Fish-in Cycle duration

[Grymatta]

I'm a little confused..I'm doing a fish-in cycle with my 3 gal tank and its been about 3 weeks now.I dosed with BioSpira initially. Last week my Nitrite spiked and then both ammonia and nitrite levels went down to minimal.

Just tested it today and the nitrite level is about the same..at about 0.3 but the ammonia has spiked.

I thought the ammonia spike came first...followed by the nitrite spike?

Is this supposed to happen?

thanks

 

[Kuroshio]

is this the 3 gallon you've been having ammonia trouble with? does it still have ?? 2 gouramis and shrimp? Anything else? did you rinse out your filter medium and if so how?

well with ammonia and nitrite a w/c at this point wouldn't hurt. If there is a lot of waste on the floor then might want to do a gravel vac as well. Make sure you treat your water before you put it into your tank....strange problems you have with your bacteria colony esp after using bioSpira...any more useful info that may pertain???

Keep in mind that it can take over a month to finish a cycle

 

[Grymatta]

yeah Kuroshiro..its the same tank! lol.
I'm about to rinse the filter and do a small water change right now. The same fish and shrimp are still there. The shrimp actually molted so I dont know if thats a good sign or bad.

yeah..I really dont understand why this is happen even after I used Biospira. I havent done anything else lately with the water chemisty. I'm pretty sure the Biospira was good...the store I brought from is pretty professional and reputable.

do you suppose that my biowheel is damaged? I'm reusing it from a earlier tank. Meaning that the tank and setup were used previously for goldfish. But I waited a month and rinsed out the entire tank and equipment before setting this current tank up...

 

[discus4everGrl]

I have a feeling that more ammonia is going into this 3 gallons system than it can handle. However, patience is a must. Keep testing the water and let us know what happens. Tanks can go through multiple cycles. You are using the same test kit for all the tests right? Test kits can go bad btw, so depending on how long ago it was that you had this tank you prolly needed a new kit when you re-set it up.

 

[Grymatta]

thanks discus4evergrl

Yeah im gonna keep testing and make wc every now and then. I just brought the test kit..its expiration date is in 2007 so i think its ok.

Or maybe I'm just colorblind and cant decipher the test results..heh! Sometimes its really hard to narrow down what color it is on the chart!

 

[Grymatta]

ugh. ammonia levels still kinda high. My nitrite level is 0.3 ppm and my ammonia is 1.5 ppm. I limited food feeding to like 1-2 flakes per day. Gravel vacced and did a WC. is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[discus4everGrl]

be patient and don't kill the tank with kindness. JK, just make sure that your not introducing chlorine through all the cleaning. Back in my goofy fish keeping days, I thought I could rinse my filter cartridges in the tap - DOH!

 

[Kuroshio]

who much water do you change at a time? a good rule to run by is 10% every week and 30% once a month. Of course this can be modified either direction depending on your bio-load. With your waste problems I would be doing large w/c every day until I was happy. No matter what you do, protect your bacteria as well as removing the waste. Good luck....

 

[FroggyFox]

the pesky .3 nitrites could be from gunk left in the bottom of the tank. Did you gravel vac REALLY well?

Have you tried shaking your test kit bottles? Also...try testing your tap water and make sure your test kit will read a true 0ppm for both your ammonia and nitrites.

It sounds like something almost had to happen to your biofilter originally...either chlorine or not optimal temperatures or who knows...but hang in there. You haven't added any kind of ammolock or ammonia reducing product to the tank right?

 

[Grymatta]

thanks all for your help guys..im worried sick here.

kuroshiro - i've been doing a 20% WC every week now. Just cleaned my filter media/pad last week by rinsing it in tank water.

Froggy - hmmm I didnt vac that well I suppose. I was trying not to disturb the gravel too much..

I usually shake my test bottles before I use em. I havent tested my tap water for ammonia or nitrates. Never occurred to me that there might be residuals in the tap water...I'll try those tests tonight.

My old biowheel went through alot and I did clean it with tap chlorine water. But since then I havent cleaned it. I havent used any ammolock or remover yet. Should I not?
I was thinking of using some of that ammonia absorbing pad or stuff...but not sure if that would affect my cycling...

I'm also confused about my tap water quality. Cause its got no buffers in it and pH fluctuates so much.. I ended up adding a KH buffer from Kent and now the pH is around 7. But I guess I need to add buffers to all new water during my WC to keep things stable...

Yesterday the temps went up the roof and my tank water was like 84 F when I got home. I immediately set up a fan but one of my dwarf gouarmis seems to have had it...hes pretty muich dead now..lying on the side..gasping. only the strong survive I guess. sigh.

 

[FroggyFox]

hmm sorry to hear about the gourami...sometimes the weaker fish will succomb to temperature changes

I wouldn't get any magical products to get rid of ammonia. The reason I asked was because if you HAD added any of them, that could be the cause of a false positive reading on ammonia. I usually test my tap water (or the water in my other tanks) just to make sure my test kits are still working and I know I can get a true 0ppm reading and my test kit isn't freaking out. Unless you have a UGF (which you dont) Disturbing the gravel isn't something i'd be worried about in the slightest...you gotta dig and get that crud out of there. If you have live plants you should be more careful around their roots...but if they were healthy they'd be absorbing all of this ammonia/nitrites anyway probably so I'd opt to clean the tank out completely rather than trying to be careful of the plants.

20% a week should be fine. I hear things from what Kuroshio suggested to what I usually suggest of 25-30% a week...to what I usually end up doing 50% every other week or so as long as you are on a schedule and not changing too much too often then you should be fine.

 

[Grymatta]

thanks Froggy..

I'm wondering if all these problems are caused because my tank is too small. I'm considering buying a 6 gal really quick and maybe it will go faster if i somehow "start" over with the current tank water and inhabitants?

Walmart is having a sale on eclipse 6 gallons so maybe I will pick it up for future expansion..

 

[FroggyFox]

I'd suggest a bigger tank...something around 20 or 29 gallons. Make an investment and you wont regret it. Its so much easier to deal with a larger tank. As for "starting over" with the newer tank...the best thing IMO to do is a fishless cycle on the new tank...and seed with the filter media from your existing tank. (swoosh your filter cartridges in the new tank every couple of days) Logistically your good bacteria isn't in your water...but its on the solid porus surfaces of your filter, filter pad and decoration/gravel.

I doubt that the problems are caused from it being a small tank...I have a 5G at home, never really had issues with it (except figuring out how to clean a tiny tank).

 

[Kuroshio]

yeah I agree with Froggy on the 20+ gallon tank... small tanks are known to be more difficult to maintain since the toxic concentrations are heavier and can cause fatal mishaps before one even knows they are there. That 0.3 would be nonexistent in a 20+ gallon. besides, you will find really fast that there are a lot of fish out there you CAN'T put into a 3 gallon. *twirlysmi

 

[Grymatta]

hmm..thanks again guys. I currently dont have space in my tiny room for a 29 gallon tank...basically I need something I can put on top of my desk! lol.

 

[FroggyFox]

eh...expand your horizons...take over the living room No really....then maybe go for a 10G if you honestly dont have enough room. I've put my 10G on lots of things so as long as your desk is sturdy it should be able to hold a 10.

 

[Grymatta]

heh thanks froggy..what makes you think I even have a living room here in NYC?

I'll look for a suitable 10g..not sure if I can find out that I like. Maybe I'll splurge and go for the 12g from Eclipse. I want something that'll look nice too..most 10g are boxy glass things that dont look that great.