Post
by Diana » Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:24 am
Cycle: To grow the nitrifying bacteria that remove Ammonia and Nitrite from the water, and turn it into Nitrate.
If you are having to use Ammo-Lok to deal with Ammonia, your tank is not cycled.
"OK" readings for
Ammonia: 0 ppm in a cycled tank, not higher than .25 ppm in a still cycling tank.
Nitrite: 0 ppm cycled, 1 ppm while still cycling
Nitrate: does not show up in a cycling tank until near the end, a cycled tank should show under 20 ppm.
What are your readings?
If your tank is showing Nitrite add salt at the rate of 1 teaspoon per 20 gallons to reduce the possibility of brown blood disease. This is a very low dose, even Loaches do not mind this small an amount.
Ammonia burns the gills, leading to breathing problems.
Nitrite reacts with the blood so it cannot carry as much Oxygen, so it looks like another breathing problem.
Ich can infest the gills before you even see it on the fish, leading to breathing problems.
Ich falls off the fish and lands on the floor of the tank to reproduce. One portion of the control of Ich is a lot of gravel vacs. The more frequently you vacuum the gravel, the more Ich you are removing before they can reproduce.
During cycling the more water changes you can do the lower the toxins, and the more fallen food and fish poop you remove, the lower the toxins. Do lots of frequent water changes, especially using the gravel vac to pick up debris from the bottom. Feed less. The fish will be more encouraged to search around in the tank to find the fallen food, and will clean up better. (Still, whether it is eaten or not, food = Ammonia, so feed less)
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.
Happy fish keeping!
