FishProfiles.com Message Forums

their not going up because you are doing water changes.

The ammonia is building up, then they will spike, and nitrites will go up. You are preventing the ammonia to spike by doing water changes, so your tank will probably never cycle.

When you do a cycle with fish in it, it is advised not to do a water change for the first 2-3 weeks, and do a small 10% change so your fish dont die.

I'm confused by this aswell.

Even if the ammonia doesn't "spike" there should be some being converted into nitrites and nitrates.

The tank should eventually cycle, but it will take longer because the bacteria do not have as much food as would normally be present during cycling. Bacteria generally do best when they're in a rich growth medium. Nobody seems to have much scientific knowledge of the cycling process, though, so it's tough to say whether you're just about to see ammonia drop, or whether you'll have to wait four more weeks for it. Probably the same problem will occur with the nitrite consumers.

Also regarding your nitrite readings: it's possible that they have appeared, but that your water changes are diluting them below detectability. Not likely, but possible.

I've been wondering.. Could it be chlorine from tap water that's not letting the bacteria grow? I'm not using any water conditioners. Do you think this could be the case?

No.

Actually chlorine WILL kill your benifical bacteria. How are you treating the water? Aging it? Airating it?

I'd definately get some water conditioners ASAP!

I'm not treating it at all .

Do you have chlorinated water or does it come from a well? If it comes from a well then you don't need to put chlorinator in it...which if it comes from a well would be a good reason why none of your fish have died from this process already. Your tank will eventually cycle (with the amount of water changes you have been doing it could take up to like 2+ months to cycle), do you have Ammo-Lock in your country? Putting some of this in your tank to kinda neautralize the amonia in the water will cut down on your water changes but not inhibit the growth of the good bacteria that needs to grow...

[span class="edited"][Edited by Phone'sMate 2004-08-29 17:42][/span]

Hi all
A month ago i bought my first aquarium (100x30x34 in cm) which is around 25 Galons . At the time i knew nothing about the nitrogen cycle so i fully stocked my tank almost right away. Right now i have : 2 Angelfish , 2 Black Tetras , 2 Swordtails , 2 Mollies , 1 Male & 1 Female Betta , 1 Common pleco (a small one) , 1 Three spot gourami .

Readings from water tests made today :

pH ~ 9.0 (not really sure on this , but definately alkaline)
NH3/NH4 ~ 2 ppm , actual present ammonia is around 0,6 - 0,75 according to the chart
No2 = -] 0
No3 = -] 0
gH = 16+
kH ~ 12

How is it possible for Nitrite/Nitrate to not have appeared yet after a month !?
I do regular water changes of about 25 - 30 % every 5 days to help keep ammonia levels down and try to have a relativly safe enviroment for my fish

We dont have NIC or Biospira over here , we got some other similar ones but i dont really trust these products , i dont believe they actually work.

What can i do to help the tank procced with the cycle while keeping it a somewhat safe enviroment for the fish?

Note : All fish are doing fine

Thanks

Today's readings :

NH3/NH4 = ~ 2ppm (almost same colour as last reading)
NO2 = ~ 1+ ppm (I double tested on this with my liquid test , a test strip from a friend also confirmed it)

The test strip did get a slight coloration on the NO3 value as well but since i dont have a liquid test for this i cant really confirm it , i'll get one within the next few days.

Something seems to be happening finally! Ammonia seems to be steady at 2 ppm and nitrite has also appeared

I have a question btw , my nitrite liquid test color chart has a value for NO2 and NO2-N . NO2-N has a maximum of 5 ppm while NO2 a maximum of 16,5 . What's the difference between the two? Which one should i be measuring?

I dont think that lowering my pH will be that easy . As you can see i have a pretty high kH and i doubt anything will reduce it down to early 8's . I don't want to use any pH lowering products as i've read that the pH may become unstable this way , being only more dangerous to the fish

Is there something that will lower my pH and keep it stable there?

Yeah i was just basing it on my water, apparantly we have some of the lowest chlorine levels in our water in the world.

I would still shy away from the ammo lock as the generall concensuss seems to be that it does slow the cycle.

To make ammonia less toxic try lowering the PH a bit with pete moss or driftwood.

True bonnie, very true... but it depends on where you live. The last place that I lived had so much freakin chlorine in the water my hair faded... and you could smell it really bad... the place I live now does not seem to have as much.


And yes.. the ammo-lock can give off false amonia levels but does not totally inhibit bacterial growth.. at least in my experience what so ever. Which is worse... false amonia levels and maybe kinda slower bacteria growth or 30% water changes every five days IMO slowing down the growth even further??? I think the fish would be fine either way but I guess it's a matter of preference. I only know what I have read in text books, on-line articles and experience...

Actually at the levels of chorine usually found in tap water, it is very unlikely to kill fish very quickly. Although it does irritate their eyes and gills and is generally not good for the fish the main problem is with it destroying bacterial colonies.

No i havent use any chemacils or treatments from the fish. Well i'll continue doing water changes now with dechlorinator and see what happens over the next couple of weeks. I hope to see some nitrites appearing

For some reason bacteria isn't growing. Chlorine is likely the problem, although if it was chlorine, I'm surprised your fish are still alive. Have you been changing the filter media? Have you been adding antibiotics or any other sort of chemicals? 30% water changes ever 5 days will not prevent a cycle, very little to none of the beneficial bacteria are actually in the water, they grow on the surfaces.

Just came back from LFS , i bought Tetra aquasafe to neutralize chlorine so new tank will be chlorine-free from now on

Hopefully i resisted the urge to buy a couple of beautiful platies i saw there I know i cant stock any more fish ]:|

I would go with choice number one. Also, keep in mind that none of the fish you listed are particularly hardy so you will need to draw the cycle out by doing the regular water changes, even if it does take longer.

You have a few stocking issues as well, or things that will become an issue, but since that's not the question you're asking, I'm not going to preach. PM me if you want to talk about it.

You should get dechlorinator either way - chlorine and chloramines kill, but they do it slowly so people often think there's no problem, and the unexplained fish deaths happen at random intervals so it's rarely connected to the chlorine. Dechlorinating is definitely a must.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

Well i guess it all comes down to two choices :

1) Get a dechlorinator and continue with regular water changes to keep ammonia levels down until nitrite appears (i hope that it will happen sometime!)

2) Get Ammo-lock and cut down on water changes , maybe once every 10 days . The problem here is that you cant actually test and see if it works , you can only hope that it does , plus i dont know how it's going to affect the cycle proccess

If you have any other suggestions/methods please do post them