Tank cycled but.....

[KevinB]

Okay, tank appears cycled now.

After 5 days since last water change I have the tiniest trace of Nitrite. 5 days ago, I had test of 7/0/0/25 after WC, now I have 7/0/0/.05?/50.

This brings me to my question. That's 150 ppm/month of Nitrate for one 6" goldfish. What is normal rate you would expect??

This fish was in a 10 gallon aquarium 4 months ago in which my wife did 1 WC a month (50%) for 12 years. We can manage only a 1/3 WC in this 40 gal. Just due to the storage of the water with the conditioner in it.

Kevin

 

[Mebbid]

There's no need to store conditioned water for a water change. The water conditioner works instantly so you can just pour it in. I personally use a python that siphons water directly into the sink from the tank and then I can fill the tank straight from the tap. I just dose the entire volume of the tank with prime and call it good.

 

[KevinB]

thanks, didn't realize you could fill from TAP, and ad conditioner to tank. I thought it had to be done before water was put in tank.

The other reason we conditioned water was to insure temperature equilibrium, but suppose we could take temp of tap and adjust it.

Kevin

 

[Mebbid]

thanks, didn't realize you could fill from TAP, and ad conditioner to tank. I thought it had to be done before water was put in tank.

The other reason we conditioned water was to insure temperature equilibrium, but suppose we could take temp of tap and adjust it.

Kevin

Yeppers, that's how everyone with bigger tanks do it. I couldn't imagine trying to do a 50% change on a 125g with buckets.

 

[KevinB]

I suppose you have to add the conditioner first?

 

[NigelK8485]

You can add the conditioner for the whole volume of the tank either right before adding tap water or during. Some people even add it after putting in all the water.


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[ImACoolguy]

I have been using buckets for a while now. This is realllllly going to help with water changes now that I can go straight from the tap.


Caleb

Might have a slight obsession with my fish

 

[evil Nick]

I was wondering this today. I use a python to siphon but still insisted on filling with a bucket. I am pretty good at telling temp by touch so I was wondering if I could just add the conditioners while filling.

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[Angela1108]

You can add it at the beginning or during. Just make sure like they mentioned that you dose for the whole tank.


We also have a python and add it after a minute of standing there double checking water temp then kind of let it go with occasional temp checks by feel. (We live in an apartment so we probably over worry the temp change thing)


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[friscuba]

On the issue with conditioning stored water vs. conditioning new water. Here's what I did for years in my aquarium shop I owned back in the 80's/90's:


Tapwater as close to temp as possible for most fish, into a clean feeder goldfish bag (the big ones feeders come in by the 1000's when they're shipped to the store) that is hanging in the tank. While the water in the bag and the tank water slowly equalize, add your prime. I used to do 80-85% water changes the day before fish shipments every week in my freshwater tanks, didn't want to stress the fish by dumping in off-temperature water. Just fill the bag, let it float, add your chemicals, dump a little out every few minutes after a fifteen minute wait. Worked like a charm for years. The place I worked for before I owned my store used to do straight cold water into a bag in all their tanks, I felt they were having some ich issues the next day because the tanks would lose temp when 50 degree water was going into the bag, adding water close to temp by touch usually gets you real close and the bag lets any temperature change occur slowly rather than at once.


You do end up having to store a messy wet bag between water changes, that's about the only drawback.


You can probably put about 15-20 gallons of water into a decent sized feeder goldfish bag, or styro packing bag, that you can bum off a store.

 

[Mebbid]

On the issue with conditioning stored water vs. conditioning new water. Here's what I did for years in my aquarium shop I owned back in the 80's/90's:


Tapwater as close to temp as possible for most fish, into a clean feeder goldfish bag (the big ones feeders come in by the 1000's when they're shipped to the store) that is hanging in the tank. While the water in the bag and the tank water slowly equalize, add your prime. I used to do 80-85% water changes the day before fish shipments every week in my freshwater tanks, didn't want to stress the fish by dumping in off-temperature water. Just fill the bag, let it float, add your chemicals, dump a little out every few minutes after a fifteen minute wait. Worked like a charm for years. The place I worked for before I owned my store used to do straight cold water into a bag in all their tanks, I felt they were having some ich issues the next day because the tanks would lose temp when 50 degree water was going into the bag, adding water close to temp by touch usually gets you real close and the bag lets any temperature change occur slowly rather than at once.


You do end up having to store a messy wet bag between water changes, that's about the only drawback.


You can probably put about 15-20 gallons of water into a decent sized feeder goldfish bag, or styro packing bag, that you can bum off a store.

That just sounds like too much work tbh.

Fish in the wild naturally get fairly rapid small changes of temperature from things such as rainfall. In fact, adding cooler water to simulate that effect is used for quite a few species of fish to get them to breed.

In my tank, I adjust the water from the tap according to touch and then pump it back in through the python. The fish play in the stream of water so it can't be stressing them out too much.

 

[friscuba]

To touch is probably close enough. Not sure how many degrees is off enough to throw them into shock enough to get their resistance down. I can do a 50% wc in my 40 pretty darned fast. 4 five gallon buckets of water from the tub and I've refilled my tank in about 5-6 minutes. The rest is waiting for a bit to remove the bag. It was a bigger deal back when I had a store and fish needed to be kept in premium shape so nothing would come down sick. I do still use the bag today just in case I'm way off temp. I'm OK with the extra work.


The OP has a goldfish, they're really tolerant. I my shop tanks I'd go straight cold water, could be in the low 40s in winter, into the bag. Goldfish actually do pretty darned good in cool water. Not sure how fast they could handle dropping from 76 to 40 something, hence the bag.

 

[KevinB]

Thanks for the responses. I wasn't concerned as much with temp, just chemistry and chlorine. I didn't realize until this thread you could fill from tap.

I will look at the python.

But to original question, does anybody have idea on what to expect in nitrates from 1 goldfish? Just seems like my current rate is high.

 

[Mebbid]

Thanks for the responses. I wasn't concerned as much with temp, just chemistry and chlorine. I didn't realize until this thread you could fill from tap.

I will look at the python.

But to original question, does anybody have idea on what to expect in nitrates from 1 goldfish? Just seems like my current rate is high.

Nitrates will only raise as much as you feed the tank. It doesn't sound out of the question for a gold fish to put out that much nitrate though, however I have nil experience with goldfish.

 

[KevinB]

The only thing I can think of is the Nitrates used to be sky high in my old 10 gallon tank, and never new it. The water was changed 50% about 1/month with this same fish. The tank was running for 12 years, so obviously cycled. The new tank now appears cycled, and feeding is about the same. It's possible my nitrate testing isn't accurate or the increases aren't linear. But the 5 day rate makes it look like I would have to do 2 50% WC a month at least to keep it below 40ppm. I'm new to the testing, but the difference between 40, and 60 on the API card is subtle, so that could throw off the slope of that rise.

 

[Mebbid]

The only thing I can think of is the Nitrates used to be sky high in my old 10 gallon tank, and never new it. The water was changed 50% about 1/month with this same fish. The tank was running for 12 years, so obviously cycled. The new tank now appears cycled, and feeding is about the same. It's possible my nitrate testing isn't accurate or the increases aren't linear. But the 5 day rate makes it look like I would have to do 2 50% WC a month at least to keep it below 40ppm. I'm new to the testing, but the difference between 40, and 60 on the API card is subtle, so that could throw off the slope of that rise.

With gold fish you really should be doing weekly water changes.

 

[KevinB]

Granted, that may be true most of the time, but this is 1 fish, and up until just a 12 weeks ago, it was 1/month for 12 years !

So, we used to have 1 (5 gal) water change per month. Now I am doing 15 gallon changes weekly.

kevin

 

[NigelK8485]

What kind of goldfish is it?


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[KevinB]

I have no idea, it was given to my eldest son 12 years ago or more. It's the one pictured in my profile. Just a common GF that lost it's color years ago.

Kevin