Fish in cycling

[KelsiDaisi]

Hey everybody, so I have decided to try cycling my tank see as how I failed to do it when I got it... So now the fun begins with doing it with 1. 4 fish and 2. live plants. I have been using Seachem Stability for 5 days now... Im not really sure if its working...My ammonia nitrAte and ph levels are moving in little bits but for some reason my nitrIte is not changing staying at 0! Anybody have an idea as to why and maybe what I can do to fix this?? Im trying to get it to balance and also my ammonia has jumped back up again and Im at a loss PLEASE HELP!
I also have kept my tank light off for 5 days now hoping that wont kill my plants

 

[libertybelle]

please include as much information as you can about your tank set up. How big, what kind of fish, what kind of filtrations, the numerical results of your tests etc etc.

why are you keeping your lights off?

 

[KelsiDaisi]

I have a 28gal hex. tank.
I have 2 angelfish, 1 kribensis, and 1 goldfish. (both krib and goldfish are being traded this weekend)
I have the light off because it say I need to turn off uv lights while doing the 8 day cycle.
my records for so far are as follows.
Day 1:
High ph of 8.2
ammonia of 8.0
nitRITE of 0
nitRATE of 0
Day 2:
High ph of 8.2
ammonia of 4.0
nitRITE of 0
nitRATE of 0
Day 3:
High ph of 8.0
ammonia of 4.0
nitRITE of 0
nitRATE of 5.0
Day 4:
High ph of 8.2
ammonia of 4.0
nitRITE of 0
nitRATE of 5.0
Thank you!!

 

[libertybelle]

UV lights refers to a UV sterilizer. Make sure your plants aren't dying that will only add to the ammonia. I'm glad you realize that the goldfish and krib aren't ideal for that tank. That's a lot of ammonia.... How big are the fish right now?

Because you are cycling with fish you need to be doing water changes to keep the ammonia down. What dechlorination product do you use. You should be using something like prime which will detoxify the ammonia while your biological filter is being built up.

How are you testing, are those results from a liquid test kit like API?

 

[KelsiDaisi]

UV lights refers to a UV sterilizer. Make sure your plants aren't dying that will only add to the ammonia. I'm glad you realize that the goldfish and krib aren't ideal for that tank. That's a lot of ammonia.... How big are the fish right now?

Because you are cycling with fish you need to be doing water changes to keep the ammonia down. What dechlorination product do you use. You should be using something like prime which will detoxify the ammonia while your biological filter is being built up.

How are you testing, are those results from a liquid test kit like API?

I currently have not done a water change yet because of the fact we just had a company come and dump chlorine in our well due to bacteria. In nefarious to use it. Plus how much would I need to do and how often? And Should it be before I add stability? So I also do not have a declohrinator because normally there is none in my water. I use a liquid test kit. And my andgels are about half dollar size, the krib is about 1in. And the golfish is about 3in.
Does that mean this whole time my light could have been on?! Ugh this is hard.

 

[libertybelle]

yeah basically you are cycling with fish in the tank without water changes. That means high ammonia and fish loss if you don't do something about it.

If you are sure that it is chlorine that they added and not chloramine you can set water out for 24 hours and the chlorine will dissipate. Presumptively the chlorine will dissipate from the well also but it may take longer because it wont be in the light and has a lower surface area than just a bucket.

If you have access to it, getting a dechlor product that also acts to neutralize ammonia would help immensely. You can but very small bottles of prime at most pet stores for a few bucks

 

[libertybelle]

and yes, there's no reason your lights couldn't have been on. Healthy plants could actually help use up some of the ammonia. If any are dying they should be removed though.

 

[KelsiDaisi]

Thank you! Your awesome I'm gonna leave a couple gallons of water out today and switch water tomorrow thank you again! Going to pet store on Thursday I hope all of them make it till then.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Reiterating what was said above,

During a fish in cycle you must be doing water changes to protect the fish you have in there.

Seachem Prime is the top choice by many on here including myself as the best water conditioner on the market. As well as dechlorinate, it also neutralizes ammonia into what's known as "ammonium". Ammonium is a non toxic form of ammonia. The ammonia will stay this way for 24 hours before reverting back to the toxic form. The most important thing to remember is, your test kit will still read ammonium as ammonia on the test. So if you neutralized 4ppm ammonia into ammonium, your test results will still show 4ppm ammonia.


Caleb

 

[libertybelle]

keep in mind the 24 hour wait time only works if what they put in your tank was chlorine. If it's chloramine it won't dissipate in that time and you need a water conditioner.

You could probably call the company and ask if you're not sure.

Ditto on the prime. It's the best!

 

[Deltafishin]

If your not sure about the chlorine in your well some OTO found in the pool supplies at a hardware store will help you identify. If you get a chlorine hit the you'll want to dechlorinate

 

[KelsiDaisi]

I did do a water change last night about 75% it greatly changed my levels!! I bought Aqueon Water Conditioner it had high reviews and my pet store didnt have Prime
Im now at:
ph-7.8
ammonia-1.0
mitRITE-0
nitRATE-0

are the good numbers?? I see that the ph is still a little high and that both no2 and no3 dropped to 0 is that good?

 

[Eggheadfish]

Don't worry about the ph so much for now.
What you're looking for is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and less than 20 nitrate.
Once the beneficial bacteria start to establish you should see ammonia come down and nitrite climb. When nitrite and ammonia come back down to 0 and nitrates are present the tank is fully cycled....but the process will take a few weeks. Keep testing and doing water changes to reduce the levels of ammonia and nitrite present in the tank.

 

[KelsiDaisi]

should I continue to use the Aqueon and the Stability for a few weeks?

 

[Eggheadfish]

The aqueon should be used with every water change
The stability I can't speak for I've always used seeded media from other tanks so I'm no help there, sorry

 

[Deltafishin]

Seachems directions for stability is one Cap full on initial cycle start and a half a cap per day for 7 days and then a half a cap per water change.

I would read the directions on the bottle.