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I started a 55 gal on around 7/10 and added cycling fish (12 zebra dainos)on 7/16 along with a filter cartrige from my 29 gal and a heavy dose of NIC. I knew that the dainos wouldn't be enough so my SIL gave me one of her goldfish (she is going back to the fish shop soon). On 7/27 I got a reading of about .25 for ammonia (the only time its shown positive) never had one for nitrItes (I haven't tested too much for it since I never had an ammonia reading). Today I did tests for: ammonia=0, nitrites=0 but my nitrAtes were 10! I'm not asking if my tank is cycled since I can't possibly imagine it could be but if anyone else thinks the reading are odd? I checked the dates on the ammonia tester (new master test kit) and it looks like it was manufactured in 5/04.

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

Hi,
It sounds like your tank has cycled, and you simply
missed the nitrite spike. Now would be the time to
return what you don't want in the tank, and purchase
some of what you do want.

A word of caution - don't return all the fish and
then dump in more fish or much larger fish. Try to
stay with the same bioload, or slightly larger, each
time, as you swap fish in and out.

If you start the tank with a "couple of zebras" and
a 2 inch gold fish, you cannot toss in say, two
oscars that are 4 inches each. The new fish would
produce more waste products than what you got rid
of and the tank would go through a "mini cycle" as
the bacterial colonies grew to handle the larger
amount of waste.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I think FRANK is probably right as far as the tank being cycled but I would continue to test as you change your stock. also continue to dose your NIC according to the directions on the bottle, just to add to what frank said.

New tanks are SO exciting.

thanks for the help! I'm pretty excited it cycled in 2 weeks! I am going to add 6 small (1-1.5"rainbows next week and will remove the goldfish( body is golfball size) at the same time, then wait a week and add some more and remove 1/2 the dainos. Etc

Now on to the big 100 gal tank! I'm going to go broke stocking and planting!
Steph

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West