it is probably not likely I would really urg you to run an additional panel of test to see where you are at the blooms are a sign that you are cycling :mrgreen:
Well I just checked my ammonia alert against a bottle of ammonia and it did work so atleast I now know that it is working. I am going to take a sample of the water to a lfs. as far as the water parameters for right now:
ph 8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
S.G. 1.022
Temp 78
ph 8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
S.G. 1.022
Temp 78
I would like to add my experience, and possible get more comments??
I set up my 12 g AquaPod about 17 days ago, 10 lbs live sand & 16 lb of Fiji LR. I did have suspected problems with my test kit (an old one) so had my water tested in the Hospital Lab.
Basically my SG was about 10 low (I had used 2 "swinging arm " types) so I have been gradually upping it to it's present 1025.
My ammonia has only risen to 0.25
Nitrite started at about 0.5 and is now at 0.05
Nitrate has gone up to about 5
Not really what I was expecting???
What is the "normal ammonia peak"?
As always many thanks to responders - where would we be without you.....
I set up my 12 g AquaPod about 17 days ago, 10 lbs live sand & 16 lb of Fiji LR. I did have suspected problems with my test kit (an old one) so had my water tested in the Hospital Lab.
Basically my SG was about 10 low (I had used 2 "swinging arm " types) so I have been gradually upping it to it's present 1025.
My ammonia has only risen to 0.25
Nitrite started at about 0.5 and is now at 0.05
Nitrate has gone up to about 5
Not really what I was expecting???
What is the "normal ammonia peak"?
As always many thanks to responders - where would we be without you.....