confusion on cycling - read everything, still got a weird tank

[blueberrybubbles]

Hi, I have read everything I could possibly find on fishless cycling and I am still having weirdness.

I have a lot of backstory to explain why this is taking me so long and happy to explain but I dont think it's necessary - basically I was keeping 2 goldfish in a 15 liter tank (yes, I was ignorant, yes, I have guilt) and it broke - so they are currently and for the last 30 days in an 80 liter bin with their filter.

Bought 119 gallon tank from ebay. turns out the filter was broke. turns out I had no money to replace it til last week.

Last week, hooked up new filter, filled the tank, and had no test strips for ammonia or nitrates/trites.

I did not add ammonia figuring I would only mess it up as I havent got the test strips yet so I plopped in fish food every day for a week. today I got the 6 in 1 test strips, not knowing they dont test ammonia so I have to get those now but anyways-

I have major hard water in my area so I dunked in a test strip anyways and much to my surprise, I see that I have 10ppm nitrite and 50ppm nitrate.

I was under the impression the cycle would take MUCH longer, in such a large tank? Is nitrates already normal?


by the way, no plants and bogwood yet. waiting on them to arrive too.

also, it's in a cold room - waiting on heaters to arrive also.

thanks in advance for any help...

 

[Blueiz]

Hi, I have read everything I could possibly find on fishless cycling and I am still having weirdness.

I have a lot of backstory to explain why this is taking me so long and happy to explain but I dont think it's necessary - basically I was keeping 2 goldfish in a 15 liter tank (yes, I was ignorant, yes, I have guilt) and it broke - so they are currently and for the last 30 days in an 80 liter bin with their filter.

Bought 119 gallon tank from ebay. turns out the filter was broke. turns out I had no money to replace it til last week.

Last week, hooked up new filter, filled the tank, and had no test strips for ammonia or nitrates/trites.

I did not add ammonia figuring I would only mess it up as I havent got the test strips yet so I plopped in fish food every day for a week. today I got the 6 in 1 test strips, not knowing they dont test ammonia so I have to get those now but anyways-

I have major hard water in my area so I dunked in a test strip anyways and much to my surprise, I see that I have 10ppm nitrite and 50ppm nitrate.

I was under the impression the cycle would take MUCH longer, in such a large tank? Is nitrates already normal?


by the way, no plants and bogwood yet. waiting on them to arrive too.

also, it's in a cold room - waiting on heaters to arrive also.

thanks in advance for any help...

You need to invest in liquid test kits, the strips are notoriously inaccurate.

There is a good possibility that you have nitrates in your tap water, check those. Your tank is not cycled yet

 

[joy13]

Do you still have your old filter? If so you can use that for a silent cycle don't use all the filter since you still have your fish in a bin. I don't know what your temperature is but goldfish do pretty well at normal room temperature.

Welcome to AA

 

[Lynae]

I suggest that you grab a sponge or some other filter media from your goldfishies tub , and add to current new tank.
It will help add some of that good bacteria that your striving for!!
heck, pour some water from the tub in, if you know its free of any disease.
AND definately agree with blueiz, you will need a liquid test kit, if you want to successfully complete this cycle!

 

[jsoong]

I don't understand why you would want to do fishless cycling in your new tank, when you have your goldies in a temporary bin. If that tank is for the goldfish, you may as well put them in right away & cycle it with the fish. All things considered, it would be better for the fish to be in the bigger tank than in the bin. <Did you test the water in the bin?? I suspect it would be in far worse shape than the tank!>

If you elect to transfer the fish now, I would suggest:
1. Get a good liquid test kit, the stripes are terribly inaccurate. I would not trust your test results at all. <They don't make sense!>
2. Test your tap water to make sure that there is no nitrates.
3. Do a 50% pwc (or more, if you have high levels of ammonia or nitrites) in your big tank to dilute out toxins.
4. Add a low level of salt (~0.05% or 1 teaspoon per 10 gal) to protect against nitrite poisoning.
5. Transfer everything from the bin to the tank - water, decor, substrate, filter, everything. That way, whatever progress you made in cycling (yes, the cycling happens in the bin too) will not be lost. <If the bin was completely cycled, you would not even need to go through cycling in the tank doing this ... this is the so called silent cycle.>
6. Monitor the levels in the big tank & do pwc's as needed to keep ammonia less than 0.5 & nitrite less than 0.25. With a 120 gal tank & 2 goldies, you should not have too much trouble keeping levels under control.
7. Without a heater, the cycle will progress slowly ... prob in the order of 12-16 weeks at room temp.

<BTW if it is REALLY cold - like 50's, you should hold off till you get the heater ..... cycling don't happen much at those temp, and goldies will hibernate at those temp.> If you have fancy goldfish, they do do better at mid 70's, but single tailed varieties will be fine in the 60's. Single tails will be fine all the way down to 4C (or ~35ish F) as long as the water isn't frozen solid .... although they will be hibernating.

 

[dkpate]

+1 for JSoong

 

[blueberrybubbles]

thank you all so much for your responses - I have several questions remaining after reading jsoong's post - because that was something my common sense told me but I feel so awful for what they've already been through in a small tank and not scrupulous pwc because I was ignorant -

When the old tank broke, most of that water made it into the bin - but wasnt enough to fill. and also it was 5 weeks ago (long story with broken filter, ebay, and no spare cash involved) so I think it may well be cycled. I will get a real testing kit - the ammonia kit I have is the test tube type. but the strips as you said made no sense for me either which brought me here

And I have been doing the pwc once weekly.

The room isnt cold enough to freeze them - they're still active but not nearly as active. I can put the current filter also in the big tank and the heaters are here which I am setting to 75 degrees F -

I guess my only real question is besides being very careful adding them to the new tank due to the temp difference, is there anything else I can do to ease it for them?

 

[jsoong]

Get the 2 tanks temp matched & you should be ready to go. You don' t have to wait for the heater to do their job. <It may take days with small heater & big tank!> Since you are going to be doing a big water change in the new tank before the transfer, just use hot water to make the temp match, then the heater can maintain the temp.

Definitely run the old filter in the big tank for at least a few weeks, this will ensure seeding of the big tank. <Depending on what you have on the new tank, you might want to run both filters permanently .... it is good to overfilter a goldfish tank.>

What is the current reading of ammonia in your tub? <High ammonia or nitrites may be the reason why the fish are not as active.> 5 weeks may not be enough time to cycle a cold water tank. But you should have made a good start. At any rate, it will be much easier managing the cycle in a big tank.

Weekly pwc is not nearly enough when cycling with goldfish. Generally, daily water changes are required in a small setup. You might be able to get down to a change once every few days in the 120 gal. But let your test results guide you. <Once the cycle is established, you would be able to get down to less frequent pwc's.>

 

[sarahsunshine]

If you are worried about the temperature adjustment being too much for them (40 to 75 is pretty huge), could you set the heater at say 60 for a few days, and then turn it up say a couple degrees each day until it gets to 72-75? I am assuming that the room you are in is cold – in the 40s/50s…

Also, make sure you treat your water first! You probably know that, but I just want to make sure!

I’m jealous of such a big tank (and a place to put it)!