Desperate help needed ! Tank cycle crashed. Cant get 'fish-in cycle' to start

[Aiken Drum]

In a cycled tank you wont ever see any ammonia or nitrite. The bacteria will consume it as your fish produce it. If you did something silly like dump a load of food in the tank, your cycle would take a while to cycle out the resultant ammonia and nitrite because there is more than its established to consume.

Nitrate should rise steadily until you do a water change. A fully stocked tank would probably see nitrate rise 10 to 20ppm over a week. But if it doesnt, then it doesnt. As long as your ammonia and nitrite are zero you are cycled, and the nitrate must be going somewhere (maybe into plants), or there is a problem with your test.

I really think the nitrate you saw previously was a false positive. Many things can create false nitrate readings, nitrite being one of them. Thats why its pointless testing for nitrate until you are cycled. Now nitrite is cycling out, no more false positives, and your water changes are keeping levels below what your test can read.

 

[jordzcov]

Hi,
Just a quick question.
With the tank maybe looking like it's begining to cycle/develop bacteria, would frequent water changes hinder this?


I only ask because the tetra I previously mentioned seemed unwell, was abit ragdoll-ish this morning, laying at the bottom for brief periods and some times just floating off in the current.


I put him in a separate container to make sure he ate, and released him back in when he began to look a bit more full of life, however his gills were looking abit rapid.


I think some water changes are needed to help him out, or do you have any suggestions on what may be the cause?

 

[Aiken Drum]

The amount of bacteria will grow to the amount of waste that goes into the tank. If you manually remove waste then this will limit the bacteria that can grow.

Your last readings essentially had everything at zero (or at least very close to zero anyway), so water changes wont be removing very much. Your fish are still producing waste, its just being cycled out before it can elevate. A water change will be fine. If however you plan on doing 10 water changes every day for the next 3 months you will put yourself back at the start of this thread.

 

[jordzcov]

That's great! I just wanted to double check it wouldn't damage the progress. I'm understanding that it may slow down the cycling as I'm removing the "fuel" but doing a water change daily (if it came to it) would not damage or remove any established bacteria.


Do you happen to have any idea what may be causing the tetras illness/condition?

 

[Colin_T]

Do you happen to have any idea what may be causing the tetras illness/condition?

gill flukes or worms are the most likely cause

 

[jordzcov]

Hi again,
Ive had no other major issues with the tank so far, just looking for some potential feedback if possible.
Im unsure if the tank is cycled/nearly there/ still a long way to go.




as an update, im now doing a water change of either 10 or 20% maybe about once or twice a week at this point. Im seeing no more nitrate or nitrite on any readings, and now just slow rising of ammonia.


Ive attached my readings for visual as a "water reading" focus, and the full log


As usual, any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[Aiken Drum]

I wouldnt be too concerned about the low ammonia you are seeing. Im not sure if we did this before but test some bottled water and compare it with what you are seeing from your tank water. Zero ammonia can often look like a trace ammonia test result. If bottled water and tank water both look the same call your tank water zero.

Your nitrate puzzles me and could be indicative of a faulty test. Take a read through this thread because we got into it in some depth here.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/foru...t-color-and-stay-near-the-surface-380548.html

You have enough fish that you should be seeing nitrate, and you arent doing so many water changes to explain a zero test result.

 

[jordzcov]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.

We did to a test on tap water before, and it read clearly at 0.

not sure if it makes a difference, but I do actually have 2 filter pumps running (a pet shop suggested upgrading to a bigger pump that also held ceramic rings and was more powerful to help with flow), so would this play any part?

one other thing would be that even before this big crash and tank issue, I'm sure I was in the same boat of readings consisting of 0 nitrates/nitrites, and just gradual rises in Ammonia, but it would be much slower, some times still reading 0 after a week. (however there's no guarantee that the tank was even actually cycled at that point as I had issues at the very start of my tank and was still experience the occasional fish death)

Other than that, the only other thing I could think of would be changing to a different test kit? The one I currently use, I have used 2 separate kits of since we have been discussing the issue, so its wouldn't be a 'one off' dodgy kit, but could be the brand in general?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ICA-Labs-NT170-Multi-Test/dp/B00L5I8N64/ref=asc_df_B00L5I8N64/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241267871461&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2759603460216343653&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007440&hvtargid=pla-421500745890&psc=1

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[Aiken Drum]

I would be amazed if you arent cycled. I would stop worrying about it. Your readings dont show ammonia increasing, they show it steady at a trace amount, and personally i would put that down to testing inaccuracy. These are home test kits, not laboratory testing, they arent that accurate. And even if you do have trace ammonia, its harmless.

The only real anomaly is zero nitrate, because i would expect to see nitrate. Perhaps a sample before your next water change and get a local fish store to double check your testing.

Its possible you don't have enough filtration to cycle the tank, but you seem to have that covered with the extra filter.

If your fish are happy and healthy thats the best sign you can look for.

 

[Autumnsky]

Hi again,
Ive had no other major issues with the tank so far, just looking for some potential feedback if possible.
Im unsure if the tank is cycled/nearly there/ still a long way to go.




as an update, im now doing a water change of either 10 or 20% maybe about once or twice a week at this point. Im seeing no more nitrate or nitrite on any readings, and now just slow rising of ammonia.


Ive attached my readings for visual as a "water reading" focus, and the full log


As usual, any advice is greatly appreciated

In your chart, the pH was previously at 8 which is pretty high. My API at home liquid test ends at 8 pH and then you need a High Ph test which measures 7.4 pH to 8.8 pH, to test above that general amount.

What is your temperature?

 

[jordzcov]

I would be amazed if you arent cycled. I would stop worrying about it. Your readings dont show ammonia increasing, they show it steady at a trace amount, and personally i would put that down to testing inaccuracy. These are home test kits, not laboratory testing, they arent that accurate. And even if you do have trace ammonia, its harmless.

The only real anomaly is zero nitrate, because i would expect to see nitrate. Perhaps a sample before your next water change and get a local fish store to double check your testing.

Its possible you don't have enough filtration to cycle the tank, but you seem to have that covered with the extra filter.

If your fish are happy and healthy thats the best sign you can look for.

I did a water reading today, and with it being a week since my last water change, i had a 0 reading for Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite, so im not to sure whats going on. Maybe this is the begining of ammonia staying at 0 while Nitrate begins to rise?


the only other thing i imagine that could be at play here is i have a bit of an algae battle on the go, so not sure if this would impact readings / ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels at all? https://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/how-to-manage-remove-algae-varius-types-380561.html


Im considerign just carrying on as is for now and aim to get back to the weekly water changes and readings and hopefully may start to see them rise now.

 

[jordzcov]

In your chart, the pH was previously at 8 which is pretty high. My API at home liquid test ends at 8 pH and then you need a High Ph test which measures 7.4 pH to 8.8 pH, to test above that general amount.

What is your temperature?

Hi,
My PH usualy sits at around 7.5/8. mostly 7.5



I try to keep the tank at around 22/25 C