Hey! I could really use some more help please?
- Thread starter Britnee
- Start date
Britnee, Like we talked about in your other threads on this, it's going to take weeks to establish a nitrogen cycle in your tank and is going to be a labor intensive process given the stocking level you have in the tank. Also.. like I believe has been suggested, do you know anyone with a healthy, established tank? Or have a friendly fish store that can give you some well-used bio filtration media that you can run in your filters? This would instantly cycle your tank.
Showing 0.25ppm ammonia could be from actual ammonia being produced by the fish, it could be from your tap water (yuck), or it could be because your water supply is using chloramine as opposed to chlorine. Chloramine will give a 'false' ammonia reading when certain dechlorinators are used in combination with the API master test kit.
All you can do is continue with your water changes and wait for nitrates to appear. You may never see nitrites doing a fish-in cycle, but that's a GREAT thing. Nitrites are super toxic to fish, much more so than ammonia or nitrates.
Showing 0.25ppm ammonia could be from actual ammonia being produced by the fish, it could be from your tap water (yuck), or it could be because your water supply is using chloramine as opposed to chlorine. Chloramine will give a 'false' ammonia reading when certain dechlorinators are used in combination with the API master test kit.
All you can do is continue with your water changes and wait for nitrates to appear. You may never see nitrites doing a fish-in cycle, but that's a GREAT thing. Nitrites are super toxic to fish, much more so than ammonia or nitrates.
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Hi again! So I did a test yesterday and my ammonia sky rocketed the test results were as follows
4.0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
So I did a 50% water change and treated the new water with the Prime you advised to use but my ammonia is still staying in between 1.0 and 3.0
I did another 50% water change today and am getting the same results? I haven't after any new fish am I doing something wrong?
4.0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
So I did a 50% water change and treated the new water with the Prime you advised to use but my ammonia is still staying in between 1.0 and 3.0
I did another 50% water change today and am getting the same results? I haven't after any new fish am I doing something wrong?
Hey thank you for your reply! I just did an 80% tonight and it's still high and now my nitrite is high? Levels read as follows
Ammonia 4.0 ppm
Nitrite 2.0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
When I did the water change I used Prime again and after I finished adding the new water I added a n extra dose of the Prime on top of what I treated the new water with. All of the fish are still eating, very active, and no flashing, clamping, fading, or acting irregular at all. I'm also feeding every other day instead of every day. Only once when I do feed. I only feed them as much as they'll eat in 1 minute. After I shut off all of the lights I give the catfish 5 pellets every other day like the cichlids and Tank is. No new fish added. Does the feeding schedule sound ok? I also added tetra safe start with this water change. I put that directly into the filters.
Ammonia 4.0 ppm
Nitrite 2.0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
When I did the water change I used Prime again and after I finished adding the new water I added a n extra dose of the Prime on top of what I treated the new water with. All of the fish are still eating, very active, and no flashing, clamping, fading, or acting irregular at all. I'm also feeding every other day instead of every day. Only once when I do feed. I only feed them as much as they'll eat in 1 minute. After I shut off all of the lights I give the catfish 5 pellets every other day like the cichlids and Tank is. No new fish added. Does the feeding schedule sound ok? I also added tetra safe start with this water change. I put that directly into the filters.
Sorry for all of the questions I have a couple more lol I wanted to ask about food. For the cichlids I have aqueon cichlid mini pellets, and Hikari Cichlid Excel sinking mini pellets and I alternate between the 2. For the sydontis and bumblee catfish I have Omega one sinking shrimp pellets. For the Giant Danios I have Omega one tropical flakes. Are these good foods for all of them?
Good food choices, and rotating is also good. I think omega one has some of the best ingredient lists of fish food brands.
If you still had 4ppm of ammonia the fish would be showing signs, which makes me think you are getting a false positive from the prime. Keep a close eye on their behavior and be doing a 50% change every few days or at any sign of distress, and don't clean the filter at all until you are cycled. You can keep adding prime as needed as well, it helps the fish just makes monitoring via tests difficult.
If you still had 4ppm of ammonia the fish would be showing signs, which makes me think you are getting a false positive from the prime. Keep a close eye on their behavior and be doing a 50% change every few days or at any sign of distress, and don't clean the filter at all until you are cycled. You can keep adding prime as needed as well, it helps the fish just makes monitoring via tests difficult.
Ok well maybe you're right about the false readings from the Prime because yeah none of them have any signs of stress. I am also going to be getting a new freshwater master test kit because I ran Out of a few of the tests last time I did them not bad I have been using that water test kit for a year now lol after I get the new test kit I will test again that way it'll have been a while for the Prime to hopefully not give a false reading.