New tank

[Chrostonchap]

Hi All I always wanted tropical fish as my Dad had a tank when I was little, now I am nearly 40 I own at 110 litre tank which seems to be taking forever to cycle (8 weeks so far). I have 7 XRay tetra's and I have been reading advice & books on what to do. The ammonia levels have bounced up to 2ppm but are usually between 0.5 and 1. I do a weekly water change where I use tapsafe to clear the water., I put new filters in the pump as I got it second hand, these are building up the bacteria I also add Stress Zyme weekly. Water PH is 6.4, NO2 is 1 and NO3 is about 10. Fish are happy & active but I am unsure to add more until the ammonia level is down to 0ppm. I made a mistake last week where I panicked and bought ammonia removed as the levels went to 4ppm. The fish didn't seem to bother but I have read I may have broken the whole cycling process by doing that.

I am really open to any advice you can pass on.

Thanks

 

[Coleallensmom]

Do not add more fish, it will only add to issues you are currently experiencing...and yes, any of those ammonia removers can stall or even restart your cycle. Don't use them! The only good way to control ammonia and nitrite levels when cycling is with daily partial water changes. As any ammonia/nitrites over .25ppm can stress your fish, you may even have to do more than one PWC a day until you get things under control. If you let the Ammonia sit at 2ppm and Nitrites at 1ppm for too long, you may end up with fish losses.

 

[tyspot1000]

+1

Using chemicals to alter your parameters could result in starting over, or making things worse.

Also I would recommend, like said above, do PWC's everyday with additional prime (detoxifies ammonia and nitrite for 24 hours) until your ammonia and nitrites go to less than 0.25 ppm.

Once your parameters are good, you can start slowly adding fish (1-3 every 2 weeks).

What test kit do you use?

 

[Chrostonchap]

I will increase the pwc to daily, the reading after tonights change is 0.25, I think the main problem is I overfed the fish at an early stage. When I agitate the gravel to clean there is still a lot of debris come out. I assume the bacteria is not effected by this style of gravel clean?

 

[fort384]

There is some beneficial bacteria found in the substrate, but most of it is in the filter. If there is a lot of uneaten food in the gravel, I think the benefits of getting it out of your tank outweigh disturbing the small amount of nitrobacter you might find in the substrate.

 

[tyspot1000]

Like fort said, the cleaning the gravel wont effect the tank, but technically speaking, since your tank is still cycling, I wouldnt advise on doing gravel vaacs. Depending on how much food you feed your fish is how much is left on the bottom, and how many times you feed. Possibly cut back on feeding, Fast a day every now and then if you think your over feeding.

 

[Chrostonchap]

I bought a API testing kit today and before I performed a PWC the readings were as follows.

Ph Nitrite Nitrate Ammonia
7 5ppm 10ppm 0.5/0.25 (more towards the 0.25)

I am only feeding every 2/3 days now and only feed a few flakes.

I don't have sufficient depth of gravel so intend to add on top of whats in there, its a lot cleaner than it was.

Thanks

 

[Coleallensmom]

The ammonia is better but your NitrItes are sky high. Your fish will not last long at 5ppm. What were your water parameters after the PWC? If still high, I'd really recommend doing another 50% PWC asap.

 

[Chrostonchap]

I just did a 40% water change as before I did the the Nitrite was 5ppm still.

The levels have dropped as follows

Ph Nitrite Nitrate Ammonia
6.8 1ppm 10ppm 0.25

The only chemicals I have used are tapsafe & stresszyme+

Thanks for your comments.

 

[fort384]

Much better... But you need to keep the nitrites and ammonia below 0.5ppm. I would do another 50% pwc tonight and test again tomorrow.

Once the cycle is complete things will get much easier. But in the mean time cycling with fish will mean daily pwcs.

 

[Chrostonchap]

So to clarify a second large water change tonight (it's 2 hours since the last), sorry if that sounds like asking the obvious!!!

 

[Coleallensmom]

Yep, Fort gave you some good advice. I would definitely do another PWC later today to get that number lower.

 

[Chrostonchap]

Thank again

 

[Chrostonchap]

Water changed, fingers crossed for tomorrow mornings test...

 

[Chrostonchap]

Tested this morning and the nitrites where high again. Ammonia seems to be staying on the light side of .25 but nitrite is up to the 2+ppm. I did a pwc before going to work will do a 50% tonight.

Is this the latter part of cycling or am I still a long way off?

 

[Coleallensmom]

You're obviously in the middle of a Nitrite spike. At this point, typically your NitrAtes will start rising and you should then see a drop in your nitrites. However, Your tank is not fully cycled until both your ammonia and nitrites read 0ppm and really there is no way to tell exactly how long that will take. Until then, Keep up the testing and the PWCs and you'll be fine!

 

[Chrostonchap]

Ammonia now seems under control, but nitrites still spiking to 2-5ppm so doing 2 50% water changes a day... I go on holiday on the 21st I hope this sorts it's self

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[fort384]

You are almost there. I bet you will be good by the 21st.

 

[Coleallensmom]

I agree with Fort. Keep up the PWCs to keep the nitrite lower...it shouldn't be too much longer now.

 

[Chrostonchap]

I think this reads 2ppm but open to suggestions... This is 20 hours after a 70% water change (added new gravel and it wasn't as clean as I thought I had cleaned it!!)

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