crunchymama
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
We got a new tank on May 19th filled it on the 20th and started adding the liquid bacteria. What do we need to do next?
You should post your question in the "cycling" board. You will get more answers there. What bacteria did you use?
Feed it.
You should post your question in the "cycling" board. You will get more answers there. What bacteria did you use?
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Beneficial bacteria need ammonia to survive. It's what they eat. Toss some fish food in.
I don't know how much to add. Sorry. Some people use pure ammonia but that isn't always handy.
No need to panic, a fish-in cycle can be done. Research the fish-in cycling, it just requires extra water changes to keep fish safe and some patience (I have none, & I have done fish-in. Lol).
A fish-in cycle can be easier with a bigger tank because you have more water therefore it takes longer for the fish waste to build up to toxic levels. Water changes will reduce fish waste (ammonia and nitrites) to safe levels when they get high.
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Do you have seachem Prime, if so I would dose 3x the recommended dose(this is an emergency dose, wouldn't go higher) until your test kit arrives.
If you don't have prime do a 25%change because you really don't know where your at till you test, but you don't want to change all the water and cause the cycle to stall. If you're fish show signs of ammonia poisoning you can do another 25% water change every 4hrs. But again if you remove all ammonia you will stall the cycle.
Highly recommend getting prime as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrites to keep your fish safe.
I believe it only detoxifies 1ppm, the ammonia or nitrites still show up during testing but are safe. If they're higher than that do water changes to get them lower.
OK the test strips are not real accurate, and they're hard to read.
That being said I use them but mainly for gh&kh.
The .5 nitrites is a little high would do a change 50% water change should lower it to 0.25.
Not sure I would trust the results, because although possible I find it hard to believe you have 20 nitrates after 5 days. Most cycles take 4-6 weeks to finish and nitrates for mostly near the end. I used bacteria awhile back and cycle still took app. 3-4 weeks.
Would highly recommend getting the prime as anything over 0.25 ammonia or nitrites is extremely toxic long term for fish. 3-4days exposure can be deadly IMHO.
As I said earlier the amount of reduction in nitrites is proportional to amount of water you change (example 0.5,due 50% change and you should be at 0.25).
But since you're getting your test kit on Friday, 25%will be OK, you will probably be changing water every day or every other day until your tank completes its cycle.