Day 10

Day 10
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 10

My results have gone up again today!

Ammonia 2.0
Nitrite 0.25
Nitrate 25
Ph 7.5

Decided to try a sepia looking tank today! (Edited in iphoto)

Day 9

Day 9
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 9

I woke up this morning to find that the tank had completely cleared itself! I am very happy it looks much better now! Its a huge difference from a couple of days ago!

I tested the water and have found a small amount of nitrite so perhaps that helped the tank to clear. Ammonia has also increased.

Nitrite between 0 and 0.25
Nitrate 12.5
Ammonia 1.0
Ph not tested.

day8

day8
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

day8

Todays results

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.50
Ph 8.0

My volcano arrived from ebay! (99p)
The water is a little less murky but i've gone for a dark and moody picture to make the best of the murkiness!

Day 7

Day 7
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 7

Well I have had the biorb a whole week now and I am enjoying looking at it in the corner but I do wish the water would clear. I think it is slightly clearer looking back at yesterdays photo?.. I've been told on a forum that it may be bacterial bloom which presumably is a good thing as I'm trying to get bacteria to live in the gravel!

Good news today as the results have changed a little.

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.50
Ph 8.0

I also added more of the zyme stuff that adds bacteria to the water hopefully they will start to sort out the water as there is a bit more ammonia for them to live on.

Day 6

Day 6
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 6

Today I bought a heater for the tank so hopefully the whole cycling thing should start to work a bit better from now on. Water is looking even murkier than yesterday!

nitrites 0
Nitrates either 0
Ammonia 0.5
Ph 8.

Day 5

Day 5
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 5

Today the water has gone a bit cloudy! not really sure why... wasn't expecting that. I hope it clears up soon! I'm wondering whether to add some ammonia, I've seen some people have used that for fishless cycling... Not sure where to get it though..

Today

nitrites 0
Nitrates either 0 or 0.5 (may be my wishful thinking!)
Ammonia 0.5
Ph 8.0

Day 4

Day 4
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 4

The results were the same as yesterday

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Amonia 0.25
Ph 8

Day 3

Day 3
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 3

I decided to add a bit of green in the form of more plastic plants, I would like to get some real ones but am not sure what to get, I need to do a bit of research first.

Readings today much the same

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Amonia 0.25
Ph 8

Day 2

Day 2
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Day 2

The water is in and a few plastic plants to stop it looking so bare!
we are cycling it without fish! Apparently fish don't like it if you put them straight in! Apparently you need to put fish flakes in each day to build up ammonia levels to encourage the bacteria to grow that neutralise them.

My initial readings are

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.25
PH 7.5

Day 1

Day 1
Originally uploaded by Purplesteffi

Freshly painted stand for new biorb 60litres

It is bigger than I thought it would be!

Having done a bit of research online I have discovered that goldfish don't really like small tanks so I have decided to go tropical, I bought it to have goldfish really as there are goldfish on the box. Anyway there are some very pretty tropical fish in my local pet shop so I think i'll be spoiled for choice! It doesn't seem much harder to keep tropical fish so I think its a good choice.