The Puffer Forum

Final test results were Amm. 4, Nitrite 5, Nitrate 5.

RTR wrote:What were the final test readings on the two tanks? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

I suspect it is the nature of the test, and lack of knowledge on the function of the test, but cannot confirm that without the full results.

goldielocke76 wrote: Does your ammonia kit do that as well? I know when I was cycling and had high ammonia, it turned really yellow after I added the 8 drops from the first bottle. Again, didn't think much of it because I didn't know any better.

Yes my ammonia turns yellow when I add drops from the 1st bottle, that's normal. I just never saw the nitrate turn rusty orange without adding drops from the 2nd bottle.

Try adding some of that old excel to some tap water, see if you get the same orange color.

Added the old excel to the bottle of test water (tap water) and it did the same thing. I think I may have the answer. Could this be it:
Tank was previously saltwater, drilled with sump. I rinsed it several times, shop vac'd all the sand out and cleaned the sump.
I couldn't get into the overflow boxes where the pipe is and there are two layer's to the overflow box.
The first overflow fills up then overflows into the next box which holds the pipe.
I took a flash light and looked from beneath the tank and there is still some sand (not much) in the overlow.
Could this cause the fw test kit to go nuts and show the rusty orange color before I add bottle number two?
If someone has a sw and fw tank with test kits just for fw could you please test my theory?
I checked the sg level and it's 0. Still scratching my head on this one.

When you say you added the old excel to the bottle of test water and it did the same thing, are you saying it turned rusty orange, or just regular yellow? Because if it turned rusty orange, then it's the old excel. I have not noticed a rusty tea colored color reaction when testing my marine tanks. :/

It stayed yellow.

After many test I finally figured it out. I keep my ammonia at 4 (fishless cycling) once I added the excel and tested the tank the nitrate test went nuts. After a few days the nitrite test also started to turn an odd grey color. Now that I haven't added any excel and plants have absorbed the fertilizer my tank is testing normal again. In a cup I put the amm. at 4 dosed with excel and the nitrate test went nuts again. My guess is an uncycled tank using pure ammonia and excel caused some kind of strange reaction in the test kit. Case closed.

It really is not suggested to do fishless with a fully planted tank, as that is an invitation to massive algae problems. So far as I know and in me experience, a healthy heavily planted tank should not need fishless cycling. If you wish to have a fishlessly cycled filter on such a tank, it would be better to cycle the filter on a spare bare tank and move it to the planted tank after the cycle is completed.

If you are just keeping a few live plants, add them after the cycle is complete. To my knowledge, no one has tested fishless cycling on a heavily planted tank - it is a waste of time and effort. Adding Flourish Excel to a tank with high ammonia and nitrate is definitely coals to Newcastle. Why would you do it? it would be totally useless and potentially confusing at best. Stabilizing plants in a tank and establishing biofiltration bacteria simultaneously is climbing two separate mountains at once. Do one thing at a time to avoid conflict. Whenever possible, do not shoot yourself in the foot.

HTH

Thanks RTR, this is a 160 gallon with a hand full of plants. Not even enough plants to call it a planted tank. Hoping one day it will be heavily planted but I had no idea that I should have added the plants after the cycle. Lesson learned. My nitrites are now 0, nitrates are 80-160. I'll be doing a very large water change tomorrow. I would say it's a little late to move the plants out of the tank. They have been doing very well, my fake plants are starting to grow an awful brown algae. Thinking about taking those out tomorrow. Should I stop adding ammonia?

When you get the nitrate down - way down - you can start using Flourish Excel until you add livestock. After that it is a wait and see how your nitrate titer even out. If you run less than 10ppm, you do normally need to supplement mitrogen to keep plants happy and the algae suppressed.

The brownish coating algae is usually diatoms. You may not have a long-term issues with them when the tank matures. That really depends on the soluble silicate levels in your water more than on the other water parameters. Manual removal is usually needed if it becomes chronic. Only Otocinclus cats eat it well, and they can only co-exist well with DPs IME.