Is this level of Ammonia safe for fish, or not? If not, how do I lower it?

[mandy2936]

Oh, I meant those guys were full of crap not you! Sorry for confusion dearest.

Oh good! I thought you were saying that I was. Phew, I was thinking "How rude..."

 

[JustOneMore20]

Well, to answer your questions, here's what I did.

I set up my tank, then a few days later I went on vacation, so I wasn't able to monitor the perimeters.
The tank was cycling for a total of 10 days without me testing it.
On day 11, I tested and my readings were: 0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and 20 Nitrate.
For the next two days my readings were the same.
On day 13 I had just learned that I need to add a source of Ammonia. So I added some fish flakes.
The next day, on day 14 (today) I vacuumed my tank, did a small water change, and noticed that my Nitrate dropped a little bit. After doing the small water change (2g out of 20) I tested for Ammonia and it was still 0.25

I will test for my Ammonia again tomorrow, if necessary.

Thanks for the help! You've been really helpful

During a fishless cycle (what you are doing) I wouldn't vacuum the gravel. You don't need to be lowering any of the parameters...you don't have fish yet. And the ammonia and nitrite will go up and then down during the cycle. Don't gravel vac or change the water until you are done. Leave the fish food in to decay and then vacuum up the remainder when the cycle is done. It could take weeks to cycle the tank. Patience is what you need right now.

You started cycling your tank on day 13...before that you weren't cycling. I would restart the counting...day 13 was actually day 1.

Keep adding the fish food and check your ammonia and nitrite every day to follow the cycle. Don't vacuum anything and don't change the water. You'll do all that when its done. Otherwise, its really a waste of time. You don't need to be lowering the levels right now.

Like they said above, you can get a raw shrimp from the seafood counter at your grocery store and use that. I would put it in part of pantyhose so it doesn't make a mess in the tank. If you are concerned about the mess that fish food will make, the shrimp idea might be a better one for you. You'd leave it in there and check your levels every day. Once your ammonia and nitrite are 0 (your nitrites will eventually go up and then down too), you are cycled and you can take out the pantyhose with the pieces of shrimp in it (it will decay).

 

[mandy2936]

Alright, thanks for the tips everyone.

Just curious, if I were to put fish in yesterday, would there be an ammonia spike? Would doing a water change save the fish and then basically I would have started a cycle with fish?

I am NOT planning on that, just wanted to know what would have happened to my fish if I didn't learn a few things on this forum.