Hi, Im new here.
I have been trying to cycle my tank now since the beginning of August
To give a approx timeline, this is what I did:
6/8/2011 Bought tank (Rio 125). Filled it with 15kg of washed playsand. Put in washed fake plant and 3 pieces washed and soaked bogwood. Set temp to 30 degrees. Added Tetra holiday food.
8/8/2011 Began testing water. Had readings for Amm Trites and Trates. Ph 7.3
15/8/2011 Added two small caves which have fake plants attached. Water tests still showing ammonia, trite and trates traces.
19/8/2011 Removed old holiday food and replaced with new holiday food. Went on holiday.
26/8/2011 Came home from holiday. Water stats about the same as when I went on holiday.
30/8/2011 Removed Holiday food and used normal flake food. Readings were all over the place. Ammonia stopped falling and trates and trites read 0 for a week.
6/9/2011 Removed 50% of water, put dechlor in the water left in the tank, waited 20 mins and then filled tank up with water direct from hose. Tested water, 0.25 amm and zero for trites and trates. Added BioMature. Tested water, 4ppm ammonia. Added pottery vase thing with holes for caves and a fake medium cave, both washed, to tank. Both bought from LFS.
7/9 to 19/9 Ammonia has not budged from colour reading for 1 and a half weeks. I noticed black 'burn' marks on pottery vase and on sand directly beneath all or most bits of decor. Removed 50% of water, removed all decor, removed all filter media, stirred sand so most of what was on top is now underneath. Dechlored tank, filled with water. Then syphoned 50% of water out again, added freshly washed (in dechlored water) decor, dechlored water, refilled tank added freshly washed filter media along with friends mature media. Added 25ml of BioMature and 30ml API bacteria stuff (sorry Ive forgotten the name of it). Ammonia reading 4ppm.
20/9 - Still no fall in ammonia. ph 7. Was advised to drop a teaspoon of bicarb in which I did. Was told I should see a drop the following day
23/9 - Again, no Ammonia drop, decided to wait a little longer.
27/9 - No ammonia drop. Jelly like substance getting pretty bad. Found something on the internet called Columnaris. I figured I could have a problem as all symptoms in tank corresponded with the article I read. I decided to go gung ho and completely drained the tank, bleached it, rinsed it throughly, added new substrate (black Hagen Marina Gravel), new filter sponges etc. Bogwood and other decorations have been left out to be cleaned at a later date. Filter was also throughly cleaned and rinsed. New media added correctly. Filled with dechlored water. Temp set at 28 degrees. Intial water readings read zero across the board and Ph 7.6. Dosed with 9.5% Homebase Ammonia, reading 4ppm. Added API Stress Zyme.
28/9 – Went to LFS and got a big bag of matured media. I cant remember what they are called but it looked like lots of small white plastic cogs. I removed the media baskets from my filter, added a handful to the bottom, inserted one media basket, added half a handful on top of that basket, inserted the second basket and added the rest to the top of the filter. Turned filter back on.
29/9 – Water was cloudy overnight, was told it could be a bacteria bloom. Ammonia still 4ppm
30/9 – Bought 6 plants (1x Amazon Sword, 5 x Australis) and planted them into gravel. Tested water Ammonia still at 4ppm but Ph has gone down to 6.8. Lights on now for 10 hours everyday to accommodate plants.
1/10 – Bought Gh and Kh test kits, both by API. Water sitting at 4 dKH.
2/10 – Still no change in Ammonia. Ph 6.8. Water still cloudy but no where near as bad as a few days ago. Bought seaschem Ph buffer. As per their instructions, added 1 level tablespoon. Trying to raise the ph to 7.5. Will test tomorrow to see if there is any change. I just went out to buy another API ammonia test because I was thinking that maybe my test kit is old. Unfortunately I got the same result.
What I dont understand is why the ammonia hasnt gone down slightly due to the plants using it. I have 6 plants in there at the moment.
So basically my tank has not eaten any Ammonia since last Tuesday, even though I added lots of mature media on Wednesday and got a bacteria bloom and added plants on Friday. Im at a complete loss.
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