For the second day running my results are:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 60ishppm

Still going to leave it a few days, just done the maths and the water has been in for 24 days, Im kinda amazed, excited and proud, 24 days thus far I gather is a fairly rapid cycle, I have had my water up to 30 - 31 and have air going crazy and also added a small 300l pump and placed at the side of my big air disc and the result was astounding, almost looked like sparkling water thats how well the filter broke down the air bubbles into tiny ones which again I read from here is more beneficial to the process.

Also another thing worth noting is that I do have around 15 real plants in there contributing to the process, I thought I would share my experience as I know that waiting for the cycle can be the most frustrating thing so if anything I have have done helps anyone to speed up their process, jobs a goodun in my eyes.

So Im going to leave it another few days just to be on the safe side and while I completely decide which route to take next.

I have also decide that I am going to get some Assassin snails for the job, however I really do not want these long term so before I buy I am going to make sre I can find good homes for them when required, hopefully my LFS will take them as long as there is not too many, I read of a guy who bought 3 to deal with 300 odd trumpet snails, they got rid of the trumpets but he now has 100 Assassins!! His comment was, slow breeding, YEAH RIGHT! lol, he was actually giving them away but he is up the other end of the country sadly.

Thanks again for all your help so far guys, its really appreciated.

Chris

Hi Kevin, I also am a new member to the site and firstly I would say well done for joining as the information I have been given has been excellent and all the members that have helped me have been really nice as well as very patient too.

I cannot really help regarding Filtering and Heating capacities as I am also new to aquariums but guaranteed there will be someone who can help

Regarding the Litres you simply multiply the three dimesnions together and then divide by 1000, however there is a great thread regarding cycling your tank without fish and that not only has a calculator to work out the litres but also there is an ammonia calculator to help you add the right amount of ammonia when cycling the tank.

The size of your tank works out to 84" x 24" x 36" which works out to 1189.308L or 261.612Gls. Wow, I hope you have a concrete floor or Titanium Joists! lol

I hope I have equated that correctly for you, Im sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. :)

Take care and Good luck mate

After reading that article again that Violet posted, I am starting to be swayed toward Cichlids now providing I can get a good base of variety that will co-exist. First worry is will they go for the x-ray tetras if I go for them?

Secondly, can I keep a variety of Cichlids at all? Still much reading to do at this point but even before my tank arrived I was looking at Blue Rams and such, as I want colour in the tank Cichlids seems the logical choice especially with the water readings where I am.

Thanks Violet, this was more informative than the book I was reading last night.

Re the ph Violet, I got two different readings from the house, the first was showing at 8.0 from the bathroom and then when I take a reading from the downstairs tap it was 7.6. I forgot to update that so thanks for the prompt

I can only assume that the bathroom water comes from the cylinder in one of the bedrooms, not sure but seems plausible. It does now mean though that when I change my water I am going to have to run the hose up the back of the first storey, come in through the bathroom, up the stairs and though my bedroom into my front room!! Good job Iv got a long hose and a few buckets lol

Thanks for the advice Violet, I was firstly looking at the X-ray tetra as they apparantly like a harder ph than most of the other families. Im still so un-sure at this moment. If honest a little dis-heartened that virtually every fish I would've liked I cannot have. Sadly I cannot go the RO route as there is no way my parents are gonna allow me to run new pipes through the house

Il get there eventually lol

Thanks again Violet

Edit - Did a bit of research last night and it seems like I can really only go with livebearers or types of cichlid, and from what I understand thus far, Cichlids are especially aggy which is a shame because they have such striking colourings and to be honest I wasnt really keen on livebearers in case of getting over-run with babies, so at this moment Im in a bit of a quandry

I love Herman too, he's quality Big things happened today on the cycling front, Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 40ppm, thought it would've been higher than that tho so I have topped Ammonia back to 4ppm to test again and will check all paramaters tomorrow.

Snails - Judgement day cometh!!

I cant wait to see fish in my tank, even if is just a couple of shoals of Tetras for the moment, also guys have you any good suggestions for loaches/Plecs that will eat the snails but are peaceful in the community, I really wanted yoyos but was advised against it.

Thanks all, have a great weekend

Chris

I do love the fish in your avatar noodle, he's gorgeous. I did read in another post what he is but the name escapes me (it is 3.30am!). Being an extremely long suffereing Hammers fan he's the perfect colour and also looks from the pic he's got a great little character on him

Things are starting to happen!!
Checked my ammonia level today, yesterdays levels were:

Ammonia 3ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 40ppm

Todays readings are

Ammonia 0.5ppm
Nitrite 5ppm
Nitrate 40ppm

I'm hoping in the next week(ish) I can finally get some fish in, the water has been cycling for 3 weeks today and with the snails that came in on the plants all I'v kind of had to look at is a 180 litre snail farm

Still, the end is near, woohoo.

Hi Violet, just a quick update to say you hit the nail on the head regarding the filter(bacteria) playing catch up. I tested again today and Ammonia had dropped to 1ppm, I have now raised it back to 4ppm. I read that 3 is a good level but I also read it's better to keep things as stable as poss so I raised it back to what it was when I first checked it.

Thanks for your help and suggestions Violet.