need help!!! with my 1 1/2 month old tank

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mr.coco

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
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hello i need some help with the nitrogen cycle of my 29 gallon tank, which is 1 1/2 month old. the param. are
ammonia 0.25 or 0 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate 0 ppm
ph 7.4

so i dont understand what is really going on right now i think by now it should have a complete cycle but for some reason it doesnt show that it is. the water does not look 100% crystal clear , it has some blury to it. it also had or has some kind of brown and green algea. the filter of this tank is old that came out of my 10 gal tank.
what am i doing wrong? or whats happening?
 
no. however i use the hagen cycle bacteria to help the tank to get established but that didnt help at all or thats what it appears.
 
With out ammonia you starve your bacteria causing it all to die off. I'm not sure how quickly it will die from starvation but it doesn't take long....your gonna have to start over again probably, sorry : /
 
well i have a fish in there so ammonia is been produce by the fish . am i correct ? or should i buy another fish to produce enough ammonia for the bacteria?
 
Without an ammonia source your beneficial bacteria will die off. So even if you put some in there it had nothing to eat. It seems your cycle is beginning to start as your starting to see cloudiness. What I would do is dose your tank up to 4ppm with ammonia as long as there are no fish in the tank. Then your bacteria will have something to eat. Use industrial grade ammonia you won't need much. Test your water everyday until it starts to go down and dose it back up. When your tank came go from 4ppm to 0ppm in a 24 hour period you will be cycled. At thi point you will need to do about an 80 %water change to bring down your nitrates. Look up and study the fish less cycle method I still go back an re read it sometimes to refresh my memory.
 
Good so the fish should be feeding the bacteria (do NOT add ammonia). What fish are in there? What dechlorinator are you using? What test kit? LIquid or strips? Strips aren't generaly accurate. If using liquid I suggest shaking the bottles prior to using them, particularly the nitrAte bottles that should be shaken and banged on a hard surface for 30 seconds and the tube for a full minute. Does your tap water have ammonia in it?
 
ive never try the ammonia stuff because ive use food to create the ammonia. when i had the older tank. however because i already had a fish and transfer that fish to this new tank. where can i get that ammonia that your talking about
 
You will need to study the fish in method and yes that's why you see the little bit of ammonia but a fish less cycle can take a lot longer and you will need to do a lot more water changes. I would re home the fish and do fish less.
 
Ace hardware stores or Hannah hardware stores. Your looking for industrial grade stuff. If you shake the bottle and it foams up you can't use it.
 
librarygirl..

i have a goldfish in it. so because goldfish are pop machines there should be enough ammonia for the bacteria. correct? i have api master kit. i have never tested my tap water for ammonia . let me do a test right now.. so on all of the test bottles should i shake it first for some time?
 
librarygirl..

i have a goldfish in it. so because goldfish are pop machines there should be enough ammonia for the bacteria. correct? i have api master kit. i have never tested my tap water for ammonia . let me do a test right now.. so on all of the test bottles should i shake it first for some time?

A goldfish in a 29 gal tank should be producing enough ammonia. Your parameters look pretty good; ammoia might be slightly up if it's over 0 but it isn't overly high. You should have nitrates if the tank is cycled; the nitrate test is finicky so definitely shake and bang both bottles for 30 seconds and the tube for a full minute, then let us know what it reads. I shake all of my bottles for a few seconds before using them but it's the nitrate test that really needs to be shaken vigorously.

Also It can be hard to distinguish between 0 and .25 on the API ammonia kit depending on the light in the room. YOu could test some distilled or spring water and compare the two tubes and see if they match; you might really have 0 ammonia. Did you add the goldie recently or has it been in there for the whole 1.5 months? Have you see any nitrite at all?
 
mr.coco said:
librarygirl..

i have a goldfish in it. so because goldfish are pop machines there should be enough ammonia for the bacteria. correct? i have api master kit. i have never tested my tap water for ammonia . let me do a test right now.. so on all of the test bottles should i shake it first for some time?

librarygirl.. the ammonia on the tap water is 0 ppm
 
mr.coco said:
librarygirl..

i have a goldfish in it. so because goldfish are pop machines there should be enough ammonia for the bacteria. correct? i have api master kit. i have never tested my tap water for ammonia . let me do a test right now.. so on all of the test bottles should i shake it first for some time?

I shake all of my bottles but I shake & bang the #2 nitrAte bottle. Most say bang it on the counter or table, I just use the heal of my hand. I do it twice, before I start testing & right before I add the drops to the tube. Did you ever see nitrItes? I used Stability on my 46g & I only saw nitrItes once. You're registering a little ammonia so you obviously are getting ammonia so your BB should be fine.
 
Ok good, so no ammonia in the tap. I don't know how long the goldie has been in there....have you noticed any difference in the ammonia levels (e.g. is it rising more slowly than it did)? Any nitrite at all? Redo the nitrate test too as stated above. It might be cycled already or close-to (unless the fish was just added, it's hard to say for sure; adding fish food before adding fish doesn't quite add enough ammonia but if the fish was added not long after the seeded filter media it may have helped some).

Redo the nitrate test, let me know if you've ever had nitrite and how long the fish has been in there. Maybe we can pinpoint how far along you really are.
 
i have had the goldfish from start because i put him in a bigger tank so he could swim more.
i just redue the test for nitrates and now it show either 5 ppm or 10 ppm..
 
Good! You might be cycled or close-to. It's possible the ammonia is really 0; to be sure test it against some distilled or spring water. If ammonia rises any more do a water change. Nitrates are a good sign though (maybe check your tap water for nitrates too just to make sure they are coming from the tank and not the tap).
 
well maybe the ammonia is 0 ppm because the nitrites have always come out 0 and with the ammonia it has been really hard to say which one is which because the color looks like yellowish but it also looks like the .25 ppm color so maybe is almost cycled. i did a complete test and it shows 0 nitrates on the tap water. my question is now. if the water were to had the ammonia and nitrates then i would needed to buy an ro di filter . right? my second question is. what can i fo with the algea that keep growning in my airline tubing and my rocks. should i get a bottle that eliminates the algea?
 
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