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I've had my fish for three days (4 zebra Danios in 20 Gallon Tank). I accidentally over fed them the first two days, but now i feed them once a day. I've been measuring the Ammonia every day, and it's stayed at zero. The tank was used so I thought maybe some bacteria had survived and were converting the Ammonia into Nitrite and that into Nitrate. I tested Nitrite and Nitrate and they were zero! What's happening? I want to get my Biofiltration up and running, but it's not advancing, please help.

D23
Welcome to the site

The nitrifying bacteria actually dies off rather quickly, so unless you made an effort to keep the bacteria alive it's not likely to be present.

4 zebras in a 20 for 3 days, even with overfeeding doesn't sound like you should be seeing ammonia yet. Small amounts twice a day should be fine.

Keep testing, be sure that aeration is up, either with a bubble stone or by lowering the water level a little so that a HOB filter will splash the surface more.


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It sounds to me like your tank has not yet even begun it's nitrogen cycle...

Cycling with sifh can take a few weeks , a month or more depending on how much ammonia is being created by the danios.

I found an excellent article that really goes through all the various components of tank cycling and filtration... here's the link:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html


My best suggestion is to read as much as you can and to be patient... Cycling with fish can take awhile, and trying to add too many fish before your tank is completely cycled can really lead to lots of dead fishies!

For another option, here's a great read on cycling without fish. I've done this on two of my three tanks and it's worked well and gone much more quickly than using live fish to cycle. Plus, it's not hard on any fish, there are none!

Good luck, welcome to FP and keep us informed of your progress!

I agree with only the four danios in that big of a tank the cycle process is going to take quite some time.

Here is another great link to read up on. You'll have some time now to read through the FAQ at the top of the page *points to the top of the screen* while you want on the ammonia to build. Your danios should handle the cycling process fine, the important thing now is to not add any more fish till you see your cycle completed. Also, try and hold off on water changes till it is complete. If you notice the fish really struggling of course you can do a small one, or increase surface agitation. But danios tend to take the cycle fairly well.


Forgot to ask if you had any plants in the tank?


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No plants, but now I'm getting Ammonia. It shot way up. it's not at the peak, I'm sure, but it's in between 1 and 2 ppm (or whatever). Thank for your help guys.

You're well on your way

The reason I asked about plants, is that sometimes in heavily planted tanks, the cycle is hard to spot since plants consume ammonia.

Give it time, you should start to see the ammonia drop off in a few days time, nitrItes will follow.

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Yep, it sounds like the cycle has begun... more patience is needed, lol... Once the Ammonia peaks, the nitrites will shoot up, peak and hold then drop. Once the Ammonia and Nitrites are both to 0 PPM, you're good to go!

Make sure as you add fish once your tank is cycled, you add them in small groups, not all at once. If you add too many fish at one time, you can cause an instant imbalance in the ammonia, due to all the new fish waste. Your bacterial colony can only process so much at a time, until it builds to levels that can process all the new ammonia created by the new fish.

If this imbalance is created, you'll be cycling the tank all over again.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to be patient. I didn't do particularly well with that concept starting out


good luck!

D23,

Any progress on the tank?

Let us know how it's going


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