Wife put fish in tank while it was cycling

[honeymonster]

I need some advice, i have just bought my first major aquarium in over 7 years, i know about cycling the tank but unfortunatly i told my wife the nak was ready and she mistook it meaning that fish could be put in. Now my wife has 10 fish in there and the tank has only been cycling for 24 1/2 days, i was able to put some new filter material in my friends tank since thursday and i added that material today to help im hoping that bacteria had grew and can help.

I have tested the water and got the following readings

Ammonia - 1.0ppm
Nitrites - 0.0ppm
Nitrates - 5.0ppm

Tank Stats
-------------------
Size of Tank (Gallons / Litres): 35
Running for how long: 4 days

Water Params
-------------------
Temp: 81
pH: 7.2
Ammonia (ppm): 1.0
NitrIte (ppm): nil
NitrAte (ppm): 5.0
Water-change Schedule: Unknown
Water-change Amount: Unknown
Any Water Additives: None

What fish are in the tank, length, age, etc.
-------------------
We have 3 emporer tetras, 3 black skirt tetra's, a dwarf blue, 2 fire red, 1 pearl gourami & a gold nugget pleco,

 

[Jchillin]

If you can, try to return the gouramies and the pleco. The tank is definitely not ready for them.

You will have to do PWC's constantly to keep your levels at or below 2ppm until the tank cycles. The tetras are hardy and shouldn't have any problems if done correctly.

 

[honeymonster]

Unfortunatly i think i may have lost a tetra already. Returning the other fish isnt really an option as the store will only take fish back if the water was perfect. I think I will do PWC's every day and see how that goes

 

[Pufferpunk]

Get some Bio-Spira as soon as possible. Do an 80% water change before adding it directly to your filter. Your tank will be cycled instantly.

 

[TomK2]

Welcome to AA.

Biospira is not a bad idea. Or like you know, water changes daily and lots of hope. Sparse feeding helps. I don't think your filter material will have been seeded well in 4 days. Beg, borrow , or steal SOME of your friends mature filter material to add to your filter. Of course, leave some behind for his fish. 8O Ask for about 25% of his bio-media. Buy him new stuff to take its place. His mature tank won't miss 25%. This can cut your cycle waaaay down, and maybe save more than a few of your fish.

 

[hashbaz]

Hey! - another Utahn

You have been fishless cycling for 24 1/2 days and have 5ppm nitrAtes. That sounds to me like you are close to done cycling. What does everyone else think?

I would suggest sparse feeding - That alone might be enough to get your ammonia down. If not... ???

 

[RoK]

I think honeymonster may have meant 24 1/2 hours? That's my guess because under "Tank Stats" it says it's only been running for 4 days. :|

 

[Andos99]

Why the heck did your wife dump a bunch of fish in the tank without consulting you first? Thats my concern.

 

[TomK2]

I think he meant 4 1/2 days, and the 2 got typo'd in front of the 4 1/2. I think he told his wife the tank was "ready" ( for cycling), meaning, all systems were up and running, and the wife thought Great! and went out and bought fish. If he can get a good chunk of mature biomedia from his friend he will be ok. Or Biospira. He never really mentioned how he planned on cycling the tank. Looks like it's with fish now.

 

[Pufferpunk]

If he's been cycling w/ammonia, those fish are in trouble.

 

[Zezmo]

I was rating TomK2's website, and he has a nice article about understanding test kits. Below is an except from the article, that talks about how Amquel works. It seems that you can have some in your tank, and as the ammonia is produced it will bind with the free Amquel in the water. This won't help your tank cycle, but it may keep them from dieing of ammonia poisoning.

AmQuel
The active ingredient in AmQuel is known chemically as sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate:
HOCH2SO3Na.
The hydroxymethane- end of the molecule (HOCH2) reacts with ammonia to form a non-toxic, stable water-soluble
substance which is acted upon by the bacteria in biological filtration. This reaction effectively removes the toxic ammonia from solution. Even in water of low pH (<7.0), the above reaction proceeds to completion. This is because even at pH’s below 7.0, there is always some "free" ammonia (NH3) and the AmQuel will scavenge it from the water. This

is why AmQuel works faster at higher pH's and in saline waters, since a higher percentage of the ammonia is in the NH3 state. The substance formed is stable, and testing has shown that even in an aquarium or pond without a biological filter, the ammonia is not released back into the water. Also, unreacted AmQuel is stable, and unless removed with water changes or granular activated carbon, it will be available to react with ammonia until it is exhausted in the water to which it was added. Excess AmQuel can be added to the water to act at a later date without adverse effects on the fish or invertebrates.
The sulfanate end (SO3) of the Amquel molecule reacts with both free-available chlorine, know properly as hypochlorites, and combined -available chlorine (chloramines). In the first instance, nothing more than harmless chloride ions are produced, and in the latter instance chloride ions are formed and the freed ammonia instantly reacts with the hydroxyl-methane end of the molecule.