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Thread: Mini cycle - need advice

  1. #1
    Registered Member kilnakorr's Avatar
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    Casper

    Default Mini cycle - need advice

    Hi

    My friend asked me to take care of his tank for 10 days, while he went to some business abroad.
    He lives close by so ofcourse I agreed.
    What he firgot to mention is that he had taken my previous advice to invest in a bigger filter.
    The bio media has been swapped but the sponges are new.
    I noticed the fish were a bit shy and I tested the water and found both ammonium and nitrite.
    This was thursday and I've been doing large, daily WC.
    The good news is yesterday and today the ammonium was 0, but nitrite is still around 0.25.
    To make things worse a 50% WC drops the Ph around 1, which also stresses the fish (normally CO2 is added so doing WC in the afternoon / evening the Ph only drops 0.2, but the new filter requires another setup so no CO2 is currently being added).
    They are quite shy and easily spooked in the morning when checking on them, but out and hungry in the evening and eat well a few hours after WC.
    I'm feeding them less since they aren't interested in food in the morning or afternoon.

    Since aging water isn't an option right now, should I still do the larger WC daily to bring the nitrites down or is the Ph drop too much?
    Also, any idea on how long this last part of the cycle should last since ammonium is already 0?
    There's hardly any nitrates but that's because of the many plants. Nitrates are still added daily from fertilizers so plants are consuming the rather quickly.

    Hope you can give some advice.

  2. #2
    Silver Member
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    Armando

    Default Re: Mini cycle - need advice

    Can you do two smaller water changes a day? maybe 20% in the morning and another 20% in the afternoon? at least until it cycles.

  3. #3
    Homesteader Filip's Avatar
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    Filip

    Default Re: Mini cycle - need advice

    This is a bit late response but still ... I would buy and add some botteled bacteria quick start product to speed up the cycling process . I would proceed with daily changes but lowered them down to 30% if you get a whole PH degree less with doing 50%WC . And feed minimal , ofcourse.

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