The Puffer Forum

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
pH: 7.8
Temperature: 70F
30g tank

I have had this tank running with plants and NO FISH for about three months or more, so long that my fiance keeps asking me if I'm ever going to put fish in it! A few snails have appeared in the tank, from 0.5 to 1cm in size, and have been around for about a month. They're a very pretty red color and I have fun sometimes trying to find them amidst all the foliage. My plants have been growing very well, just using a fertilizer-based gravel mixed with some regular gravel we had about the house.

I bit the bullet and bought my test kit today, to get all the readings you see above. Are these levels okay? I would want my pH a little lower, what would be a good way to do this?

I'm thinking about buying my puffer finally but I want to make sure I have everything 100%

I would double check the nitrates. If your tank is cycled, your test kits should be showing traces of nitrates. If you are 100 percent sure that there are no nitrates, then your tank is not cycled.

Why would you lower the PH? its fine

The reason all the tests are 0 is because there is no fish producing waste in there. It actually isn't cycled at all. Also, you need a heater for tropical fish. They live at around 78-80 degrees. See the cycling article in our Library.

Thank you everyone. I will read the article and go from there.

Since you're probably going to ask--yes, you can cycle your tanks with the plants in there.

Thank you, Pufferpunk.

I searched in Walmart and Walgreens for pure ammonia, and had no luck. Walmart's has soap in it and Walgreens has perfume/dye. Anyone know of a specific brand that is just ammonia and water, without additives?

ace ammonia

Try Lowe's Hardware store. I believe the brand that Lowe's sells comes in two types: one with surfactants and one without. Both bottles, however, indicate that both brands contain surfactants, but if my memory serves me correct, the clear bottle does not bubble up or contain surfactants. I can't recall the name of the brand.

Went to Lowe's, the clear bottle did foam and did list sulfactants. The brand was RedMax. I also checked Target, no luck. Stop and Shop, no luck. I'm going crazy here! It seems near impossible to find plain ammonia and water, without sulfactants, unless I'm ordering from a chemlab. Not that I've checked but I'm about to.

Provided that I cannot get a hold of plain ammonia, is there any other way to go about cycling the tank?

Rotting shrimp in a stocking will do.

If you wanted to just have like a few fish, just buy some Tetra Safestart. Add the fish first and then the SafeStart. It should immediately cycle your tank.

Would adding them to an uncycled tank, and then adding Tetra SafeStart, hurt them in any way? I don't want to harm my puffers, since I might be ordering them online and they'll probably be so stressed out when they get here..

[btw, found some shrimp we had! ]

That's one way to do this. Be sure to add the product to the filter.

What do you mean by cycled a tank cannot cycle without ammonia.

You need to put fish in only 2 to get the tank on going...........put fish in then Feed fish = poo = ammonia

Ammonia bein cycled in your filter is turned into nitrite then leaves the filter system as a nitrate , nitrate being safe for fish in small quantity's if you get too much nitrate then adding lots of plants can reduce this as plant feed off nitrate but no amount off plants will reduce nitrate to zero.

Steps for a cycle comeing from someone who worked for london aquarium...

Fill tank with de-clorinated water add the declorinator befor adding water to the tank.

Allow to run for atleast 5-7 days to fully declorinate

Then add two hardy species of fish of your choice (Black widows) i have found can almost survive anything.

Then add the right amount of bacteria culture to the tank the same day you add the fish this will speed up the cycle process (i think there is now a LIVE bacteria culture on the market).

Allow to run for a further 5-7 days feeding a small amount everyouther day.

Now check all levels with a test kit the kit and all should be fine.

If the ammonia or nitrate is high your feeding to much reduce feeding further.