Nitrite stall....

[Kat1103]

UPDATE: stil having problems with Nitrite spikes. Yesterday I made a far drive to a fish shop that specializes in cichlids and african fishes. They tested my water and gave me some advice:

1. They told me to take out most of the gravel in my tank. I should only leave a small layer less than 1/2 inch (while cycling)
2. Feed fish every other day while cycling (if you have fish)
3. They also were nice enough to give me an old filter.
4. They said do not do water changes bigger than 20% a day during cycling. And they prefer I don't even do it daily.
5. Add salt for the fish to prevent stress.

I started all of these steps this morning. I hope these tips work because everything else I have tried has failed in my case. Thought I would share the advice. Maybe this could help someone else as well. Any thoughts are welcome. In the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[eco23]

UPDATE: stil having problems with Nitrite spikes. Yesterday I made a far drive to a fish shop that specializes in cichlids and african fishes. They tested my water and gave me some advice:

1. They told me to take out most of the gravel in my tank. I should only leave a small layer less than 1/2 inch (while cycling)
2. Feed fish every other day while cycling (if you have fish)
3. They also were nice enough to give me an old filter.
4. They said do not do water changes bigger than 20% a day during cycling. And they prefer I don't even do it daily.
5. Add salt for the fish to prevent stress.

I started all of these steps this morning. I hope these tips work because everything else I have tried has failed in my case. Thought I would share the advice. Maybe this could help someone else as well. Any thoughts are welcome. In the meantime, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I could be wrong, but some of that advice is not only insane but blatantly wrong.

Although the filter holds most of the bacteria, there is also a ton in the gravel. Removing it is just taking a bunch of the healthy bacteria and throwing it in the trash.

I do agree about feeding the fish as sparingly as possible.

Great they gave you a filter...stuff that thing in with your newer one!

The PWC's are absolutely mandatory! With the way your levels are it's gonna be the end of the road for fishies without them.

Sounds like the LFS doesn't know what they're talking about...what a surprise.

 

[Kat1103]

they've been in business forever.....and they have hundreds of great looking tanks and healthy fish that's why I thought they might know something. but honestly I've gotten nothing but mixed information from everyone and nothing has worked and this was something different that's why I posted their advice. Thanks for all your advice too. hopefully I can get this figured out!

 

[eco23]

Hopefully others will chime in and give another opinion, but not doing pwc's and throwing away your substrate sounds to me like the worst possible thing to do. If you had posted a thread called "How can I kill my fish during a cycle?", I would tell you to stop doing pwc's and throw away as much stuff with bacteria as possible. In principle, it just doesn't make sense. I'm sure the people at the LFS are nice, but a successful store is not the same as a knowledgable and honest store. They're obviously good business people, and that means people have to buy fish from them... No matter what happened to the fish they're replacing. Just stay on top of the pwc's and things will be fine.

 

[Kat1103]

Just wanted to give an update on my cycling progress. I think I'm almost cycled! I guess cutting down on water changes has helped. Anyways my nitrite has been dropping last few days. This whole cycling process has taken over a month (probably around 5-6 weeks or so). So here are my readings this morning:
PH 8.0
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 20ppm

And, yes I gave away the danios to the neighbor who used them as feeder fish for his oscar (hey at least they didn't go to waste!). When I get my first few fish I will post pics. I'm planning on some yellow labs.