Cycling Question

[geff.gardner]

So now my levels are

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 40
PH - 7.6

My PH held up & my nitrites are finally at 0. I'm going to add ammonia to get it up to 2ppm tonight & if ammonia & nitrites are at 0 again tomorrow, I'll do a pwc to bring nitrates down & 2then finally add fish.

 

[jlk]

I wouldnt jump the gun quite yet. A single day of zeroes is not quite enough to say your fully cycled. You will need to get steady zeroes for a couple of days after daily dosing ammonia- newly cycled tanks are tempermental & you really should be sure that your biological filter is fully functional before introducing fish.

 

[geff.gardner]

Yes you are right, I will test again tonight when I get home.

I decided to do a 50% water change last night since my nitrates were so high. Then I added enough ammonia to bring it back to 2ppm.

Hopefully my #s hold up.

 

[geff.gardner]

My #s as of lat night after a 50% water change & adding ammonia up to 2 ppm were -

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20
PH - 7.6

I did another 50% water change & added ammonia up to 2ppm again, so if ammonia & nitrites are at 0, I will add fish tonight (after another water change to bring nitrates down to about 5 ppm)

 

[jlk]

Just take your time adding fish- right now, your tank is only cycled to 2ppm of ammonia. Stock slowly & gradually and continue to monitor your parameters for anything amiss. If you see any spikes in ammonia or nitrite, some extra water changes will keep toxins in check until your bb catch up. Good luck!

 

[geff.gardner]

Okay thanks. I had been doing 4 ppm the entire cycle up until 2 days ago. Should I work back up to 4 before adding fish?

 

[jlk]

If you would like to stock your tank fully, yes, i would work back up to 4ppm & make sure your bb are handling the dose without an issue. It should only take a couple of days to do this- increase your amm dose to 3ppm today & lets see how things look in 24hrs. Your bb may lag for a day with the increased dose but they will catch up quickly. If you have all zeroes tomorrow, add 4ppm- if you dont have all zeroes, dose 3ppm again.

 

[geff.gardner]

Okay thanks. It's a 16 gallon high.

I'm looking at a total stocking list of 3 corys, 3 platys, a fancy tail guppy, a few ghost shrimp & zebra danios. Is that too much for that aquarium size?

 

[jlk]

I am not going to be of much help on stocking because I have no experience with tropicals- just coldwater fish. Hopefully, someone with experience with these guys can offer their insight!

 

[geff.gardner]

Gotcha, well thanks with all of your help, it's much appreciated!

 

[LyndaB]

Okay thanks. It's a 16 gallon high.

I'm looking at a total stocking list of 3 corys, 3 platys, a fancy tail guppy, a few ghost shrimp & zebra danios. Is that too much for that aquarium size?

What are the depth and width of the tank? Unfortunately, "high" tanks don't offer the same footprint as a standard 16 gallon, which is what I have.

Which species of cory?

Platies would be fine.

Guppy would be fine.

Ghost shrimp would probably eat any fry you have (unless all platies are male or all female).

I don't recommend zebra danios for this size tank. They are psychotic fish and need room to zoom and annoy the pants off every other species.

You can check out my siggy line for how I've got my 16 stocked. It's one of my favorite tanks.

 

[geff.gardner]

What are the depth and width of the tank? Unfortunately, "high" tanks don't offer the same footprint as a standard 16 gallon, which is what I have.

Which species of cory?

Platies would be fine.

Guppy would be fine.

Ghost shrimp would probably eat any fry you have (unless all platies are male or all female).

I don't recommend zebra danios for this size tank. They are psychotic fish and need room to zoom and annoy the pants off every other species.

You can check out my siggy line for how I've got my 16 stocked. It's one of my favorite tanks.

The measurements are [FONT=Arial, Verdana, sans-serif]20 x 11 x 19

I was looking at albino corys. Is there a small school you would recommend instead of zebra danios.

Thanks for your help.
[/FONT]

 

[Batt4Christ]

Small school- most of the smaller tetras would fit that bill. Rasboras also fit that description.

 

[geff.gardner]

All of my #s were consistent with readings of 0 for ammonia & nitrites and nitrates at 10 after 2 50% water changes. PH was at 7.6 as well consistently so on Friday I added 3 corys (2 albino, 1 peppered), 4 zebra danios, 3 platys, a male fancy tail guppy & 2 apple snails. Everyone was doing fine as far as I could tell & I continued to test the water.

All #s remained the same, but I woke up on Sunday to find 2 of the corys dead and this morning I found the 3rd cory & male guppy dead.

The #s are still consistent except nitrates are now between 10 - 20, so I don't understand what could have gone wrong. I added the fish in w/ the drip method.

 

[jlk]

I am so sorry I honestly dont know what happened. Is there any chance a contaminent could have gotten into your tank? Aersol spray nearby, carpet powder, febreeze, someone wiped the glass off with cleaner, or sprayed something near the water changing equipment, anything? Did the fish have any symptoms (erratic swimming, jerky movements, gasping, flashing, etc) or was there anything unusual about the dead ones (white patches, cloudy eyes, red gills, discoloration, etc)? Trying figure out what may have happened beyond poor or sick stock to begin with.

 

[geff.gardner]

I am so sorry I honestly dont know what happened. Is there any chance a contaminent could have gotten into your tank? Aersol spray nearby, carpet powder, febreeze, someone wiped the glass off with cleaner, or sprayed something near the water changing equipment, anything? Did the fish have any symptoms (erratic swimming, jerky movements, gasping, flashing, etc) or was there anything unusual about the dead ones (white patches, cloudy eyes, red gills, discoloration, etc)? Trying figure out what may have happened beyond poor or sick stock to begin with.

Nothing that I could think of that could have gotten into the tank or water changing equipment, I keep it all in the same place & it isn't exposed to anything.

I didn't notice any symptoms on any of the fish. The only thing I can think of was the 4 that died were from 2 tanks at Petco and the rest were from 2 others, but from what I have heard from others on here, stores like Petco have 1 big filtration system so they would have all been exposed to the same water conditions. I'm going to continue to test my water daily & monitor the rest of the fish.

I'm not really familiar w/ any fish disease other than ich, but I didn't see any signs of that. Is there anything else I can test the water for other than PH, ammonia, nitrites & nitrates that could have possibly caused something?

I've had fish tanks for years & never experienced so many deaths in a short time after adding fish.

 

[Batt4Christ]

No way really for us to make any diagnosis - based on the information at hand, all we can do is speculate.

One thing I did notice -

You added pretty much the tank's capacity of fish/bio-load all at once. Your bio-filter may very well be almost cycled - but the initial ammo spike (while you were asleep) was handled after the fish had a lethal dose. It sometimes doesn't take such a high dose of ammonia to kill fish when they are stressed from moving/new tank/different water conditions, etc.

But then again - fish could have been sick to begin with and the stress of moving did them in.

And who knows what else might be going on...?

 

[geff.gardner]

I have a question about low nitrates. I was about to do my weekly water change & just tested everything in my tank. My ammonia & nitrites are at 0, and my nitrates are at around 5. I've been doing about 40% weekly changes and added a couple plants (not sure what kind but one of them is growing very big). I have a 16 gallon hig h& my stock is 3 albino cories, 5 zebra danios, 5 endlers, 2 ottos, 2 yellow & 3 blue mystery snails & 3 ghost shrimp. I thought with that big bio-load my nitrates would be much higer. Is it possible that the plants are taking in a lot of ammonia & nitrites and therefore creating less nitrates? What other explanation can there be for such small amounts of nitrates?

 

[jlk]

Your plants use the nitrates as a food source. They dont eliminate the need for regular water changes though to remove dissolved solids & restore your buffer levels.

 

[geff.gardner]

Thanks for the help!