New Tank Levels

[hard_hooker]

Start by saying this is an awesome site/resource.

Set up 29 gallon tank. Conditioned the water and ran the filter etc for 48 hours. I added 4 Mickey Mouse Mollies and 3 cory cats. 4 days later I added 2 dojo loaches and 2 dwarf gouramis. The tank is now about 14 days old.

I monitor the water daily. PH is at 0. Today I noticed the ammonia and Nitrite levels elevated. I did a 20% water change and added in some ammonia and nitrite inhibitor called AmQuel Plus as well as some Stress Zyme . I also added a small amount of Cycle with the water chanage.

Question....is it right to knock down the levels using these products while the tank cycles or should this happen naturally?

The fish are active, lively and fun. (except the loaches who are ALWAYS under ground except at night!!)

Will post picture tonight.

 

[TabMorte]

You should read the stickies in the beginners forum on the nitrogen cycle and on cycling in general. If you are going to cycle with fish in your tank you should be using a water conditioner called Prime which will detoxify the nitrate and ammonia you're corys will probably be okay but I seriously worry about those loaches.

Until your ammonia and nitrites are both zero you need to change water daily.

 

[hard_hooker]

I used another water conditioner called Cycle that the person at the store suggested. Is that the same?

I changed the water 3 times so far....about 4 gallons at a time. (29 gallon tank) but will do it daily from now on.

Right now the levels are:

Ammonia - 1.0 to 1.5
Nitrite - .5. - .75
Nitrate - 20

Will post how it goes. Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[TabMorte]

No Cycle doesn't do anything at all especially if it's been kept at room temperature. . Prime is a water conditioner that removes chlorine it also will detox that ammonia and Nitrite. You have a long way to go and will need to, as I said do 25% water changes daily until you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. It looks like you're at the end of the ammonia peek but the nitrite one lasts a lot longer (2 to 6 weeks). It will help if you can keep your tank at 80F.

 

[TabMorte]

I know it sounds over welming, many of us have been there but you will get through it.

 

[alter40]

You need to be changing out more of your water, I would say 50% of it. With those levels chances are your going to lose a lot of fish. If you can take the fish back to the store till your tank is properly cycled then you should do that.

 

[hard_hooker]

Ugh....

well I'll do 50% changes daily and keep fingers crossed.

TabMorte.....I use a product called AmQuest +. It says it elimintes nitrate, nitrite, ammonia chlorine and cloramines. Also using a tap water conditioner prior to adding to tank. Is that the same thing that Pride does? I will look for Pride either way if that's what you suggest.

 

[iapetus]

Many of us use a combination of AmQuel+ and NovAqua from Kordon. (I just switched over to that combo myself.)

A lot of people think that Cycle is garbage. Honestly, I'm not sure why it's so looked down upon (I don't think most of the people who bag on it have used it -- hoo boy, I'm opening myself up to get flamed now!). I used it myself and didn't lose a fish in the process. That being said, I would still go through with the ~50% water changes, hard_hooker. Keep monitoring those ammonia, nitrite and nitrite levels, particularly ammonia and nitrite. The numbers you gave are pretty high, particularly for the ammonia.

And, you didn't really mean to say that your pH is 0, did you???

 

[hard_hooker]

Ooops.....I meant Ph is 7.2. My bad

What is NovAqua?

 

[pwrmacG4]

if you want to read my threads about tank levels.. you can learn alot..

first i would stop using the ammonia and nitrite neutralizers.. these are essential for your tank to cycle.. you should of only started out with a few hardy fish to get the tank to cycle if you insist on having fish right away.. trust me.. i did. my tank has been cycling now for 5 weeks and i have had no ammonia for almost 2 weeks.. but the nitrites are spiking. i have been doing 60-70% water changes daily. i treat the water prior to adding it to the tank. i know that i might have up to 3 more weeks of cycling before i am out of the woods. i have lost a few fish during this process.. so i change the water daily.
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/fre...on-questions/50163-new-tank-test-results.html
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/fre...estions/50184-updated-water-test-results.html

read these threads.. same size tank and everything

 

[TabMorte]

It sounds like your AmQuest is similar. You don't want it to eliminate the nitrate and ammonia (or you'll never get your tank cycled) just bind it into a less toxic, more readily processed form.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

[alter40]

Like I said before your best option is to really take the fish back if at all possible. This will allow you to have your tank cycle properly and minimize the loss of fish. Your pretty much guaranteeing yourself needless loss of life if you leave the fish in there. On top of that the chemicals that you add to your tank may help to change some of the levels but those are also chemicals that are not natural for the fish. You want to expose the fish to the least amount of chemicals as possible for them to be healthiest.

Just your best option IMO if you can do it. If not make sure to change out at least 50% of the water daily and hopefully everything works out with minimum loss of life.

 

[TabMorte]

Alter is right, I'm really especially worried about those loaches. Some fish can tolerate the nitrates but the loaches I don't think can. I would take them all back (and all the fish you have even for cycling with fish none of what you have is what I would use) if you can.

 

[hard_hooker]

I read your posts. Very helpful. Thank you. I think I'm headed down your same path. I have no problem with the daily water changes or doing anything I need to do.

 

[hard_hooker]

Will change water 50% next 2 days with just the regular water conditioner (for chlorine etc) and repost readings.

To bad I found this forum a bit late I guess. Will work to keep things best for the fish. Will ask the person at the pet store if they will take them back/hold them while I cycle the tank.

 

[iapetus]

I think most of us found this forum too late.

I can certainly understand if you'd rather not take back all of your fish. If I'd found this forum earlier than I did, I might not have done a fish-in cycle (I didn't even realize that was what I was doing until I started doing web research). The loaches probably should go back. The one thing I did know was that you want hardy fish at first, so that's what I got; the loaches aren't hardy from what I understand.

But, the whole point of this is that I just realized something I did that must have helped me immensely: I added store-bought driftwood that had already been in a tank to my tank. I was basically using the established media method, as that driftwood must have had some nitrifying bacteria already on it. If you can pick some in-the-tank driftwood at the LFS, you might consider doing that.

 

[TabMorte]

Iapetus that's a GREAT idea.

If you do that though hooker make sure they give it to you in a bag with water and it stays in the water the whole trip home.

 

[hard_hooker]

Awesome. Thank you. I am there first thing in AM

will post results!

 

[alter40]

I never even thought about doing that

Even if you can't get a piece of driftwood you can try and get some sort of decorations that are in one of their tanks and it will have the same effect. You really just need to get the helpful bacteria in your tank. Also if they don't have anything like that you can also look for bio-spira to add to the tank but you need to make sure that it is refrigerated.

 

[pwrmacG4]

my local petco gave me 3 nice pieces of driftwood to put in my tank.. they also gave me about 3 big bags of water to add to help aid my tank cycle