patience??

[Reygan2]

Still cycling...I went out of town for two days, I tested before I left and did a pwc: ammonia-0, nitrites-.25ppm, nitrates-0, ph-7.6. Regretfully I am doing a fish in cycle, so I'm doing pwc's daily (when I'm home). My ammonia never spiked, it never got above .25. I finally got a nitrite reading, but it's been the same for a week (.25, no nitrates still). I messed up royally when I started, using "Stability." I did the seven day dose as directed, then the enormous amount of food was dumped in my tank, and I vacumed most of my gravel and changed one of my filters...which I now know was wrong. I still had the other HOB filter going though. Is it really going to take months? Do I need to do anything else? Why didn't my ammonia ever spike..it's been zero for a week now? BTW, I am using the API kit for testing.
29 gallon freshwater
2 danios
2 guppies
Cycling for 4 weeks with some complications

 

[tarpon]

I'm pretty much in the exact same boat as you. 29 gal freshwater 3 guppies and a bn pleco. And one other unidentified fish. Its been about 5 weeks and pretty much nothing is happening. Its going painfully slow. You just gotta wait and see what happens. If you have another tank put some of the gravel in the new one in nylon stockings. Or use seeded filter media. Also what I did is I went to petsmart and bought some driftwood that was in one of the tanks so it has beneficial bacteria on it.

Its going so slow bc of the very small bioload. With that small of a source of ammonia, after you get it fully cycled you wont be able to add a lot of fish. Just a couple every few weeks. Bc there wont be that high amounts of BB.

 

[logansmomma1228]

Do you know anyone with an established tank? Filter media does wonders in cycling and establishing bacteria.

If I remember correctly it takes longer to cycle with fish, and also if I remember correctly in take a while for nitrites to go down. I think the average time is a week or so, don't take my word for it though as I am a little rusty.

Hope someone else can step in and help if I am off here.

 

[brian7]

i feel your pain i recently started a 55 gallon, with fish, i am a novice so i am just giving you my experiece so far. ammonia spiked for only a couple days, maybe you missed it. After ammonia my nitrites sky rocketed probably 2-5 ppm constanly for atleast two weeks maybe more. So you may still have a little while since its only .25. i have heard this is the longest part. finally my are starting to drop. If yours do get that high, i stumbled upon seachem prime, which in emergencies can help high nitrites. I would keep up with water changes, i did them almost every day if i could amd just wait it out. which can be hard, atleast it was for me. don't over feed, and i was told only vacuum a partion of gravel as bacteria may be in it. keep researching, theres alot of help out there. Anyways i just wanted to share because i know what you are going through.

 

[jetajockey]

Sounds like you are moving right along. 4 small fish in a tank that size is a good thing, since it takes much longer for the water conditions to go awry, so it's easier to catch it before the fish start suffering. Just wait it out and give it a few more weeks. It's not common, but its not totally unusual for a fish-in cycle to take 6 or even 8 weeks sometimes.

 

[Reygan2]

wait it out

Thanks for sharing. Should I add a couple more fish to increase the bio load?

 

[jetajockey]

I wouldn't, the low bioload is actually a good thing because it's helping keep the fish safe. Once your ammonia/nitrites start showing constant 0's, consider adding more fish, just add a few at a time. Like if you plan to put in 3 different species groups, just get one at a time and wait a week or two in between adding more, test the water in the meantime and make sure the biofilter compensates.

 

[brian7]

Thanks for sharing. Should I add a couple more fish to increase the bio load?

I don't know about that, i added two daniosat first. Felt bad because they should be kept in a school, added four more, then added six guppies (also schooling), for a total of twelve and unfortunatly lost one. i think this was one of my major problems... although it may have made initial biofilter stronger, seem like it just caused problems.

 

[librarygirl]

I agree with Jeta, no new fish and keep testing the water. It can take a while, but there's no set time frame. Each time ammonia or nitrite hit 0.25 or more, or nitrate hit 20 or more, do a water change to get them down. You've probably seen it, but take a look at the guide in my signature ('new tank with fish...'). Patience and a lot of water changes are going to get your fish through this. You can do it.

Oh, and if your nitrites are still 0.25, I'd do a 50% water change to get them down. They're toxic to fish at low levels just like ammonia is.