Fish-in cycle question

[gimmethatfish]

Hi all -
I know there are one trillion threads out there about cycling with fish. I have spent hours reading them, but I still have a little confusion. (And to be honest, several of the threads have spun off into an ethical debate about the humanity of cycling with fish, so I give up reading pretty early in the thread.)

I don't want to be redundant, so here is a link to my introduction post with the specifics of my tank and other details: http://http://www.aquariumadvice.co...een-lurking-for-a-while-questions-296619.html

I *should* be nearing the end of my (fish in) cycle, kind of maybe hopefully? Over the past week, I have seen declining numbers of nitrites, but my ammonia levels haven't decreased. The last 4-5 days, I have gotten about .25 ppm of ammonia, 0 nitrite, barely detectable nitrate on each test - testing morning and evening. My ph and temperature have remained constant.

As you can read in my thread, my tank did recently get knocked over, but not even all the water spilled out. The filter and gravel remained wet, and I had it filled back up with dechlorinated water within a few minutes. I also noticed the 0 nitrate/nitrite but positive ammonia trend before this happened, so I'm not sure that was a factor. My tap water is medium hard, so the bacteria should be getting carbonates to consume.

I've still been doing a 2-3 gallon water change every evening and any morning where the ammonia looked anything like going over .25. Ammonia hasn't gotten much above .25 as long as I keep up the schedule. I have not tried skipping the evening water change to see what happens by morning for fear that the animals will be harmed overnight. I'm wondering why I'm still having constant ammonia. It would seem as if the bacterial colonies are established well enough to keep the ammonia relatively low and the nitrite has disappeared. I'm not overfeeding. There aren't any rotten plants. My tap water has maybe barely a detectable amount of ammonia in it naturally, but it's really barely off pure yellow.

 

[BBradbury]

Fish in tank cycling is definitely not harmful to the right fish. Hopefully, you did your homework and selected one or some of the following: female Fancy Guppies, Rasboras, White Clouds (prefer a bit cooler water), Platys or Zebra Danios.

Briefly, this is how the nitrogen cycle works. You add 3 to 4 small fish for every 10 gallons of tank size and drop in stems of Anacharis. The plant helps keep the tank water a little safer for the fish because it takes in the nutrients from the dissolved fish waste through it's leaves. It's the waste the fish produce that starts the cycle. You test the tank water every day for traces of ammonia or nitrite. If you have a positive test, you change 25 percent of the water and replace that with pure, treated tap water. Don't change too much water, though. The good bacteria needs some of the nitrogen to grow.

Just test every day and change the water if needed. When you have several, daily tests with no traces of the above toxins, the tank is cycled. The process takes roughly 30 days.

Pretty simple.

B

 

[gimmethatfish]

Thanks - I have 2 glofish and a leopard danio (which I think are basically all the same thing as a zebria danio minus the glo-gene), and my plants are anubias and java fern. It has been about 8 weeks now.

I do understand the chemistry of the cycle. I'm just not sure why I'm still getting ammonia when I've been through the nitrite spike. I thought the nitrite-consuming bacteria took the longest to grow, so if there are enough nitrobacter, shouldn't there also be enough ammonia eaters? Maybe I should test my tap water again for ammonia.

 

[Fishperson]

Well actually zebra danios don't have a glow gene but glofish do. Leopard danios are just a variation of the zebra.

Yeah, testing your tap would be a good idea, because that's probably where the ammonia is coming from.

I recommend a fishless cycle because it is faster and you can stock immediately after you are finished, but both are fine. You do need to be diligent when fish in cycling because your parameters can get really bad really fast.

 

[gimmethatfish]

Right the glofish have the gene, hence the "glo" in the name, I'd think.

I already have the fish, so no option to do a fishless cycle. I have been very diligent about the cycling - the fish have been fine for over 2 months now. I just can't figure out why I'm STILL cycling.

 

[Mebbid]

Fish in tank cycling is definitely not harmful to the right fish. Hopefully, you did your homework and selected one or some of the following: female Fancy Guppies, Rasboras, White Clouds (prefer a bit cooler water), Platys or Zebra Danios.

Briefly, this is how the nitrogen cycle works. You add 3 to 4 small fish for every 10 gallons of tank size and drop in stems of Anacharis. The plant helps keep the tank water a little safer for the fish because it takes in the nutrients from the dissolved fish waste through it's leaves. It's the waste the fish produce that starts the cycle. You test the tank water every day for traces of ammonia or nitrite. If you have a positive test, you change 25 percent of the water and replace that with pure, treated tap water. Don't change too much water, though. The good bacteria needs some of the nitrogen to grow.

Just test every day and change the water if needed. When you have several, daily tests with no traces of the above toxins, the tank is cycled. The process takes roughly 30 days.

Pretty simple.

B

+1 said it all. Don't be upset if it take a little longer than a month. Sometimes for no verifiable reason they can take longer.

I would also kick the water change up to 50% when you do them to reduce the ammonia. Even if you have a .25ppm ammonia level and change 50% of the water there is still more than enough ammonia in the water to feed the bacteria. You won't ever remove enough to slow the growth.

You also dont NEED anacharis or other fast growing stem plants. But they will make your life a little easier.

 

[jwh0818]

Check out stickies, they help a bunch. Here are a few you might find helpful

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154837