How far am I from a fully cycled tank?

[katelynthekatfish]

A couple weeks ago my 90G tank had Ammonia (2ppm) and wouldn't go down (The tank has only been set up for about a month). I added more established tank gravel to it than I had previously added and now the Ammonia is down to 0ppm and the nitrites are now at .5ppm. The nitrates are up to 40ppm too, which was at 0ppm along with the nitrites at 0 a couple weeks ago. What can I do other than daily water changes to get them down and how far am I from the tank being fully cycled?

Thank you!

 

[OrangeCones]

Nitrites are very poisonous at small levels (even more so than ammonia). All you can do is keep doing water changes until you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and some measurable amount of nitrate. Opinions vary, but I keep nitrates at or below 20 in all of my tanks, so if I see nitrate over 20 (even tho ammonia and nitrite are zero), I do a water change.

 

[FreshyFresh]

If you are measuring ~40ppm nitrates, you probably have a good amount of beneficial bacteria established. Like said, I'd do a large water change to get your ammonia and nitrites to zero, add some fish and keep monitoring your water parameters.

 

[katelynthekatfish]

Thank you! Did a 50% water change a couple hours ago. I'm going to test as soon as possible and will get back here when I get answers!

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

if your Nitrites are at 0.5 PPM you will probably have to do several large water changes. It sounds like your bb colonies are becoming established. You're probably 1-2 weeks away from being fully cycled. When you're fully cycled your Ammonia \ NitrIte levels will be 0, and your NitrAtes will be where ever you keep them at.

In a 90 gal you can expect about 5 - 10 days for the tank to adjust to a new fish, I wouldn't add more than 3 at a time, unless they are schooling and need 6 min.

Keep an eye on your barbs too, swimming in 0.5 ppm of Nitrites will poison them. Their gills will turn from a rosy pink to a brown or yellow color, if that happens, you can remove them. Your tank is probably far enough along to finish fishless, or you can salt your tank at 0.3 oz / gal, this will help neutralize the compounds that prevent your fish from absorbing O2, it'll also encourage their slime coat to grow thicker so they are less likely to be attacked by bacteria \ parasites. If you salt the tank, be sure to add plenty of airstones, as it will be heavier and less saturated with oxygen.

 

[katelynthekatfish]

Just tested the water again after the 50% WC and Ammonia is still at 0ppm, Nitrites are at .25ppm, and Nitrates are at around 30ppm. I have been keeping a close eye on them and they seem to be doing okay. I have Epsom salt- wondering how much I would need to add to keep them from being poisoned.

If they were to be poisoned- can I just add them to my 25G in the meantime? I feel like it would stress them out going from a 90G to a 25G along with 11 other small fish.

Thank you!

 

[katelynthekatfish]

Oh- Nevermind the question about the salt. .3oz per gal. Thanks

 

[Thyra]

I am not sure what the epsom salt is all about - I am not sure salt is necessary in your tank and it is possible to over dose because remember the salt does not evaporate. I have never used salt, but from reading I know there are a lot of different salts and a lot of different opinions just like there is about carbon.

 

[FreshyFresh]

With 0.25ppm nitrite, I'd either continue with water changes to get it to zero, or remove any fish and go fishless for the remainder of the cycle.

 

[katelynthekatfish]

So I added the salt and will keep doing ... 50%? Water changes every day until its to 0. One question- Once I get it to 0 with the WC, should it remain 0 or will I be battling it?

 

[FreshyFresh]

So I added the salt and will keep doing ... 50%? Water changes every day until its to 0. One question- Once I get it to 0 with the WC, should it remain 0 or will I be battling it?

Once your tank is cycled, all you should ever see is nitrates.

I don't know enough about salt in a typical freshwater tank to have an opinion, other than I don't use it and don't (knock-on-wood) have problems.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

if your Nitrites are at 0.5 PPM you will probably have to do several large water changes. ...

Keep an eye on your barbs too, swimming in 0.5 ppm of Nitrites will poison them. Their gills will turn from a rosy pink to a brown or yellow color, if that happens, you can remove them. Your tank is probably far enough along to finish fishless, or you can salt your tank at 0.3 oz / gal, this will help neutralize the compounds that prevent your fish from absorbing O2, it'll also encourage their slime coat to grow thicker so they are less likely to be attacked by bacteria \ parasites. If you salt the tank, be sure to add plenty of airstones, as it will be heavier and less saturated with oxygen.

First off, I was only giving possible solutions to potential problems if they were encountered, guessing because you added it, the gills of your fish were brown, secondly Epsom salt is not sodium based, it's Magnesium sulfate, Aquarium salt is best, Sea salt will work in a pinch as long as it is free of a caking agent. I don't know what the epsom salt will do, I cannot imagine it is good, sulfates are usually bad for internal use. You should probably look it up to find out what it'll do, you might have to perform several large water changes and see if carbon will remove residual traces.

best of luck

 

[katelynthekatfish]

I have treated my tank with Epsom salts before and there have been no issues- but that was for constipation and bloating. I also used it for bulging eyes. (It works for that)

I was told that Aquarium Salt is no different than Epsom salt- which is why I used that. I think the only bad thing that will happen is my fish will poop more often (Like using Xlax) haha... It won't help prevent nitrite poisoning though, so I will figure that out.

I will do a 50% water change again tonight to get my nitrites to 0ppm..(they are at .15 right now) which will also help the salt issue. Thank you for the info though- I will know better next time.

I have carbon bags in the tank right now as a matter of fact- that will probably help also.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

Ahh, that's odd that both chemical compounds work as laxatives, Sodium Chloride has the same effect. 0.3 oz / gallon is reasonably small, somewhere around 1.002 SG, you can go as high as 1.005 sg it's basically brackish water. Nitrites bind to the fish and cause methemoglobin within the fish, vs hemo, I think it's the chlorine that interacts with the nitrites and methemoglobin that render it inept, however I've read that any salt is better than no salt.

Salt will affect your Nitrite readings also, mine are usually skewed 0.15-0.3 ppm.

 

[katelynthekatfish]

That helps a lot. I was worried about my fish but It looks like they are more silver now than they were a couple days ago. Also have more color in their fins. I bought a new HOB filter because all I had was an under-gravel. Will that help with nitrites also? It came with BioMax or something like that(they look like short tubes made out of white clay), carbon bag, and a sponge. I believe its the AquaClear 110. The nitrite test is like a light sky blue- not yet light purple but not yet turquoise.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

It will help, yes, you'll eventually see brown crusty's forming on and around the filter, don't clean it as that's part of your bacterial colony, + it'll add mechanical filtration. the biomax is there to provide more surface area for your bacterial colonies to grow in, all canisters have them, and I usually throw 5-10 in a new tank to get it started.

 

[Thyra]

I, of course, do not agree about the salt being necessary, but do remember - that is my opinion. Underground filters have been in disfavor for a while, but they do work well and there are many old time-timers that still use them. I inherited a 30 g tank from my grand kids when they went to college. It had an underground filter. It had never been cleaned in at least 9 years. It had two large angel fish in it and they had never added anything to the tank although they were on city water which was chlorinated. I am not recommending this, but the fish were in good condition when I got them and had no problems when I had to switch them to well water in a very sudden change. Like I said - this is not any recommendation - just what I observed.