What do you make of this?

[Mr.Guy83]

I finally added water to my 170 on the 25th Dec. I test for ammonia today and this was the reading. surely it’s not this low only four days out, right? I did add a bottle of DR Tims on the 25th. Am I ready for the next step?

 

[salt2salt]

.01

 

[MONTANTK]

I’d definitely say it could be that low. My past 4 tanks I’ve set up never even had a spike in ammonia, at least not that I caught.

 

[Gtinnel]

Did you add something that provides a source of ammonia?

 

[Mr.Guy83]

The only thing I added was Dr. Tims @Gtinnel

 

[Gtinnel]

If you don't add a source of ammonia then it could be that your test is low because you don't have any ammonia in the tank instead of because the bacteria has already converted it to nitrite.

 

[Wolf89]

You need to add a source of ammonia to get ammonia. It doesn't come in your water, your dry rock, your dr. Tims bacteria. You can use pure ammonia from amazon, you can drop a dead shrimp, or you can feed the tank as if you had fish.

 

[vetteguy53081]

.01

 

[Gtinnel]

I personally just added table shrimp to my tank and allowed it to break down but I know a lot of people like using ammonia from a bottle so they have more control over the amount of ammonia and can see how much their tank can process in a day.
You can also see if your tank is processing some ammonia into nitrite by testing nitrite levels, but if you didn't add ammonia I doubt that'll be the case.

 

[Twoddler]

Do you have Nitrate ?

 

[Mr.Guy83]

I personally just added table shrimp to my tank and allowed it to break down but I know a lot of people like using ammonia from a bottle so they have more control over the amount of ammonia and can see how much their tank can process in a day.
You can also see if your tank is processing some ammonia into nitrite by testing nitrite levels, but if you didn't add ammonia I doubt that'll be the case.

Excuse my ignorance but there is a source of ammonia in the tank. I have two clownfish. I know this is frowned upon by some people but this is the method BRS used so that’s the method I used. They are not breathing hard and they are eating very well. From my understanding fish release ammonia through their gills , correct?

 

[Mr.Guy83]

Do you have Nitrate ?

I haven’t checked yet I need to get a kit. I didn’t think my numbers would be this low this quickly. So I’ll go pick up a lot today

 

[Mr.Guy83]

My newbie question why do we purposely create ammonia in our tanks just to get rid of it?

 

[homer1475]

My newbie question why do we purposely create ammonia in our tanks just to get rid of it?

When initially starting a tank you want the bacteria that transform ammonia to nitrites. In order to grow those bacteria populations, you need to feed them.

 

[supercoolname]

All the nitrifying bacteria you add to the tank would starve without an ammonia source.

 

[Cell]

Bottled bac works and 2 small fish in a 43 gallon system isnt going to build up ammonia quick enough to overload the processing ability.

 

[Auquanut]

My newbie question why do we purposely create ammonia in our tanks just to get rid of it?

Lots of folks will use bottled bac and a separate ammonia source to build a strong bacteria population in the tank and have a visual indication (testing) to show when that population has been achieved before adding fish. Doing a "fish in" cycle with bottled bac will achieve the same result, you just have to monitor ammonia closely to ensure it stays very low.

You're right. The fish are you're ammonia source. DO NOT ADD AMMONIA! Don't over feed, and be prepared to do frequent water changes just in case the ammonia level rises. After a few weeks of near zero ammonia, you're pretty much cycled, and can slowly start adding more livestock.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mr.Guy83]

Lots of folks will use bottled bac and a separate ammonia source to build a strong bacteria population in the tank and have a visual indication (testing) to show when that population has been achieved before adding fish. Doing a "fish in" cycle with bottled bac will achieve the same result, you just have to monitor ammonia closely to ensure it stays very low.

You're right. The fish are you're ammonia source. DO NOT ADD AMMONIA! Don't over feed, and be prepared to do frequent water changes just in case the ammonia level rises. After a few weeks of near zero ammonia, you're pretty much cycled, and can slowly start adding more livestock.

Hope this helps.

This helps a lot, I really appreciate the response

 

[Gtinnel]

When I said to add ammonia to the tank I didn't realize that there was any livestock in the tank. Yes the fish will be your ammonia source. Just go slowly adding anymore livestock and you should be okay. You probably should get nitrite and nitrate test kits to see the progression of the cycle.

Also, like Aquanut said don't add any bottled ammonia to the tank, it would be hard on or deadly to the fish.

 

[Mr.Guy83]

When I said to add ammonia to the tank I didn't realize that there was any livestock in the tank. Yes the fish will be your ammonia source. Just go slowly adding anymore livestock and you should be okay. You probably should get nitrite and nitrate test kits to see the progression of the cycle.

Also, like Aquanut said don't add any bottled ammonia to the tank, it would be hard on or deadly to the fish.

That’s was my fault, I was confused by “ammonia source.” I’ll pick up a test kit on the way home today!