New 10 Gallon and Stability

Sly13Cat · #1 03-08-2012, 16:36

So I have the heater, filter and hood/light for the new 10 gallon I just bought and I had a question. What do you think of the effectiveness of Stability. I've heard about the nitrogen cycle and wanted to make sure no fish die. Since I plan on buying the rocks, plants, fish etc. on Saturday should I set it up Friday. I heard you can add fish right after adding stability. I plan on adding 4 fancy guppies and 1 Betta (If all goes well). But the Betta gets added a few days after the guppies. So should I set up the tank tomorrow or even today and allow it to run until Satuday when I get the Stability, fish etc?

Tech Support EH · #2 03-08-2012, 16:53

Thank you for your questions regarding Stability! It is true that when adding Stability, you can add your fish immediately. Please keep this in mind, however:

Stability prevents new tank syndrome by rapidly establishing the biofilter, or by expediting the nitrogen cycle. It will not, however, prevent the tank from experiencing an ammonia spike or a nitrite spike, as these are natural steps involved in the nitrogen cycle. With that said, if you are going to add your fish before the tank has fully cycled, then it will be very important to add Prime every 48 hours in order to detoxify ammonia and nitrites as they form.

Therefore, you can set up the tank today, tomorrow, or Saturday as long as you dose Stability daily for at least 7 days and Prime every 48 hours. Doing so will keep your little fish safe from the inevitable accumulation of wastes.

You can read about Prime here:

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Prime.html

Best of luck to you and have a nice evening!

Sly13Cat · #3 03-08-2012, 16:55

All i have is TopFin conditioner. Can i use it?

Tech Support AN · #4 03-08-2012, 17:00

You can use it, however, keep in mind that the TopFin does not neutralize ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates. It only removes chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals. In order to be 100% sure that your fish remain safe, I would recommend using Prime instead.

I hope this helps!

Sly13Cat · #5 03-09-2012, 13:57

I only plan on using it when I set it up today. Tomorrow I'm buying the Stability and Prime.

Tech Support MS · #6 03-09-2012, 17:10

Sounds great! Have a wonderful weekend!

Sly13Cat · #7 03-14-2012, 14:51

Well I bought the tank and 4 male guppies. One died from the Betta which I then removed, the replacement got killed by the other guppies and it's replacement got killed by the Dalmatian Mollies (Male). So I removed the rest of the guppies and put them in the other 10 Gal. So now I have a 3 gal section for my Crowntail Betta and the other 7 gallons for the 4 Dalmatian Mollies. I just added the divider after my parameter test from the pet store.

Here are my results (Can only test ammonia a few times at pet store because it doesn't come in the kit...):
Day 2 of having fishes (Sunday):
Ammonia - > ? PPM Nitrite -> 0 PPM Nitrate -> 20 PPM
(Guppy was killed by Betta and got exchanged)

Day 3 of having fishes (Monday):
Ammonia -> HIGH (5 PPM)ish Nitrite -> 0 PPM Nitrate ->10 - 20 PPM
(Did 10% water change and added Prime + Second Guppy was killed by other guppies)

Day 4 of having fishes (Yesterday):
Ammonia -> ? Nitrite -> 0 PPM Nitrate -> 20 PPM
(Guppy was killed by Molly and decided to move all guppies. Decided not to keep guppies any more...)

Today:
Ammonia -> 0.25 PPM Nitrite -> 0 PPM Nitrate -> 10 PPM
(Added dose of Prime before going to the pet store)

So my question is, is my cycle near done. The Ammonia spike was most probably caused by the guppy deaths. I've been double dosing on Stability up to Monday (should have read the label more closely). So I've been dosing Stability since Saturday and I add Prime every 48 hours to help with Ammonia (Next dose is Friday).

Tech Support AN · #8 03-14-2012, 15:08

Thanks for the update!

It seems as if your tank is cycling as it should! Once your ammonia level falls to zero and you have zero nitrites, than you can safely assume that it has cycled fully. I would continue adding Prime every 48 hours and Stability daily until you are finished cycling, which should be very soon by the looks of your numbers.

Let us know if you have questions along the way!