Greetings peeps.
Ive been cycling my 350 ltr tank for 20 days now, and nothing much has happened, as expected, but on Monday while talking to an old mate he said he kept cichlids and agreed to let me have ssome gunge from his filter. After water checks, we extracted about a quarter pint of thick brown soup from his filter sponges, this was then transfered to my filters.
tuesday am tests showed first real major ammonia drop, down to 2ppm, so I added ammonia to get levels back to 5ppm.
350ltr=350,000 divided bby 1,000,000 x 5 = 1.75 mlt ammonia, so I added 1.05 mlt to get back to 5ppm. 12 hours later checked again out of curiosity and level was 3ppm, so I gave it another boost.
Wednesday am...test showed 2ppm, adjusted back to 5ppm, 12 hours later 2ppm, adjusted again and checked 1 hour later, result... probably less than 4ppm.I have however never had a nitrite reading above zero. Is it possible that the gunge is active enough to change any nitrite to nitrate?
Will I still get a spike in nitrite?
Im in no hurry to add fish , just wondering best way to procceeed?
test kit is new and in date (liquid test, not dip strips)
your thoughts please, regards Roy
Ive been cycling my 350 ltr tank for 20 days now, and nothing much has happened, as expected, but on Monday while talking to an old mate he said he kept cichlids and agreed to let me have ssome gunge from his filter. After water checks, we extracted about a quarter pint of thick brown soup from his filter sponges, this was then transfered to my filters.
tuesday am tests showed first real major ammonia drop, down to 2ppm, so I added ammonia to get levels back to 5ppm.
350ltr=350,000 divided bby 1,000,000 x 5 = 1.75 mlt ammonia, so I added 1.05 mlt to get back to 5ppm. 12 hours later checked again out of curiosity and level was 3ppm, so I gave it another boost.
Wednesday am...test showed 2ppm, adjusted back to 5ppm, 12 hours later 2ppm, adjusted again and checked 1 hour later, result... probably less than 4ppm.I have however never had a nitrite reading above zero. Is it possible that the gunge is active enough to change any nitrite to nitrate?
Will I still get a spike in nitrite?
Im in no hurry to add fish , just wondering best way to procceeed?
test kit is new and in date (liquid test, not dip strips)
your thoughts please, regards Roy