water change?

[sarahsunshine]

I have been cycling my 20g tall for about 6 weeks and it's just finishing (I hope). Nitrites are decreasing and staying below 0.3ppm.

I have 3 goldfish in my tank and I've had to do daily 80% water changes (sometimes more) just to try to get it below 0.3ppm. Some days (I hate to admit), I gave up after 3 changes a couple hours apart and it was still above 0.3ppm. My fish, though, have survived and are REALLY happy now that I have a new filter as well.

Yes, water changes are just water, but make sure the water is treated with conditioner if you are on chlorinated water. I lost a bunch of fish earlier because of chlorine too!

 

[ahollland92690]

well its been a couple months and i still have a heck of alot of ammonia, i do water changes like atleast once aday...im not understanding why my ammonia wont go down, and now everything is still kinda high (nitrates, nitrites) im not sure this tank will ever finish cycling? or what ever is going on right now.

 

[sarahsunshine]

Others should be along shortly... I'm no expert, but here are some suggestions in the meantime:

- Do you still have one fish and snails? Are they eating all the food that you give them? Waste food would increase ammonia.

- Is there any chance you could have stalled the cycle sometime by accidentally not putting dechlorinated water in? If that happened you may have restarted the cycle.

- How high is ammonia? If you decrease it to 0 through lots of water changes, how quickly does it rise again? If you have nitrates, it suggests that you have bacteria to complete the cycle. Could it be that the Ammonia and nitrItes are simply still there?

- Could there be something dead in your tank that is increasing your ammonia more than your bacteria can deal with? Do a thorough search and remove it if you can...

Good luck! You should be close!

I hope someone less newbyish comes along soon!

 

[sieski]

To keep your little friends healthy then yes, you really should do partial changes everyday while cycling. Only use dechlor to treat the water, and dose for the size of tank, not how much you're changing.

Unless you put your water in a bucket and treat the volume of water i the bucket then add.....

 

[sieski]

Others should be along shortly... I'm no expert, but here are some suggestions in the meantime:

- Do you still have one fish and snails? Are they eating all the food that you give them? Waste food would increase ammonia.

- Is there any chance you could have stalled the cycle sometime by accidentally not putting dechlorinated water in? If that happened you may have restarted the cycle.

- How high is ammonia? If you decrease it to 0 through lots of water changes, how quickly does it rise again? If you have nitrates, it suggests that you have bacteria to complete the cycle. Could it be that the Ammonia and nitrItes are simply still there?

- Could there be something dead in your tank that is increasing your ammonia more than your bacteria can deal with? Do a thorough search and remove it if you can...

Good luck! You should be close!

I hope someone less newbyish comes along soon!

+1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[ahollland92690]

i do still have my fish and snails. im about to give my fish to my boyfriend to put in his tank because he says goldfish r very dirty fish and that could be that cause of my ammonia...
-i always put a dechlorinator in but i measure how much by how much water im putting back in, i start measure for 26gal instead.
- the ammonia ranges from .50 ppm and 2ppm, it does go to zero right after a water change but then by that night/ next morning ammonia is up again.
-i dont feed my small comet fish enough for the food to be a problem, im sure of that
-every now and then i see a nitrite spike and the nitrates dont change a whole lot (round 0 ppm)
-nothing is dead in my tank
- i do have these itty bitty snails that have shown up, theres like 2 r 3 but i heard that they were not a problem that it was ok to have them, and then i asked if my snails could have babies? lol

thats about all thats going on with my tank

 

[sieski]

i do still have my fish and snails. im about to give my fish to my boyfriend to put in his tank because he says goldfish r very dirty fish and that could be that cause of my ammonia...
-i always put a dechlorinator in but i measure how much by how much water im putting back in, i start measure for 26gal instead.
- the ammonia ranges from .50 ppm and 2ppm, it does go to zero right after a water change but then by that night/ next morning ammonia is up again.
-i dont feed my small comet fish enough for the food to be a problem, im sure of that
-every now and then i see a nitrite spike and the nitrates dont change a whole lot (round 0 ppm)
-nothing is dead in my tank
- i do have these itty bitty snails that have shown up, theres like 2 r 3 but i heard that they were not a problem that it was ok to have them, and then i asked if my snails could have babies? lol

thats about all thats going on with my tank

If you put the dechlor in the bucket you only have to treat for the amount of the bucket not the volume of the tank

 

[ahollland92690]

o well c thats what iv been doing, i have a big bucket and how ever much i take out, and put back in is the only amount that i treat with dechlorinator...i thought above it said to treat for 26gal no matter what...misunderstanding

 

[sieski]

o well c thats what iv been doing, i have a big bucket and how ever much i take out, and put back in is the only amount that i treat with dechlorinator...i thought above it said to treat for 26gal no matter what...misunderstanding

Well when i first started and used here i was confused so I asked outright. And it was treat the tank voluume if adding tap water straight to tank or treat it in the bucket for the volume of the bucket then the tank

 

[dkpate]

I treat the entire volume of the tank when I do a pwc, like I was told to do on here.
And yes, snails have babies! I have many little babies now in my tank after about a month. Every day I find more and more of the little guys. They will keep having babies as long as they have something to eat. I heard that if you overfeed, you will get TONS of them.

 

[mfdrookie516]

for the dechlor, its really a matter of personal opinion. I use a python, so i treat the volume of the water... if you use a bucket, there is no need to dechlorinate water that is already dechlorinated, so no point in using enough for the whole tank. If youre using dechlor that has additives, like stress coat, you would want to treat the whole tank, and if you were trying to ease the ammonia or nitrites in the tank, then adding prime to the whole volume of the tank would be best as well... and as for the snails, depends on what kind they are... also depends on the water level. mts will reproduce as long as they have a food source (yay, i finally have some babies ), some of the others like mystery snails arent as likely to reproduce unless you keep the water level around 1-2" from the top (if i remember correctly). Either way, snails are awesome. some people dont like them, usually pond snails that people dont like, but i like them and think they are a cool addition to 'ALMOST' any tank

 

[sieski]

I treat the entire volume of the tank when I do a pwc, like I was told to do on here.
And yes, snails have babies! I have many little babies now in my tank after about a month. Every day I find more and more of the little guys. They will keep having babies as long as they have something to eat. I heard that if you overfeed, you will get TONS of them.

but I presume you add the water straight from the tap (faucet) to the tank and treat the tank? If you treat in the bucket you only have to treat the amount of water you put in the bucket.

 

[dkpate]

No, I treat the entire tank when I use a bucket to fill my 20G and when I use the siphon the fill the 75G. With my betta tanks, I only treat the 5G of water because they are more sensitive to chemicals than the fish in the 20G.

 

[ahollland92690]

some of the others like mystery snails arent as likely to reproduce unless you keep the water level around 1-2" from the top (if i remember correctly). Either way, snails are awesome. some people dont like them, usually pond snails that people dont like, but i like them and think they are a cool addition to 'ALMOST' any tank

ya i keep my water about an inch from the top, i dont fill it all the way

 

[mfdrookie516]

its possible, but you should have seen egg sacks on the glass... i saw some once, but my fish ate them before they could become little snails lol...