When will it happen?

[fort384]

Have you tested your tap water for ammonia? It is not uncommon for some municipal water sources to contain scant amounts of ammonia.

The difference between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm is very hard to detect. I wouldn't fret about it too much. Now if it jumped from 0.25 to 1 or 2 ppm that would be more of a concern.

 

[Logans dad]

Thanks again. It tested .50 out of the tap. I didnt see how far my son took the water down but he said this second time today he took it down over 75% so I bet that's why. Tank was almost empty. I told my son not to take it down that far next time. I'm usually helping but had to leave for a bit when he was doing the second water change of the day.

 

[fort384]

Sounds good. Treat with prime and once the cycle is complete the ammonia in your. Tap water will be taken care of by the good bacteria in your tank over the course of 24 hrs or so.

 

[Logans dad]

Thanks again Fort. Yesterday and today had to do 2 water changes again, Think I should clean the gravel tomorrow. I did about 3 piles in the front and the gravel does have a little bit of stuff in it. Not much tho.

 

[Logans dad]

Only did one water change today. 2 days and it will start the 6Th week.
before water change Nitrites were 2.0 and I didnt check anything else.
After water change about 75 %
Ammonia was .25 but its coming from my tap
Nitrites 0
NitrAtes 20
I think I will be ok with 1 water change a day now.
I also checked our 30 gallon and Nitrites were at 5.0 on it so I took the fish out of it and put them in our big tank. Tomorrow I will check the small tank for everything but do you think I will have to add ammonia to keep it cycling without fish now? It had fish in it for 2 weeks.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Good job with the PWCs on the 75 gal...sounds like things are a bit out of control with the 30 gallon however. Were you doing PWCs on that tank?

You will need an ammonia source for the cycling to continue. Since you removed the fish you will have to add ammonia of another kind to keep the cycle going. This might have some helpful information for you- http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html

I'd really recommend you keep the fish in the 75 gal and finish out the 30 gallon's cycle fishless.

 

[Logans dad]

My son did a water change this morning and we just checked it this late afternoon and Nitrites are still 0. Before today by this time the Nitrites would be up.
Ammonia .50 but I get that from tap
Nitrite 0
NitrAte In between 20 to 30
At its worst for people that are new we did like 2 80% water changes a day.
BUT, We went and bought another quarter sized Silver Dollar 2 days ago and its got Ich so we just treated the tank. our 30 gallon is at its bad spot and I know we could do a water change and put the silver dollar in it but thought other fish might be at risk so treated our big tank.
On our 30 gallon if when it cycles will I still have to keep putting ammonia in it to keep it cycled? I could only find a gallon of it at ace Hardware. $4.98. I put 1 teaspoon in to get ammonia from .25 to 1.0. Will I have to add every day or two?
Our fish stores are like let your tank go 4 days before a change. Well that's why we lost half of our fish. Went to Walmart and looked at fish and the kid changing water told me he had just done that tank and all the fish were on the bottom dying. He didnt know he needed to match the temp. Then he had just fed them and he put enough food in to feed them for 3 weeks LOL. It was bad.
Again thank all of you that helped us through this. All I can say now is water change water change WATERCHANGE is the answer. Did I say our fish seem happy!!!!!!

 

[fort384]

It sounds as if the first tank is pretty well cycled. Test again tomorrow and see if the ammonia drops to 0 or at least to 0.25ppm.

I would dose the 30 gal up to about 2 or 3 ppm ammonia. You shouldn't have to add ammonia every day... just test every few days and if you see it dropping at all, that means you should start to get a nitrite reading. Continue feeding ammonia up to about 2-3 ppm as needed until the nitrites go to 0 and you have nitrate present.

Good luck with the ich... medicating could unfortunately set the cycle back, but if you put the infected fish in the tank already with the other fish, you don't have much choice but to treat all of your livestock.

 

[Logans dad]

The next day ammonia was at 0 and Nitrites were at 0 but today the NitrAtes were high so did a half tank water change and added some more ich meds. Silver dollar is looking like the white spots are disappearing and is the only fish with ich.
Also added some ammonia to 30 gallon tank as it was at .25 and Nitrites are off the chart so its on its way.

 

[Logans dad]

Just wanted to let you all know our fish have been fine since we got rid of the ich. They have really grown fast also. Thanks for all the help.

 

[BldrArch]

Phew! I followed this thread with eager anticipation. Glad everything worked out!

 

[Logans dad]

We haven't tested the water since, We just do a 75% change every Saturday and all is good.
We bought some Malaysian big chunks of wood and after about 4 days or like about Thursday the water changes a little to yellow and our fish store said its from the wood and will get better and seems like it is. It started turning yellow after a couple days after a water change.