Sunday (Day 6)

So at 10am I re-tested and the results of the API test looked like this:

Ammonia and Nitrite Test - both looking very near 0

Hurrah! This is definitely going in the right direction. In actual fact the Ammonia result looked more like 0.25 to me than 0 - but that's still around 4ppm ammonia converted to nitrate in under a day. The filter media from my other tank, even though it was just a small bit, clearly worked, - or maybe there was some bacteria left in the old filter. Having the temperature so high has clearly sped things along too. You couldn't do that in a fish-in cycle now could you!

Still no nitrites - which is odd but I am not complaining!

Re-dosed 6ml of the stinky ammonia:

Looks like we're back up to 4ppm!

Two days ago, I found a zebra danio stuck behind the filter in my Roma 200. I have no idea how he got there but he was completely vertical and properly wedged in. I freed him and he swam off, but stuck to the same spot. He looked pretty beaten up and very unhappy so yesterday I decided to move him to the hospital tank so he could recuperate with a bit of TLC. This hospital tank, a small 20l Arcadia Arc, had been housing some guppy fry so I decided they were big enough and ugly enough to look after themselves in the big wide world of the 65l tank... Here they are swimming around around in their new home this morning, wondering where their food is no doubt!

Here they are with who I'm assuming is mum swimming around in the foreground.

At the moment they all look like girls however I am sure that they can't be; I will have to keep a very careful watch on them and see if any of them develop gonopodiums or we could have a population explosion. Maybe an expert would be able to tell by now but these are my first lot of fry and I am not an expert on sexing very young guppies... but I probably need to become an expert quickly because I don't want too many more!

Tuesday - Friday (Days 1 - 4)

I am starting this journal to document my new tank doing its fishless cycle. This journal is primarily for my own sanity however I would love to have your comments or suggestions on stocking, planting, decor or the cycling process! 

I am using the API Freshwater Master test kit to test for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and ordinary Household Ammonia from homebase to cycle the tank.

By way of introduction, these are my current tanks:

Fluval Roma 200

This one has sand substrate (with a few stray pieces of red and grey gravel which was a terrible experiment!). Lots of bogwood, lots of plants. One cheeky male powder blue dwarf gourami, affectionately named King Boffer, who seems to know exactly when the camera is on him!

The Fluval Roma 200

As well as King B and his girlfriend (pictured below...), it's home to some male platies, male guppies, zebra danios, cardinal tetras, peppered cories and a baby bristlenose.

A bit of a blur!

65l

Please forgive the floating plants, I think my plec has been uprooting!

This one has a cat litter substrate, and bogwood/mopani wood 'cave'. There are also lots of plants, some of which appear to be floating - oops! This one is the first tank we bought and we are now using it as a 'room divider'. There is a background on the far end but you can see right through the long side and it doesn't seem to have changed the behaviour of the fish - although this picture does look pretty bare! It's home to a few lady guppies, a few lady platies, a shoal of 8 inquisitive pygmy cories and one grumpy and rather elusive clown plec:

Go away, this is my cave.

And, finally, this is the new tank.

Fluval Roma 125

It's a Fluval Roma 125 which came second hand with a 3d 'rock' background and rather than take it out, I decided to go with it and use it as a theme. I've added black sand and some decorative rocks (two hollow, two real) which I already had, but had taken out of the other tanks in favour of wood. There is also some wood and a spawning hut which have been taken out of de-commissioned tanks. These are by no means permanent, they're just there because they have no where else to go!There are a few plants in there which couldn't be squeezed in elsewhere but no where near as many as I am hoping to have eventually.

Tuesday (day 1) We set it up, filled up with some old tank water and some dechlorinated water, turned on the filter (also second hand - seemed to be soggy but doesn't appear the bacteria have survived) and chucked in some fish food.

Wednesday (day 2) Put in the sand and decor. I got some ammonia from homebase, and in the evening ammonia was measuring 0.5 so dosed up to 4/5ppm (5ml). Whacked the temp up to 31.5 degrees.

Thursday (day 3)After doing a weekly water change on the Roma 200, I took some of the filter media our and swapped it in to the 125 however there are a few new additions in the larger tank and I didn't want to take too much and risk an ammonia or nitrite spike. I will monitor both closely to see if i can take more next week. I also took the media out of a Fluval Edge which we shut down, however there was only a single fish in there so I can't imagine that did much. 

Friday (day 4)8.30am - still no change - Ammonia at 4ppm, Nitrite 0  Doesn't look like the media did anything at all.