Question on cycling and qty of currentfish(long post, sorry)

[pentiumburner]

Hi all,

I have a 40 gal FW tank (artificial plants) that has been set up now since 11-20-04, I added fish at 2 week increments (should have waited longer) so that at the moment I have the following:

1 Opaline Gourami>4 Cory Cats>2 Bala sharks>1 male Betta>1 Female Betta.

I know eventually the sharks can get 10" but by that time I will have a 100-150 gallon FW tank.

What I am concerned about is that my ammonia never seems to go away. I definitely do not over feed and I do have what seems to be a cycling taking place.

My latest water tests were:

ph-7.4 Ammonia 1.0 (I know it's high) Nitrate 0.40 and Nitrite 0.25

I have been doing every other day 20% water changes to try to get the ammonia to zero and to help the Nitrates but even after the change the ammonia stills seems to hover around 1.0 and the Nitrates change little if any.

Should I do a 1/2 water change? or what is suggested. I have considered spiro-bira but the tanks seems to have started to cycle after the new fish were added, I had tried a fishless cycle up to that point using non sudsing non fragrance household ammonia.

The tank is currently being filtered by an Eheim 2215 with the carbon still in place. I know this may be overkill but I have always over filtered my tanks.

Thanks in advance
P.B.

 

[FishLover14]

Was your tank cycled before you put fish in it. My guess is the tank wasnt cycled and the bacteria colonies are just now starting to grow. The water changes are actually probably keeping the ammonio and nitrites down. Where the readings before you put the fish in Ammonio 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate Anywhere on the charts?

Dan

 

[pentiumburner]

Hi Dan,

There was a slight Nitrate reading before I put fish in and Ammonia was at zero, that's why I was assuming the cycle, I could of been wrong. This tanbk doesn't seem overstocked to you does it?

Thanks for the reply

 

[FishLover14]

No not at the time but the bala sharks will get big. Was your nitrite zero too? If both readings were zero it was cycled. Hmmmmm post back and we will go from their.
Dan

 

[pentiumburner]

Yes it was, at the moment though it's at 0.25