AARGH! 10g Fish In Cycle FRUSTRATION

[shellieca]

My 10g tank is now on its 7th week of fish in cycling & for the last 2 weeks I'm registering .25-.5 nitrItes every other day. I don't get it & I'm getting really frustrated. I do a 50%+ water change, test the next day & all is good, then 2 days after a water change I get nitrites. My 46g which is one week less in the fish in cycling process appears to be cycled, YAY for that! What to do with the 10g? Anything? Do nitrites usually keep showing up this long? There's 1 fish & 1 snail in the 10g, temp stays about 80, nothing done to the filter.

 

[tamtam]

My 10g tank is now on its 7th week of fish in cycling & for the last 2 weeks I'm registering .25-.5 nitrItes every other day. I don't get it & I'm getting really frustrated. I do a 50%+ water change, test the next day & all is good, then 2 days after a water change I get nitrites. My 46g which is one week less in the fish in cycling process appears to be cycled, YAY for that! What to do with the 10g? Anything? Do nitrites usually keep showing up this long? There's 1 fish & 1 snail in the 10g, temp stays about 80, nothing done to the filter.

I don't think it's too out of the norm and the nitrite conversion takes far longer than the ammo conversion. Are you getting any nitrate at all yet in the 10 gal?

I don't think it's completely uncommon for smaller tanks to give these hassles. There is so much less space for toxins to disperse in after all. It doesn't take long for a buildup to happen.

 

[shellieca]

I don't think it's too out of the norm and the nitrite conversion takes far longer than the ammo conversion. Are you getting any nitrate at all yet in the 10 gal?

I don't think it's completely uncommon for smaller tanks to give these hassles. There is so much less space for toxins to disperse in after all. It doesn't take long for a buildup to happen.

My nitrates average 10-20 & I've had them for a long time. So bottom line just keep doing what I'm doing; test daily, water changes as needed. Alrighty then.

 

[tamtam]

oh how frustrating. lol. Sounds like you know what you are doing. Just keep trekking. At least you have your 46.

 

[shellieca]

oh how frustrating. lol. Sounds like you know what you are doing. Just keep trekking. At least you have your 46.

Well I kind of know what I'm doing. LOL. I have another 10g that's been running for about 6 months & I had no clue when I set it up, I used strips for testing only after I lost my first fish that was in it. & I panicked. The day before I lost her, I had added 2 more fish & to keep them alive I just kept adding Prime not knowing water changes would fix the out of whack parameters. Somehow i didn't lose anymore fish. I'm not holding my breath on the 46g, I'll keep testing it daily for a week to make sure it is cycled.

 

[bloodlucky]

My nitrates average 10-20 & I've had them for a long time. So bottom line just keep doing what I'm doing; test daily, water changes as needed. Alrighty then.

10-20 nitrate reading is perfecto

 

[Borderlesscott]

If your using the API nitrate test make sure you shake the hell out of bottle 2, it's notorious for giving the odd funny reading unless you whack the hell out of it.

 

[tamtam]

Well I kind of know what I'm doing. LOL. I have another 10g that's been running for about 6 months & I had no clue when I set it up, I used strips for testing only after I lost my first fish that was in it. & I panicked. The day before I lost her, I had added 2 more fish & to keep them alive I just kept adding Prime not knowing water changes would fix the out of whack parameters. Somehow i didn't lose anymore fish. I'm not holding my breath on the 46g, I'll keep testing it daily for a week to make sure it is cycled.

I think most of us have been there at least once. I remember my first tank and look back and wonder how everyone survived with how little i knew.

What do you have in the 46 gal? With fish in cycle it's important to remember that you are only building your bacteria to support your current stock so as you add more fish there is going to be some adjustments that need to take place to catch up. So where you can have 2-3 weeks of great parameters you can add 3 new fish and you are back to having spikes and needing to do water changes to level things out. Where with a fishless cycle you generally dose ammo up really high, to a level that most tanks will never produce so you get enough beneficial bacteria to support a full stock off the hop

 

[shellieca]

I think most of us have been there at least once. I remember my first tank and look back and wonder how everyone survived with how little i knew.

What do you have in the 46 gal? With fish in cycle it's important to remember that you are only building your bacteria to support your current stock so as you add more fish there is going to be some adjustments that need to take place to catch up. So where you can have 2-3 weeks of great parameters you can add 3 new fish and you are back to having spikes and needing to do water changes to level things out. Where with a fishless cycle you generally dose ammo up really high, to a level that most tanks will never produce so you get enough beneficial bacteria to support a full stock off the hop

It's a constant learning hobby! My 46g has 3 female Bettas; waiting to add the 4th, she's been in QT about 2 wks now, 2 Mystery Snails & 2 CAE's (so far no problems, keeping close watch on those 2). I've already been trying to figure out how I can swing getting another tank, 40-50g, I keep talking myself out of it but yet I keep looking, it's a viscious cycle.

 

[shellieca]

Well, I'm ending week 2 of nitrites in the 10g. They average .25-.5. I will be a happy happy happy person when this cycle ends!

 

[librarygirl]

You should be close; typically the nitrite phase lasts about 3 weeks on average, give or take. Hang in there!

 

[shellieca]

You should be close; typically the nitrite phase lasts about 3 weeks on average, give or take. Hang in there!

NOOOOOOO! Darn it, so not what I wanted to hear! LOL

 

[shellieca]

The 10g had a PERFECT water test tonight! Ammo 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 10-20(I have hard time with those two colors). YAY! Please let that be the case tomorrow! The 46g has had near perfect readings all week, for some reason the nitrates seem to stay right about 40. I've tested it before & after the 10g & always the same result so I'm guessing it's because it has more inhabitants? Is it something to worry about? I can do a 50%+ water change & within a couple of days it's at 40.

 

[librarygirl]

What fish do you have in the 46? More fish equals more waste which equals more nitrate. What's your tap water nitrate? Nitrates aren't as toxic to fish as the other two but ideally you want to keep them under 20. It's ok do to an extra water change to keep them low, yes. If they're rising that fast you could be overstocked and/or overfeeding. Instead of one large water change weekly once the tank cycles you could do two water changes per week to keep nitrates down.

 

[shellieca]

What fish do you have in the 46? More fish equals more waste which equals more nitrate. What's your tap water nitrate? Nitrates aren't as toxic to fish as the other two but ideally you want to keep them under 20. It's ok do to an extra water change to keep them low, yes. If they're rising that fast you could be overstocked and/or overfeeding. Instead of one large water change weekly once the tank cycles you could do two water changes per week to keep nitrates down.

Thank you librarygirl. The 46g currently has 3 female Bettas, 2 CAE's & 2 Mystery Snails. I'm planning to add 2 more female Bettas (in QT) & another filter from my current QT 10g tank. I feed the Bettas 3-4 pellets once a day with one day of fasting, I drop 3 algae wafers for the others on the same schedule except when I put in veggies 2-3 times a week. When I feed the Bettas I drop one pellet at a time & make sure each is getting their fair share which means the pellets don't sit in the tank uneaten, the wafers of course probably leave some waste. And yes I know 2 CAE's may be too much for the tank, I'm looking at options.

On a good note . . . My 10g tank seems to be CYCLED! No nitrites for the last few days, ammo 0, nitrates 10-20.