# 75 Gallon Fishless Cycle Journal



## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

*75 Gallon Fishless Cycle Journal | Day 6 Fully Cycled Tank!!!!! *

Here is my 20 Gallon Fishless Cycle Journal.
http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19019

Day 1 (Friday, October 22, 2010):
Finished my DIY Stand + Canopy. Stained 3 coats of Natural Cherry Minwax Poly Shades + 2 Coats of Natural Oak Poly Shades. (Sorry, didn't realize to place a DIY Journal for the Stand + Canopy)

Painted the back of the tank with Krylon Patriot Blue.

Sanding with Steel Wool 0000 in between the staining.
Let it dry for 48 hours in the garage then brought it in the Living Room.

Connected all wiring and placed Sand, Heater, Canister Filter, HOB Filter, Bubble Discs, Lighting, Air Pumps and 75 Gallons of Water.

Added Big Al's Multi-Purpose Water Conditioner.
Setup Fluval E300 to 32 Celsius = Actual Water Temp 25.5 Celsius
Aquaclear 110 has Foam, Nano Cube Ceramic Rings and Bio Balls.
Rena XP3 has 2 Fine Foams, 2 Coarse Foams, Bio Balls, Rena Phos-Zorb and Rena Activated Carbon (I know, I know............I am not supposed to put Activated Carbon during Cycling)
Elite 802 powering 2 x 5 inch Bubble Discs
Dual T12 Aqueon All-Glass Fluorescent Bulbs
Substrate Layer 1 = Mixed: - 25 lbs Estes Dark Blue Gravel - 25 lbs Estes Black Gravel
Substrate Layer 2 = 75 lbs Carib Sea Kon Tiki
Stock: I haven't decided yet...


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

Day 2 (Saturday, October 23, 2010):

Added 2.5 ml of Old Country Brand Ammonia
Actual Water Temp is 27.5 Celsius


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

Day 3 (Sunday, October 24, 2010):

Added 2.5 ml of Old Country Brand Ammonia
Actual Water Temp is 29.5 Celsius


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

Day 4 (Monday, October 25, 2010):

Added 2.5 ml of Old Country Brand Ammonia at 8:00 AM
Actual Water Temp is 30.5 Celsius

Water Test #1 (3:00 PM)
Ammonia: .50 ppm
Nitrite: 1.0 ppm
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm
Ph: 7.6


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## Tark77 (Sep 6, 2010)

wow, i am surprised you have nitrates on day 4. Crazy


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## Tark77 (Sep 6, 2010)

looks great btw!


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

Tark77 said:


> wow, i am surprised you have nitrates on day 4. Crazy


Hi Tark,

I am surprised of this as well...but then again, i've been running my XP3 in my 30G planted tank with 1 gourami, 1 pleco and 4 Giant Zebra Danios for more than a month now.

I also seeded the 75G with a few handfuls of gravel and the ornaments from my 29G and 20G tanks.

Also, I read somewhere that Durham Tap contains a bit of Nitrate, not sure of the concentration of it though.

I also jacked up the heat to aim for 32 celsius and have oxygenation via the AquaClear 110 and 2 x 5" bubble discs.

the XP3 and Aquaclear110 is also overloaded with Bio Balls and Cermaic Rings.

Whatever it is, the API Master Test kit is showing signs of NitrAtes.

I am not complaining though... 



Tark77 said:


> looks great btw!


Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it.


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

Day 5 (Tuesday, October 26, 2010):

Added 2.5 ml of Old Country Brand Ammonia
Actual Water Temp is 30.5 Celsius


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Nice, I love seeing startup like this. It's clearly a good indication of a responsible fish keeper who understands and know what he is doing.
A good change from some of the other poorly setup and stuborn as hell beginners who choose to listen to poor advices and gets into problems after problems.
I was surprise by how fast the cycle went too ... until I saw that you where running with a more or less cycle filter.

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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

*Day 6 Fully Cycled Tank!!!!! *

Day 6 (Wednesday, October 27, 2010):

Water Test #2 (4:30 AM)
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5.0 ppm
Ph: 7.4

Tank is Fully Cycled in 6 Days!

Please see pictures.

Added 2.5 ml of Old Country Brand Ammonia at 4:40 AM
Actual Water Temp is 30.5 Celsius

Will Set the Heater now to aim for a 25 Celsius Temp
Will keep feeding my tank Ammonia for now until I decide on Stock.
Once the temp reaches 25 Celsius, I will re-test to make sure that my:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: below 40 ppm
Ph: 7.4

If Nitrate is 40ppm or below I will perform a 25% Water Change
If Nitrate is above 40ppm but below 80ppm, 50% Water change
Above 80ppm = 90% Water Change.

Now to think of stocking the tank, suggestions are always welcome!



Thanks!


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Looks really good with the black gravel I would swap out the background for black that would really look good and your fish would stand out more.


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

Finally back to look after my tank after being away for almost a month. I left my tank in the hands of some buddies, expecting that when I come back, I may need to resuscitate my tank as they have the tendency to overfeed and refuse to do water changes.

The stock in the tank is not yet the final stock I have decided on but they'll do for now:
-10 Fancy Female Guppies
-4 Giant Zebra Danios
-2 Cory Cats
-1 4inch common pleco
-1 13inch common pleco
-1 Blue Gourami

I'm planning to redistribute these fishies to my 20 and 30 gallon tanks once I finish setting them up and cycling them.

Suggestions on how to stock my 75G are most welcome...send me your suggestions. I would also want to hear about your experiences with mixing and matching fishies.

Before I get to the water test results, my buddies had a WELCOME BACK gift for me....they bought me an Orange Oranda, Ryukin and a Calico Goldfish!  Yes, 3 Goldfishies is a 25 Degree Tropical Tank! 

Good thing my nephew has a well established 120G Gold Fish Tank and he was here in record time 

Tested my water this afternoon and here are the numbers:
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 80 ppm
Low Ph: 7.6
High Ph: 7.4
Actual ph: 7.5

It's a bit alarming, but considering that my buddies are not hobbyists, they're quite acceptable parameters in my opinion.

Just finished 25% water change. Water came from a 20 gallon sitting in the living room with a thermometer set for 25 Celsius, just for the purpose of my weekly water change.

My Ammonia should always be ZERO so I am guessing this maybe due to:
- overfeeding
- Poop not being vacuumed

My Nitrites are where it should be: ZERO

My Nitrates are HIGH but in my tank, I have established that 80PPM of Nitrate is the MAX I would settle for before I do a 50% Water Change, so this is RELATIVELY a no-panic reading.

My Nitrate Weekly Rule:
If Nitrate is 40ppm or below I will perform a 25% Water Change
If Nitrate is above 40ppm up to 80ppm, 50% Water change
Above 80ppm = 90% Water Change.


My PH, I would consider this to be at 7.5. The API test Kit has 2 PH tests.

1) PH Test can test for PH only as high as 7.6. 

2) High PH Test can test for PH from 7.4 to 8.8. 

This means that if your PH test is 7.6, there are 2 possibilities (a) your PH is actually 7.6 or (b) your PH is higher than 7.6 but the Test can only read up to 7.6.

Now you have to use the HIGH PH test which works the same way as the first PH test. If you first use the HIGH PH Test and get a reading of 7.4 it could mean one of 2 things (a) your actual PH is 7.4 or (b) your actual PH is lower than 7.4 but it can only read down to 7.4 so you need to do a regular PH test.

Well as you can see from my numbers above my Regular PH Reading is 7.6 and my HIGH PH Reading is 7.4. So for now, I will record my PH results as 7.5.

I'm going to vacuum the gravel and then do a 25% water change.

I will test again next weekend.

Rant of the day: Dear API, 5 different tests in the Master Test Kit and 4 Test Tubes? C’mon…..


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

*Just an FYI*

Just an FYI:
Here is my 20 Gallon Fishless Cycle Journal.
http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19019


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## margolow (Sep 2, 2010)

*This calls for a 50% Water Change*

Saturday, November 20, 2010:

Water Test #4 (8:30 AM)
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 80 ppm
Ph: 7.6
High Ph: 7.4
Actual Water Temp is 25.0 Celsius

Again, quite concerned about these results because I just did a 25% water change yesterday at around noon and also added some live plants as well.

I was expecting 0 Ammonia and a Lower NitrAte reading.

I will do a 50% Water change in a few minutes and do a water test tomorrow or Monday.

I will also do a 25% water change on my 20 Gallons today as well and re-test the water either tomorrow or Monday.

...any thoguhts are welcome.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

In this case, don't make any big water changes like 90%, make %20 to help stabilize the cycle and tank parameter.
Just remember, chloramines is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Not sure what kind of dechlor you are using, but regardless if the chloramines is locked or not, it's still there in your tank for the bacteria to eat. It's possible that you're just making it more abundant with each big water change, hence why the high nitrate? Just a though.

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