How much longer will these nitrites....

[Mustangman11224]

Hey all...

How much longer will it be till I get a good colony of nitrates in my 36 gal tank... It took about 2 months to get nitrites... Please don't tell me it's going to take that long to get nitrates..... These everyday water changes are killing me.... The last thing I wanna do after I get home from work at 9:30 is change 50% of the water in my tank.... Three buckets of water out... Three in lol... Is there anything I can do to speed up the process I have no problem doing the changes just kind of tired of doing them every day... But If that's what I have to do then so be it. . My nitrites spike to 1 ppm after one day... I have been doing every other day feeding and that didnt help... I think my pleco is making my nitrites spike, he puts out alot of ammonia waste.
Thanks for any advice
Dan

 

[Apesfate]

2 months to get nitrites? You might want to get something to treat your water to get rid of the chlorine.
Every water change.
Then you'll have plenty of bacteria.. I don't know any brands of things.
I get filtered water that says it should be used in 3 days, that's how I know it's not full of chlorine.
I'm in Japan.
In Japan it's called カルキ抜き
Which means something like chalk remover..
Chlorine is a chalk like substance.

 

[armymp327]

Hey all...

How much longer will it be till I get a good colony of nitrates in my 36 gal tank... It took about 2 months to get nitrites... Please don't tell me it's going to take that long to get nitrates..... These everyday water changes are killing me.... The last thing I wanna do after I get home from work at 9:30 is change 50% of the water in my tank.... Three buckets of water out... Three in lol... Is there anything I can do to speed up the process I have no problem doing the changes just kind of tired of doing them every day... But If that's what I have to do then so be it. . My nitrites spike to 1 ppm after one day... I have been doing every other day feeding and that didnt help... I think my pleco is making my nitrites spike, he puts out alot of ammonia waste.
Thanks for any advice
Dan

hard to say, though if took 2 months for nitrites to show up, you could be looking at another month for your cycle to complete. Fish-in cycles can take awhile and require alot of water changes, this is why most people suggest doing a fishless cycle.

you can always try this product, it is an active sponge filter that help you along quite a bit, if not cycle you instantly. there is a possibility of red ramhorn snails tagging along though they are not hard to get rid of, and are actually beneficial for the tank as are all snails (besides pond snails)

Aquarium Active Sponge Filters

if you choose to go that route, do 2 day shipping at the minimum, to ensure bacteria are alive.

 

[Mustangman11224]

Wow that's awesome i will go with that.... How exactly do I use it though? It says air lines and air... Do i just hook it up to my aeration pump?

 

[armymp327]

If you use one sure, it comes with instructions on how to do so, I myself just cut a few pieces off and put them in my filter, dumped the water from the bag into the aquarium (per instructions) and put the filter into the tank, the filter is quite big, but only needs to be in aquarium for 4 weeks if you don't like how it looks, for the bacteria to transfer to your substrate and other filters

 

[Mustangman11224]

Ok thanks I'll be ordering it today with two day shipping

 

[Mustangman11224]

I tested my tank and I didn't do a water change in two Days... Now my nitrites went down to .50 without a change... I guess it decided to start to cycle... AFTER I ORDERD THAT FILTER LOL.... O well I'll add it anyways just to Make sure te colony's get strong... There is quite a bit of wast on the floor of my tank from
My pleco should I just leave it or vac it out... I don't wanna mess up a cycle.. Especially if its in the middle of a full
Cycle.

 

[armymp327]

No you should be fine with cleaning the substrate if it that's dirty, just don't clean your filter yet

 

[Mustangman11224]

Ok thanks!!

 

[Mustangman11224]

Just to make sure it is cycling what does this reading look like? It used to b purple but I read sometimes if it goes high it reads low sometimes if its way too high... This is a fish in cycle so
I Can't let it get to high. Before it started doing this I used to have to water changes every day because it would b purple after one day... For two days it has been like this so this means it is in fact cycling correct? Thanks for the help, don't want to kill my fish lol... This will b
My First successful cycle.