Water Conditioning

J

JLCoolJ

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Hey everyone,

I've been cycling my tank for about a month now with 2 axies in there. I've been doing daily API ammonia tests and they have pretty much stuck at 0.5 for the entire cycling process so far and I've been doing daily 20% water changes. I've been using Aqua One water conditioner but I've just bought some Seachem Prime because I read that it's particularly good in cycling tanks. I have 2 questions:

-With Prime the dosage is a lot lower (5ml per 200l) than the conditioner I was previously using. I'm taking out and replacing around 11L in my tank every day. So I worked out I should be using 0.2ml in the fresh replacement water. Is that right? It seems like a tiny tiny amount.

-Question leading on from that, my dad suggested that when I put the water conditioner in, I dose the entire water tank (54L) and just plop the conditioner into the tank water. Have I been doing it wrong? Am i supposing to be dosing the entire tank daily? Or just the fresh 20% of the tank water that I replace daily like I have been doing?

:confused:
 
I can't comment on the brand you're using as I don't use that particular one I'm sorry, I do know that I triple checked the quantities of the one I use and thought it was a tiny amount so I got my maths genius boyfriend/walking calculator ;) to double check my doses and he assured me I had done my maths right so I guess some of them are just 'super concentrated'!

I treat the water I'm adding not the whole tank. I do a 20-30 litre change each time so to make life a bit easier I got some 10 litre buckets to siphon water in to and some of the big 5 litre bottles of mineral water. 24 - 48 hours before I do a water change I fill the bottles with tap water and add the conditioning treatments, give the bottle a good shake (harder than it sounds!) then leave the bottles to 'sit' in the same room as my tank. I figure this gives the conditioner a chance to work and allows the water to get to roughly the same temperature as the existing tank water so reducing the risk of temperature shocks.

I'm sure others will have their own opinions but I find this works for me.

Hope that helps :happy:
 
Prime is actually not recommended for cycling tanks. It binds ammonia, making it unavailable for beneficial bacteria to convert to nitrites.

Amquel+ is a better brand to use.
 
Thanks CJ, phew, I've been doing it right then.
Kaysie- Is there any harm in using Prime? I read a lot of accounts of it being the best for cycling and I splashed out on some and don't really want to waste it. I've already been cycling for a month, ammonia levels don't seem to be decreasing :(
 
JLCoolJ said:
Thanks CJ, phew, I've been doing it right then.
Kaysie- Is there any harm in using Prime? I read a lot of accounts of it being the best for cycling and I splashed out on some and don't really want to waste it. I've already been cycling for a month, ammonia levels don't seem to be decreasing :(
Click to expand...

Have you tried adding some live plants? That helped drop the ammonia levels in my tank. I got some plants from Pets at Home that are ready rooted on bogwood, they aren't cheap but are at least hardy established plants. They are in the tropical tanks, I got the one that looks like thick grass (can't remember the proper name sorry!), and it has survived and thrived in my Axie tank for several months now. The only other thing I can suggest is to check that your filter isn't gunked up and maybe ad a bit more 'filter start' next time you do a water change.
 
Thanks CJ! I'll look into some plants then. Should my tank be cycled after a month of daily water changes? First aquarium owner freak outs.
 
Mine took just over a month but they vary, i found putting more ornaments etc in helped (maybe more space for bacteria i dont know) you find you need to be doing bigger changes daily and i always found that with my tank the ammonia levels would be steady the whole cycling process until one day i had nitrates no nitrite and no ammonia * Praise the Lord! *
 
Olivia97 said:
Mine took just over a month but they vary, i found putting more ornaments etc in helped (maybe more space for bacteria i dont know) you find you need to be doing bigger changes daily and i always found that with my tank the ammonia levels would be steady the whole cycling process until one day i had nitrates no nitrite and no ammonia * Praise the Lord! *
Click to expand...


Mine took about two weeks but as Olivia says it can vary hugely, my friend's tropical fishtank took almost 2 months. Adding more ornaments etc will increase the surface area for bacteria to develop on. Have you get substrate? I've found that barebottomed tanks take longer to cycle than tanks with sand or large pebbles (again due to the increased surface area for bacterial growth). I do a weekly 20-25% water change, I have never done daily changes even when my tank was cycling but that is just personal preference (and genral laziness;) ) on my part, it is almost as if a switch gets flicked, wonky levels, wonky levels, wonky levels then 'dink' it all falls into place. As long as your Axies look happy I wouldn't freak too much. They aren't backward in coming forward when they're unhappy! :happy:
 
It's so helpful to hear that your ammonia levels were at a constant until one day they just dropped off. I hope mine do the same soon! I was expecting more fluctuation in the ammonia levels. I have large beach pebbles as substrate, 3 plastic plants, 2 flowerpots and a dinosaur skull thing, and then the filter of course so I was hoping that would all be enough!
 
Do you have a siphon to vacuum up waste under your substrate? I've found that large pebbles tend to trap a lot of waste. And have you tested your tap water for a baseline level?

Using Prime will bind ammonia, essentially halting your cycle. It makes ammonia unavailable, starving out your bacteria. It's fine for people who do frequent small water changes, but if you're going for 'low maintenance', weekly water change, it's probably not the best.
 
Yes, I've been using a siphon and there are quite a few gaps between the pebbles so I can see most of the dirt. It helps that my axies are feeding a lot better now, snapping at chunks of frozen bloodworm in chunks instead of spreading them around everywhere and I now feed them earthworms as well so they can be fed much more easily with less mess!
I've tested my water for a baseline level of ammonia and it reads 0 so it's not my water supply. I've just done a water change and my ammonia's gone down today and is at 0.25. Hoorah! I'm using prime on a daily basis, with daily 20% water changes so hopefully it will work out okay!
 
Here's how dechlorinators and cycling work: in a chloramine bond (most municipal water treatment centers use chloramine now instead of straight chlorine), the dechlorinator breaks the chlorine from the amine. In a basic dechlorinator, this amine is left to free-float as ammonia. Prime converts this ammonia to ammonium through the magic of chemistry. The chlorine evaporates, leaving behind the amine compound. This is why most people think you can just let water sit out and it will be fine. This is true of chlorinated water, but not of water treated with chloramines; these must be chemically broken.

Anyway, the remnants of the magic of chemistry are left floating free in your water. When it's added to the tank, in ammonia form, the bacteria will 'eat' it, and convert it to nitrites (and then going about the rest of the cycling). When it's in ammonium form, it is not available to be taken in by the bacteria.

People like Prime because it makes ammonia 'less toxic', which is true to an extent. Ammonium is less volatile than ammonia. But by binding it in such a way, your beneficial bacteria starve, and your tank will never cycle.
 
I've bought some Aqua One water conditioner so I'll use that while cycling! Thank you for explaining it simply for me. The chemistry part of my brain is covered in dust and cobwebs!
 
Today I was looking for some water conditioner and could only find Tetra Aquasafe. Reading the ingredients on the back revealed that it contains iodine. Bit of a surprise. I'm currently using Aqua One Health + although this has aloe vera which I would rather it didn't. What does everyone else use?
R
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
i use API Stress Coat in the axolotl tank, Which has aloe vera in which i think it quite good i also use Neptune (Bob Martin) Tap Water Safe in the small tank which also has aloe vera in it
 
Aloe is generally okay, but know that it will increase the bioload in the tank.
 
wandering said:
Today I was looking for some water conditioner and could only find Tetra Aquasafe. Reading the ingredients on the back revealed that it contains iodine. Bit of a surprise. I'm currently using Aqua One Health + although this has aloe vera which I would rather it didn't. What does everyone else use?
R
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

I use Wilkinson's own brand dechlorinator.
 
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