Cycling help

[ThomasG07]

Ammonia 3.0 ppm
Nitrite 1.0 ppm
Nitrate 40 ppm
Are these numbers really messed up? with nitrates being produced shouldnt the ammonia and nitrites be going down?

 

[jlk]

Hi! Is this fishless or fish-in? Have you tested your tap water for ammonia, nitrite & nitrate? How do these look? Did you start with any cycled media?

 

[ThomasG07]

Tap Water

This is a fish-in tank. Tap water is Ammonia .25 ppm Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 0. No cycled media

 

[Chiroptera]

Yes, those numbers are bad. Do a 75% water change ASAP.

Ammonia and nitrite should be kept as close to 0 as possible with water changes. Test every day if you need to. The ammo and nitrite harms fish the higher it is, and 3 ammonia is pretty deadly.

Just because there's nitrates doesn't mean your cycle is over, because it does it slowly. Your nitrates should ideally be 20 or less.

 

[jlk]

Agreed- water changes are needed asap. You really need to drop your amm/nitrites down to .25ppm or lower. Test your water daily or even twice daily and do water changes anytime your levels spike above .25ppm. A good water conditioner such as Prime will help as well. What is your stocking situation?

 

[ThomasG07]

Ive had the tank for 2 weeks now and I have 3 sarpae tetra and 2 sunset fire platys. I did a water change and today my ammonia levels is 2 ppm, Nitrites .25 ppm and nitrate 0. I am assuming this is probably a correct place to be since this is a cycling tank. Hopefully the ammonia will start going down

 

[jlk]

You really need to drop your ammonia lower because you have fish in the tank. Please check out this link:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...g-but-I-already-have-fish-What-now/Page2.html

 

[bigtoad78]

Ammonia 3.0 ppm
Nitrite 1.0 ppm
Nitrate 40 ppm
Are these numbers really messed up? with nitrates being produced shouldnt the ammonia and nitrites be going down?

3ppm of ammo is very high with fish in there. (it's burning their gills)
Not sure what test kit you are using, but when I did a fishless cycle with the API liquid test kit, that much ammo in the water gave false high readings for nitrate.

 

[boadams87]

I agree you need alot of big water changes. Do 75% wait an hr do another 75% wait test again. Then if any ammonia or trites do another big change.

 

[ThomasG07]

on the second water change do i need to vacuum the gravel again?

 

[boadams87]

Not unless u wanna make sure its clean.

 

[Chiroptera]

You always want to vacuum the gravel as much as possible, because with gravel there's so much that gets down in there, even If you vacuumed 3 times, there'd still be food or waste somewhere.

Besides, waste and food is where all those levels come from, so it's best to do as good of a job as possible.

 

[boadams87]

Bb also lives there too