Fish In Cycling New 20 gallon

[Zoilus68]

Set up 15 October 2015 with 2 guppies and 1 black molly. Added 2 guppy fry about the 20th, then another black molly and 2 more guppies on the 21st.

Ammonia has persisted at above normal levels since 25 October (2.0 or 1.0 ppm). Been doing 25% water changes daily, and even did a 75% water change on the 30th when I was desperate.

Just tested this morning, in the past 30 minutes:

78 temperature
1.0 ppm ammonia
7.8 ph
0 ppm nitrites
0 ppm nitrates

Since this is Day 18 and it could take up to 45 days to cycle, I understand that you have to be vigilant, especially with mollies in the tank. Is there anything else I could do to speed this process up? And why can't I get my ammonia levels down to something reasonable? I am siphoning the gravel, not overfeeding. Is this all I can do?

Oh and I have a Topfin 20 filter plus another 10-20 gal filter system that came with the tank. All media new to the tank.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Your ammonia levels won't go down because you continued to add more fish which increased the bioload. That make it even harder on the bacteria to keep up.

Fish in cycling is a lot of water changes, you are just going to have to get used to that.

If you can find some filter media from an established filter that would help speed up the cycle tremendously.


Caleb

 

[Zoilus68]

So really it's just overstocked in a sense? Would you recommend 50% water changes?

 

[ImACoolguy]

So really it's just overstocked in a sense? Would you recommend 50% water changes?

In the sense of cycling yes.

Change as much as you need to.. Multiple 50% if needed to keep that ammonia down.


Caleb

 

[Zoilus68]

I just split the males and females up

In the sense of cycling yes.

Change as much as you need to.. Multiple 50% if needed to keep that ammonia down.


Caleb

I put 1 f black molly and 2 f fancy guppies in the 10 gallon tank that I'm cycling, and left the 2 m black mollies and 1 m fancy guppy plus the 2 guppy fry in the 20 gal tank in order to reduce the bioload while I'm cycling. Thanks again for the help!

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi. Ammonia needs to be down at 0.25 to ensure the safety of your fish. It's simple maths, if your ammonia is 1.0 then 3/4 of the water needs to be replaced. The next day, if the ammonia is 0.75 the 2/3 of the water needs replacing. You get the idea.
When the cycle picks up and the ammonia is <0.25 then water changes may be needed to reduce nitrites and finally nitrates.
So, test daily, do the maths and change the water and protect your fish.
This is a major drawback to fish in cycling but still a very popular way of cycling a tank as at least you have fish to look at.
Personally I beg, steal or do swaps for seeded media to kickstart the bacteria production and don't add fish until the tank is robustly cycled.


Sent from my iPad in West Yorkshire, U.K.