Blueiz
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I think meegosh explained it a bit better than I did .
I added two fish to my uncycled 10 gal two weeks ago and just lost the second one. should I start adding pure ammonia to finish the cycle?? please help!
I agree with HN1, if you have fish in there... I understood it that you lost both fish, in which case, yes, you will need to add ammonia.I added two fish to my uncycled 10 gal two weeks ago and just lost the second one. should I start adding pure ammonia to finish the cycle?? please help!
I wanted to start our 75 gallon "fishless"; but I allowed the owner of our neighborhood fish store to convince me otherwise. I lost 5 out of 11 fish (zebra danios, and one porkchop rasbora). They had a home-concocted water treatment formula which he assured me would "cycle the tank in a few days", which, of course, it did not. After the 5th fish death (the first 4 were zebras, the 5th fish a rasbora), and the ammonia level dropping to 0 but the nitrite level stuck on a very high 1.6 for nearly two weeks, I purchased an 8.45 ml bottle of Tetra SafeStart (formerly "BIO-Spira"). Since then, I have had no fish deaths and after the third day, the nitrite level has remained at 0 for 2 weeks now.
I would never do a start-up using fish, again; if someone is going to use fish to cycle, I would advise them to start with 3 (or even less) danios, and to be extremely patient. It goes without saying that having a very good testing kit and using it often is essential.
And, unfortunately, the most sobering advice I can give you is this: be prepared to defend your knowledge and your philosophy to your local tropical fish salesperson, as that person might have a contradictory philosophy or agenda which might be contrary to your own. My "guy" knew I wanted to perform a "fishless" start-up cycle, but I allowed his expertise to sway my decision, which I now regret. But hopefully, someone will learn from my mistake(s).