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I have 2 tanks and I have no idea what's going on with my cycle!

Tank 1: 90 litres / 24(ish) gallons. 4 Black Widows, 2 Platys. Had the tank since March - was an upgrade from a 10g and used water and gravel from old tank to get cycle going. For weeks and weeks the Ammonia readings have been between 0.25-0.5. Nitrite is always 0. I was changing the water quite regularly but have suspending changes to every 3 weeks. Ammonia has spiked to 1 but pretty much no Nitrite.

Similar story with Tank 2: 10g. Had 2 Angels for about 1 month but took them back to the LFS (on the advice of FP) and swapped for a Betta. Again, Ammonia and Nitrite readings about the same as Tank 1 for the last few months.

I pretty sure I'm not overfeeding. Tank 1 - 2-3 mins worth of flakes or blood warms a day, sometimes peas, but giving them a day off occasionally. Recently went on holiday for 2 weeks where they were only get fed every other day. Readings still the same. Tank 2: 3-4 Betta pellets a day but again missing the odd day.

My fish seem ok. No weird behaviour and no deaths in awhile. I want to get my fish some new tank mates but want to get the Ammonia down to 0. Spoke to a guy at the LFS this weekend and I will take a sample of my water incase my test kits are incorrect.

Other than that I've no idea what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?

:%)

fishymama,

I would say, given that your fish don’t seem to mind their current environment, you should wait until you have your water tested by the LFS.

The only reason I could imagine on what would cause this issue to occur would be that you frequently kill the bacteria that convert ammonia into nitrite and your fish always create new ammonia, for example if you really scrub your tank and filter (including sponges in filter) during your maintenance routines.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

ok... thats really pretty lonnngggg to cycle...ur feeding is fine....u should limit ur water changes..while still cycling..what ur doing now is fine as well...every 3 weeks or so...im just wondering now...what kind of test kit ur using and how much water u change (and how frequent u did it b4 shifting to 3 wk interval)???

Last edited by tankie at 28-Jun-2005 10:32

Mama,

I am going to disagree with Tankie. If you have fish in your tanks that you are not using for cycling and you detect any ammonia, do your water changes.

I would strongly suggest that you take water samples to your fish store and ask them to test the samples for you. See if their readings correspond to your readings. Oftentimes, reagents and test chemicals become stale, this will lead to erroneous results. Another cause of your ammonia readings may be chemicals that you use to condition your water. Some products such as AmmoLock will give false readings.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Update:

I had my water checked at the weekend and received some good news. Small tank with the betta got the all clear and the big tank was just a trace of Ammonia. The LFS recommended a Ammonia obsortion product for my filter to remove the trace. (I wasn't 100% sure if I should go with it but LFS assured me there would be no repercussions to the water quality).

So after a water change for both of them, at last I bought some new fishes. Rosey barbs for the betta and clown loaches and 2 BN for the big tank. All settling into their new home quite well so far!

Thanks for you advice!

ok..now u added new fish....just watch out for any mini-cycle that might occur....test ur water regularly.

Will do. Thanks for your advice.

Rosy Barbs get 6in long...which is really big for a ten.

Clown loaches can get 14-18 inches long, waaay too big for a 24 gallon...especially with 2 BN. They also produce lots of ammonia, i reccomend taking all but one BN back.


Last edited by katieb at 05-Jul-2005 19:35

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