fishless cycling journal!

[Rosenweiss]

EVERYTHING at zero? Even 'trates?

 

[allaboutfish]

uhuh i did a 90% water change yesterday (nitrites high) and i fed this morning but nothing

 

[Rosenweiss]

Wait a day and test again. Sounds like you accidentally messed up one of your tests.

 

[allaboutfish]

ok will do tomorrow morning before i feed (hope nothing high i cant do a water change b4 school) could i just check now it's been a couple hours?

 

[Rosenweiss]

You could. Make sure you're doing the instructions properly with the shaking and everything.

 

[allaboutfish]

ok

 

[allaboutfish]

still 0 and i did everything it said ill test in the morn but what be able to do a pwc if levels are high until around 3:30pm (mom's going to the hospital for surgery so got stuff to do)

 

[Rosenweiss]

I don't think a pwc would help if everything is at 0. That's so weird. Did your filter or gravel dry out somehow? Maybe you should just give it some time to let the ammonia actually get eaten by the nitrifying bacteria.

 

[allaboutfish]

nope nothing went dry and if it did wouldnt my ammonia be high since this is th 10 gallon with fish?

 

[Rosenweiss]

If you're doing too many PWC's, you might not be giving a chance for the bacteria to eat the ammonia, thus starving it. That's the only thing I can think of. maybe do daily PWC's but no more than daily.

 

[allaboutfish]

i didnt even do one today, and did one yesterday but the nitrites were still just a little less then .25 and i had nitrates. arg i dont get it!!

 

[mommytron]

did you have nitrates before or after the PWC? did you forget to use dechlorinator or something? sorry you're having issues....

 

[allaboutfish]

i had nitrates after, and i used dechlorinator. maybe ill see a difference tomorrow. darn fishes are constipated and dont wanna produce ammonia!!! haha

 

[mommytron]

rofl!!

are they actually constipated though? if so, you can blanch some peas, pop them out of the shell, smoosh them up, and feed them to your fish i try to feed peas once a week to keep them regular

 

[allaboutfish]

no i was kidding they poopin everywhere but for future reference how could you tell?

 

[mommytron]

no i was kidding they poopin everywhere but for future reference how could you tell?

they'll get bloated and fat looking...mine normally do after a feeding, but if they stay looking like that, just feed some peas.

 

[allaboutfish]

k my betta only looks like that after he eats he's a freakin pig after he eats his couple of flakes and 1 brine shimp or a couple bloodworms he goes to the bottom and eats a little of the algae pellet. what a piggy

 

[allaboutfish]

ok so today levels are horrible (think i overfed a little arg) ammo-between .24 and .50 (first time ive seen ammo in a long time), nitrites about 1.0, nitrates around 5.0 gonna do about a 90% water change

 

[mommytron]

do a little less than that, so you leave readable levels of ammonia and nitrite in the tank. with no ammonia or nitrite at all, there is nothing for the bacteria to eat. that may be why they aren't reproducing as quickly as you'd like.

 

[allaboutfish]

i did 50% didnt feel like doing 90