Deborah J. Brown
August 1st 05, 02:00 PM
I thought I'd drop a note on the cycling situation I was asking about
the other day.
As may be remembered, I had decided to give the Ammo-lock a chance to
work. If I'm correct, it does appear to be doing what it says it does
(ie. protects the fish from the excess ammonia in the tank without
breaking the cycle.)
Right now the ammonia levels are still higher than desirable according
to the Aquarium Pharmecuticals test, but if the test is picking up
/all/ the ammonia, including that 'locked' by the ammo-lock, this may
be an unavoidable consequence of using it.
I'll note that - thus far - the fish don't seem to be reacting badly
to the levels of ammonia that were reached. The spike hit pretty high
(made me nervous, I'll admit) but they were dashing around the tank
without any particular behavior change, so I bit my lip and let it go
further.
The wait appears to have been worth it. The day before yesterday I got
the first glimmerings of nitrites in the tank (about .25 if I'm
reading the card right) and today there was less ammonia in the tank
than there was last night.
I've done a 20% water change today, mainly to clear the dirt and to
get the ammo level down a bit since ammo lock only handles so much. A
touch more ammo-lock and things seem okay.
I'm wondering if there's an ammo test that could measure only the
'free' ammo, though. It'd help figure out whether a water change might
be needed early - should the little guys produce too much for the ammo
lock to handle.
Anyway, thanks!
Deb
the other day.
As may be remembered, I had decided to give the Ammo-lock a chance to
work. If I'm correct, it does appear to be doing what it says it does
(ie. protects the fish from the excess ammonia in the tank without
breaking the cycle.)
Right now the ammonia levels are still higher than desirable according
to the Aquarium Pharmecuticals test, but if the test is picking up
/all/ the ammonia, including that 'locked' by the ammo-lock, this may
be an unavoidable consequence of using it.
I'll note that - thus far - the fish don't seem to be reacting badly
to the levels of ammonia that were reached. The spike hit pretty high
(made me nervous, I'll admit) but they were dashing around the tank
without any particular behavior change, so I bit my lip and let it go
further.
The wait appears to have been worth it. The day before yesterday I got
the first glimmerings of nitrites in the tank (about .25 if I'm
reading the card right) and today there was less ammonia in the tank
than there was last night.
I've done a 20% water change today, mainly to clear the dirt and to
get the ammo level down a bit since ammo lock only handles so much. A
touch more ammo-lock and things seem okay.
I'm wondering if there's an ammo test that could measure only the
'free' ammo, though. It'd help figure out whether a water change might
be needed early - should the little guys produce too much for the ammo
lock to handle.
Anyway, thanks!
Deb