New Fish Tank Nitrogen Cycle

[newfishtank]

Hi Everyone,

I have started a new 10 gallon fish tank in my apartment. After failing to do fish-in cycling, I decided to start from scratch and cycle with Fritz Ammonia.

I added a dose of ammonia to reach around 2 ppm on April 12, as tested with API test kit.

Since then, I have been monitoring ammonia and nitrite level everyday. I have also been adding Seachem stability on a daily basis. My tank’s pH is sitting at 7.8 and the temperature is around 82 F. I also have the filter and aerator running at all times. There is no live plant in the aquarium but there are lots of artificial plants and sufficient gravel. I have never washed any component in chemicals or detergent and the water was dechlorinated with Seachem Prime and Big Al water conditioner.

I know the nitrogen cycle can take a while, but I just wanted to check with everyone here that I am doing things right so far? Is it just a waiting game at this point or are there things I can do to speed the cycle up?

Thank you all!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Hi newfishtank.

You seem to be going about a fishless cycle the right way.

Boo for buying big als products. Just kidding, i was friends with thomas and brian who used to run their social media and their YouTube channel and they sacked him. Their youtube channel is great btw. Check out thomas' videos from before they sacked him.

The best way to speed a cycle is to introduce established filter media from a cycled tank into your filter. Perhaps you have a friend who keeps fish who could let you have some? Squeezing out a sponge into your water from an established tank filter is another option.

After that a biological booster product like seachem stability is the next best, but i haven't heard great reviews from that particular product. Ive used dr tims one and only successfully.

Fishless cycle typically takes 3 to 8 weeks. More often the latter. Dont start worrying yet.

You could turn up the temperature a little. 83 to 86 is optimum. You dont need to use 2 water conditioners. Pick one, the one that is lowest cost per litre of treated water (or gallon on the other side of the pond). ie prime.

 

[newfishtank]

Hi newfishtank.

You seem to be going about a fishless cycle the right way.

Boo for buying big als products. Just kidding, i was friends with thomas and brian who used to run their social media and their YouTube channel and they sacked him. Their youtube channel is great btw. Check out thomas' videos from before they sacked him.

The best way to speed a cycle is to introduce established filter media from a cycled tank into your filter. Perhaps you have a friend who keeps fish who could let you have some? Squeezing out a sponge into your water from an established tank filter is another option.

After that a biological booster product like seachem stability is the next best, but i haven't heard great reviews from that particular product. Ive used dr tims one and only successfully.

Fishless cycle typically takes 3 to 8 weeks. More often the latter. Dont start worrying yet.

You could turn up the temperature a little. 83 to 86 is optimum. You dont need to use 2 water conditioners. Pick one, the one that is lowest cost per litre of treated water (or gallon on the other side of the pond). ie prime.

Thank you for the suggestions! I have turned up the heat a little bit.

I tested on Friday night (Apr 23) and nitrite was still at 0, but when I tested this morning (Apr 25), I finally am seeing nitrite! My ammonia has dropped down to around 0.5 ppm, nitrite was at 2 ppm. I thought I might as well test for nitrate levels. To my surprise, I saw around 10 ppm of nitrate. I have read various blogs and it seems like there is usually a few weeks between nitrite and nitrate appearance. Is what I am seeing normal? I am planning on dosing ammonia back up to around 2 ppm and monitor the tank. Please let me know if this is the right approach. Thank you!

 

[Aiken Drum]

You are doing it correct. If ammonia drops below 1ppm then redose it back up to 2ppm. When your ammonia and nitrite is showing 0ppm after 24 hours you are cycled. If you plan on starting with a light stock level of fish, it only really needs to cycle out 1ppm in 24 hours. If you plan on starting really heavy stocking, then maybe cycling out 4ppm in 24 hours is a good idea.

How long have to been going at it? I would agree its typically a couple of weeks before you see some nitrite going to nitrate, but every cycle is different. If you havent tested for nitrate before, it could just be that your tap water has a little nitrate in it. Thats fairly common, mine has about 5ppm. European standards allow up to 40ppm of nitrate in potable drinking water. I think US standard is a much lower level, but still allows some.

 

[newfishtank]

Finally Done Cycle!

After two months, my aquarium had finally finished cycling as of 1 week ago. I got five neon tetras and one nerite snail on Monday and so far they are slowly adapting to my tank.

I have been checking my water parameters and ammonia and nitrite are both sitting at 0. Nitrate is about 5-10 ppm. Water temperature is 75 deg F and pH is about 8. The pH is a bit high from what I read for tetras but the water is quite hard where I live and the petsmart I got the fishes from also had similar water pH.

I noticed that the tetras tend to hang out at the bottom of the tank at specific places, and not moving around much. They are just “hovering” over the substrate. For the last two days, during feeding, they tend to wait till fish food is sinking before eating. Today is the first day that they came up to the top of the water to eat. Is this normal since they are new to the tank?

Eventually I would also like to stock a few more fishes if possible but I don’t want to overload or overstock my tank. What are my options? Should I get more tetras or will I be able to fit in one corydora catfish?

Thank you

 

[Aiken Drum]

Neon tetras tend to be bottom/middle occupiers. I have cardinal tetras that are similar and they have picked a favourite spot in the tank to occupy and dont move away much if they don't need to. I can always tell when my angelfish are laying eggs because the cardinal tetras get evicted to another part of the tank.

Do you they move about a bit more when the lights are off? Perhaps they are more comfortable and will swim about a bit more with a bit of cover?

Do they move about a bit more if the filter is turned off for a short while? Perhaps they have found a spot with lower water flow rate and prefer that?

Pics please.