mini cycle

[Dadof4]

Ok, I got a Brown Puffer a few days ago. He's was doing fine once the initial stress of moving and a new home wore off. I've got him in a 30 gal alone and I had put in a few ghost shrimp "playmates" the first night I got him home. Needless to say, the ghost shrimp were gone when the lights came on and there was one round belly on that puffer. Last night I got him to take a good size piece of raw shrimp soaked in Garlic Extreme and a little bit of a knuckle on my right hand. To day his color is fantastic, maybe a little on the dark side but not extreme like he was when I got him home from the LFS. I am even able to leave the tank light on without him freaking out.

When I set up the tank I had to do it in a hurry because the puffer was about to become one homeless fish, more than likely he would have moved in to that under-street condo complex with the beautiful man hole covers for sky lights (ugly place, the main entrance looks like a porcelain bowl). When I set the tank up I used Wardleys Chlorout to treat the water for chlorine and chloramine, put small river gravel in the bottom, took some gravel from my well established 75 gallon and added that to the bottom and in to one of the chambers of the HOB Whisper filter. I also too a polishing pad out of an established filter to add to the HOB.

This evening I went to check on him and he's in a corner with his tail curled, dark, and breathing a little heavy. Did water test: Ammonia .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 8.0. Am I in trouble here or is this just a mini cycle? Do I need to put more substrate from my established tank in there? He's still eating and when I moved he swam off just fine and his tail didn't curl up again. What is worrying me is the ammonia and nitrate, do I have a biologic filter right now? Time to do a water change......Grrrrrr, I thought I was ok with what I did.

[Nick]

The amount he ate may have something to do with the ammonia - reduce feeding a bit for now, and if possible, switch his entire filter with an established one, that is the most sure method of getting an instant cycle. Good luck.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Wuh-oh. Good luck.

[Dadof4]

I don't have an established filter to switch it out with right now. I may have to add a HOB filter with more established substrate for a little while. I did find a dead shrimp under one of the ledges during the water change and I think that is what was causing the slight rise in ammonia. What I don't understand is the no nitrate reading. If the bio filter was working should I see nitrate, correct? or is three days not long enough for it to accumulate to get a reading? Oh, and the test kit, API Master Fresh Water, same one I was using on my other tanks.

[edmlfc1]

If you have plants in there you might not show any nitrates. If you can find safestart by tetra you could use it. Annabelle's tank took about 2 weeks to recycle when I moved her.

[Dadof4]

Nope no plants yet. I may end up with SafeStart after all. I just woke up and I haven't been able to do parameters yet but I have a feeling they are about the same. He was cruising the tank, nice light colored and looked like he was hunting, until he saw me moving and I flicked on the light in the room this afternoon. The he curled his tail, he went dark (interesting color change, started at the nose then went to the tail), and let himself sink to the bottom.

[edmlfc1]

It might be his pitty look to get food.

[Dadof4]

Water update. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0-5. I think it may have been the tiny dead ghost shrimp that brought the ammonia up. At least I now know my filter is handling it. As for the rest, I think he's just being bashful and I need to give him more cover to hide in. This tank was a rush job so the amount of set up time was minimal and I didn't add much for cave besides some terracotta flower pots. Hopefully he'll get more comfortable as the days go by and I get a little better aquascaped.

[busybones]

a little bit of a knuckle on my right hand.

lol

[edmlfc1]

Yeahhhh! That's good news.

[Nick]

With that nitrate test, are you shaking the CRAP out of bottle number two before adding the drops to the tube? Not a few shakes back and forth to mix things, like you do to the tube between each liquid - a solid 30 seconds of hard shaking. I have found improperly shaking this bottle leads to a lot of confusing nitrate results, at first finding almost nothing unless nitrates are off the charts, then, as the bottle gets down to the very bottom where the settled reagents are, testing off the charts even when only trace nitrates are detectable.

[Dadof4]

I'll give that a try and see what happens. I honestly wasn't shaking it that much and didn't know you had to, good call, thanks!

[Nick]

The "quick directions" on the card are to blame for this problem, which I see all the time, even with the staff of the store where I work. The "shake" instruction for the second nitrate bottle is the same as for tubes after the first set of drops, a simple sketch implying a few inversions. This does not do the job, sadly.

[LilGreenPuffer]

The instruction manual has the shaking times in there.

[Dadof4]

Instructions?