[Flint]

I had a 10 gallon that I instant-cycled with a dirty emperor 400 cartridge from my LFS. It had been running 2 weeks fish-in getting 50% WC with Prime every other day. Well, I returned the fish yesterday and added fish food as an ammonia source so my cycle didn't die to make sure it was completely established so I can get my BGK (who will QT in this tank) later in the week.

Well, I added too much fish food and woke up to a yellow-clouded tank this morning. I have since removed the food that was in there (It was in a net) and simply added 10 API bottom feeder (shrimp) pellets (about 1.5mm) and two Wardley shrimp pellets. I am going to let those break down in the net today and tomorrow it's getting a 50% WC to clear the water a bit. I will also be placing the cartridge in the tank and putting a new one in the filter tomorrow because the amount of food in the water has clogged it fairly badly, I just wanted to get the new pellets dissolved a bit before doing so.

Would I be better off throwing a feeder or two in there for ammonia? I really don't like the whole "not knowing" thing with the fish food. I can't get pure ammonia due to the fact that I am 6 months pregnant. I've never done fishless and it is not my preferred method. Shame on me, shame on me.

I'll be changing the substrate this week because my current sand is causing my pH to skyrocket an entire ppm, how will this affect my cycle? To give you an idea of my "media forrest" as I'm calling it, I have;

• the spongey part of a filter cartridge rubber-banded around the intake
• the filter sponge from my spare 10 gallon filter
• tomorrow there will be the dirty cartridge from my running filter
• the filter cartridge from the LFS emperor 400 I used to seed the tank
• the filter sponge in the current HOB
• the new media sponge I'll be adding to the HOB tomorrow

Hopefully with this media forrest alongside the decor, I won't cause a disturbance in the cycle when I change out my substrate. If I do, I'll wait a bit longer to get the BGK.

Does it sound like I'm doing everything right? I don't like the sudden switch but I felt it was necessary.

Thanks in advance for any advice,
Timber

 

[Flint]

Oh, my readings.
I did a 75% WC yesterday before returning the fish. Here were my readings as of this morning;

Ammonia - .25-.50 (couldn't tell the difference but were 0 after WC yesterday I massively overfed the tank last night)
Nitrites - 0 (I never get readings here, my kit is old)
Nitrates - 0-5 (they were 5-10 before WC yesterday)

I have a new kit coming but my Nitrate and Ammonia readings are always accurate. I test before I go to the LFS and have them test. Only difference is they got Nitrite readings a few times.