Help again!!!! Please!

[KelsiDaisi]

Okay so tank stats.
I have a 30 gal hex tank
Stocked with.... 2 Angel fish, 1 German ram, and 11 rummy nose tettras.
Issue I'm having is I have been trying to do a fish in cycle thought I was good been testing every day for about a month adding stability all looked great. Got home today tested and my tank is all different!
OriginaIly it was
Ph of 7.8ppm
Ammonia was at .5PPM
NitRITE was at 0 (has never changed, that kinda worries me)
And nitRATE OF 5.0ppm
Now it's
Ph of 8.0!
Ammonia of 0
NitRITE of 0 still
NitRATE of 10ppm!!!!
What happened is this normal??!
Please help.

 

[Exigenn]

were any fish added recently? Thats a lot of fish for a fish in cycle IMO. I did 2 guppies on a 60 gallon o.o

 

[Coursair]

Make sure you are shaking liquid tests following directions.

Nitrate under 20ppm is fine. Ammonia is the killer. Keep it as close to zero as you can.

Test your tap water and then let tap water sit 24 hours and test again. See what tap PH is.

Most aquarium species are pretty adaptable about PH. You can lower it with Driftwood or Peat Moss. Just don't bounce your tank parameters around. Stable conditions are the best


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[KelsiDaisi]

I called my fish store people last night I guess what happened means my tank finished its cycle now all I have to do is keep an eye one it.(also did some digging last night and came to same conclusion) I have been working so hard at it in glad it worked now I just have a nano tank to cycle and I'm all good!!! ?

 

[KelsiDaisi]

Make sure you are shaking liquid tests following directions.

Nitrate under 20ppm is fine. Ammonia is the killer. Keep it as close to zero as you can.

Test your tap water and then let tap water sit 24 hours and test again. See what tap PH is.

Most aquarium species are pretty adaptable about PH. You can lower it with Driftwood or Peat Moss. Just don't bounce your tank parameters around. Stable conditions are the best


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The weird thing about my liquid tests is only one calls for me to shake the bottle before use... and that's my Nitrate #2 bottle. I know I need to shake the test tubes on some and flip others but I'm hoping my fish guy was right I'm going to stop adding Stability and test every day for about a week before I cut down to once a week then to once every other week.

 

[KelsiDaisi]

Now how about cycling a 2.5 gal tank with Stability lol It starts with ever 5 gals mine holding tank is smaller than that...

 

[Coursair]

To start a new tank you can seed the filter with used filter media from cycled tank.


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[KelsiDaisi]

I was reading about that wondering if i just drop some in where my filter is or what... have you done this?

 

[Coursair]

My new filter was put on a friends tank. Her tank had been up for years. It ran for a month. She did put some used media in it. So my 55g was cycled instantly as soon as we added my seeded filter. My plants also had BB on them.

You can get used filter pad...keep it wet...and put into your filter. Or if it won't fit the second best choice is to squeeze a used filter pad over your filter.


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[Coursair]

I still did water tests and add fish gradually. I added 8 Neons this week.
I hope to add 4 more Corydoras sterbai on Friday


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[KelsiDaisi]

And that should cycle it instantly? man it took me a month and a half to get it done with seachem. But no the filter won't fit because my cycled tank it a 30 gal and the uncycled is a 2.5 gal betta tank. I did take a plant from my 30 gal and put it in the 2.5gal with straight reverse osmosis water. So how much would i need to squeeze over it and is it the water that comes out that i need or the actual stuff on the filter. Plue do you know how ofter i should be changing my filter in the tanks? Thank you!

 

[libertybelle]

And that should cycle it instantly? man it took me a month and a half to get it done with seachem. But no the filter won't fit because my cycled tank it a 30 gal and the uncycled is a 2.5 gal betta tank. I did take a plant from my 30 gal and put it in the 2.5gal with straight reverse osmosis water. So how much would i need to squeeze over it and is it the water that comes out that i need or the actual stuff on the filter. Plue do you know how ofter i should be changing my filter in the tanks? Thank you!

ideally, take some of the filter media (a piece of the sponge or something) from the larger tank and put it in the filter of the newer tank. That will probably be an instant cycle, but test anyway to be sure. You can get some beneficial bacteria from squeezing out the sponge on the filter, but probably not enough for an instant cycle.

Again, ideally you should not use disposable cartridges as your entire filter media source. Otherwise every time you change it you lose your cycle.

You're going to remineralize the RO water right? Because fish can't live in straight RO water.

 

[KelsiDaisi]

No...I didnt know I needed to?! a guys at the pet store said straight ro water is perfect for fish...it was at a chain place I should have never listened obviously.... ugh

 

[KelsiDaisi]

it has rocks and a few plants in it will that help with minerals?

 

[Coursair]

it has rocks and a few plants in it will that help with minerals?

Not enough. Seachem Equlibrium will help.
Or do water changes with temperature matched tapwater just make sure you put Prime or another conditioner in it before it goes in your tank.


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[libertybelle]

No...I didnt know I needed to?! a guys at the pet store said straight ro water is perfect for fish...it was at a chain place I should have never listened obviously.... ugh

Yeah, RO water can be good for certain sensitive species because you can basically have pure water and you put back in only what you need, but if you put fish in pure water without any minerals they will experience severe osmotic stress. Unless there is some problem with your tap water you can just go with dechlor treated tap. Like Coursair said, if you want to use RO you will need to pick up some equilibrium to add minerals back to the water to the right concentration.