Fish in Cycle

[jetajockey]

Is it okay to add a plant.. What kind would be good and also, does the bottom of the tank have to be sand? Both of my tanks... 5 gallon and 29 gallon have the very small rocks at bottom.

Yes, plants are good. Just be sure it's aquatic and you have sufficient light to support it. Gravel or sand is an aesthetic issue so it's up to you.

 

[southerngirl]

Just was not sure if that was needed, to have plants. May go this weekend and get that, when buying my new water changer that I plan to buy.

We used a water hose and a bucket to change the water the other day.

 

[southerngirl]

Tested the water in my 5 gallon Betta tank attached is an iPod photo. We are changing 50 percent of water after this post. I am excited to see the nitrites around. .25 ..., ammonia around 2.0. . Does this mean the cycle is starting to do something? Still 0 on nitrates.

 

[southerngirl]

I notice my water is not exactly on the line, will that affect the test results?

 

[jetajockey]

I don't think it makes a huge difference.

 

[southerngirl]

Now that I figured out there is an app... I thought I would add some photos of the tanks.

 

[southerngirl]

Water test of the 29 gallon tank. Yes we are going to do 50 percent change. Ammonia around .25. Nitrite around 2.0 ppm and nitrates around 4 ppm. Soon excited something is happening in there!

 

[jetajockey]

I would consider adding a small amount of salt in the tank during the nitrite spike phase, it helps alleviate the toxic effects that it has on gills. It doesn't take much, 1tsp/5gal should be plenty.

 

[southerngirl]

We have that freshwater aquarium salt but another poster had said not to add it... so I should add it then? Will do. I changed the water in both of the tanks and I plan to re-test in another hour or two to see if it helped. (50% wc)

 

[jetajockey]

We have that freshwater aquarium salt but another poster had said not to add it... so I should add it then? Will do. I changed the water in both of the tanks and I plan to re-test in another hour or two to see if it helped. (50% wc)

Adding salt as a regular preventative is unnecessary but is a great tool to treat certain issues like nitrite toxicity or ich.

 

[southerngirl]

I just retested the water in both tanks. This is the 5 gallon. The nitrites now look like 0 and the ammonia looks around a 1? Should I changed 50 percent again?

 

[southerngirl]

Retested the 29 gallon tank water.... It's been 3.5-4 hours and test looks the same, ammonia possibly higher! Should I do another water change? This is frustrating and don't know how ammonia is even higher than before. I think I'm going to test the tap water to see its results, yes I did use the water conditioner when I added more water. Question? Can I overdose on this? It's hard to know how much to use, it says one teaspoon per 10 gallons what I wonder is, did I not use enough and if I add more can that hurt the danios that are in there,

 

[southerngirl]

At what number(s) would it require a water change?

 

[southerngirl]

No replies Please I am waiting impatiently... lol

 

[jetajockey]

Yes, you'll need to apply some patience.

What's your pH? Ideally you want ammonia/nitrite to be as low as possible. Most guides shoot for around .25ppm reading maximum but it can be played with a little depending on your particular setup. Either way though the higher you let it go the more you risk damaging the fish.

You can't really overdose with water conditioner so no worry there.

The 29 gallon test looks to be really high on nitrates so that's something else that I'd work on getting down as well, an ideal maximum number for nitrates is around 20 or less.

 

[southerngirl]

We just did another 50 percent wc , waited an hour and then retested the 29 gallon tank, Nitrites and nitrates still high and ammonia low..., But everything is lower than last night. My son is testing the 5 gallon as I type this.

I havent been testing the PH since the first day because someone told me not to worry about the PH... That using the PH lowering stuff I bought could actually harm the fish. Also, I managed to break one of my test tubes when I first opened it. Soo I only have three tubes. I plan to make a trip to the fish store that I am working with on Tues which is my next day off of work to try to get a water changer/vacuum thing if it does not cost too much.... I hope that they have more test tubes I can purchase.

Goodness! We tested the water coming out of our tap and the amonnia is a two is this even safe to drink? I need to be careful when using the water conditioner that we use enough!

 

[jetajockey]

I merged your posts together. Instead of posting back to back, just hit the edit button and add to your last post so there's not a lot of back to back post bumping.

My reason for asking about your pH is that ammonia toxicity is very pH dependent. That said, when dealing with a new/cycling tank it's best not to mess with the pH unless it is causing a direct issue.

The ammonia in the tap is concerning, it's not unheard of, as many water systems use chloramine, but you could contact the local water company to be sure. They should be able to give you a data sheet of everything that's in the water.

Because of the high ammonia content I would be hesitant to use it for PWCs. There are a few alternatives you can use, like bottled water, collected (clean) rainwater, or a reverse osmosis filtration system.

Once the tank is well established I would use the tap water for PWCs, knowing that it has a level of ammonia in it. It's less of an issue in a well established cycled tank though because the bacteria will process it quickly, and as long as the water changes are small in size (i.e. 25% or so) it shouldn't cause any ill effects to the stock.

 

[southerngirl]

Well, I was not trying to 'bump' anything when I was posting.... I posted pictures from my iPod.... Now the way that post is all 'merged' together it runs on.. I actually tried to delete posts and could not figure that out.

since no one else is even replying and now getting 'chewed out' for even posting... this may be my last post.....

 

[jetajockey]

Well, I was not trying to 'bump' anything when I was posting.... I posted pictures from my iPod.... Now the way that post is all 'merged' together it runs on.. I actually tried to delete posts and could not figure that out.

since no one else is even replying and now getting 'chewed out' for even posting... this may be my last post.....

Im not chewing you out at all, just trying to pass the rules on.