cycle

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

danielfish

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 10, 2012
Messages
15
Location
essex
just done ammonia test yesterday and it was a weak yellow bout 1.2/2.4 did a 25% water change tested again today and still round 1.2/2.4 So did and another 25% change but still reading around 1.2/2.4 plus add nutrafin cycle.Should i do another water change or test again tomorrow.
 
just done ammonia test yesterday and it was a weak yellow bout 1.2/2.4 did a 25% water change tested again today and still round 1.2/2.4 So did and another 25% change but still reading around 1.2/2.4 plus add nutrafin cycle.Should i do another water change or test again tomorrow.

What test kit are you using? I use the API Master kit, a weak yellow on mine means no ammonia, slight green is .25, darker green is .5 and so on. Do you have fish in your tank? If so, definitely do a water change & go bigger, 50%+. You want that ammonia as close to 0 as possible. Have you ever tested your tap water? How big is the tank? How long has it been running?
 
hi

had tank for 4weeks,7 mollies an fry.Did 25% yesterday and 25% today.test kit im useing is nutrafin test ammonia and test strips.should i do another change again as have done 25% today and 25% yesterday.
 
had tank for 4weeks,7 mollies an fry.Did 25% yesterday and 25% today.test kit im useing is nutrafin test ammonia and test strips.should i do another change again as have done 25% today and 25% yesterday.

If possible I would invest in a total liquid test, the strips are not very accurate. I would do a 50% water change, wait an hour or so then retest, if the ammonia is still above .25 I'd do another water change. Are you using a water conditioner? Most of us use Prime which detoxifies the water for 24 hrs or so which helps keep the fish safe. One of my tanks took 8 wks to completely cycle, I did a 50% +/- water change every 2-3 days with multiple changes in the same day a couple of times. I tested the water daily & let that be my guide on doing water changes.
 
hi

Just tested it down to 0.6 so just done another 10% water change.Will test again in the hour.All together done bout 65% water change now.thank you for help.
 
Glad it's going down. I usually just did 50% so I could avoid the mutlitple water changes & the larger water changes don't hurt the cycling process, just an FYI for the future. ;-)
 
ammonia has spiked and now has gone down to reading bout 0 now nitrate and nitrite have started to rise to around 5 doing 25% 2times now to day does this mean im nearly at end of cycle.:fish1:
 
danielfish said:
ammonia has spiked and now has gone down to reading bout 0 now nitrate and nitrite have started to rise to around 5 doing 25% 2times now to day does this mean im nearly at end of cycle.:fish1:

I was in your position up until a week ago (long story) and I can say with absolute certainty that water changes and accurate testing are the most crucial parts of the fish in cycle. So:
1: Get yourself a liquid test kit, I personally prefer the API master test kit. The colours seem far easier to distinguish in my opinion. The nutrafin ammo test in particular i found almost impossible to use, there's such a slight change in colour from 0-0.6ppm I found it impossible to accurately determine the level, API's kit shows vivid yellow at 0 changing to green at 0.25ppm, but each to their own.
2: If you have to, don't be afraid of doing a 90% change, I did. As long as you match temp and pH (and obviously dechlorinate) it will be far less stressful to your fish than enduring long periods in toxic water.
I found that it was a difficult balancing act, on one hand wanting to cycle as quickly as possible, on the other wanting to keep ammo & nitrite as low as possible for my fish's comfort.
I aimed to pwc as soon as levels hit 0.25ppm on either ammo or nitrite, sometimes it didn't work out that way and levels had hit 0.5 or even 1.0ppm on testing so I changed water to bring levels back down below 0.25.
If your nitrite is testing at 5ppm (did you mean 0.5ppm??? 5ppm nitrAte is fine but nitrIte is toxic!) you need to do some serious water changing to avoid stressing your fish and bring it back down below 0.25ppm and bear in mind that if yr level is 5ppm a 25% pwc will still leave your nitrite at around 3.75ppm (your pwc volume % will reduce yr levels by the same %)
Finally, not meaning to be the bearer of bad news but nutrafin cycle contains bacteria that may not sustain itself indefinitely which is why it directs you to re-dose regularly. I used tetra safestart to speed my cycle along, and it worked fantastically, both in speeding the process up and preventing dramatic toxin spikes and the bacteria it contains are proven to sustain themselves successfully long term. When I was looking for advice on my problematic cycle the vast majority of advice I received indicated that safestart and Dr Tims one and only are the only two bottled bacteria products worth considering, although people's experiences inevitably vary and what works for one won't necessarily work for another.
Hope I haven't bombarded you with too much all at once!
Hope yr cycle ends soon
 
+1 on api liquid test kit. It's the most affordably accurate, user friendly test out there. If you purchase one just follow directions to the letter, especially with the No3 test.
 
Back
Top Bottom