Molly/Cassie,

I'm confused (not only about your name!) as to whether you have a second tank you wish to fishless cycle or only have the one 10-gallon with the 4 mollies, which would need a "fish-in" cycle, possibly... (?)

~~waterdrop~~

I only have the one 10 gallon tank, now there is about 0.50 ammonia in my tank. That is okay right? The bacteria will eat it right? I do daily water changes but I havent dont the 45% water change for today yet. Its about 1:00PM now and I usually do a water change at like 5 or 6 pm. Would doing a water change now solve the problem? I have a siphon



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I saw the media donation, I live in New jersey so I don't think there is anyone neer me that could give me some. Knowone I know has a fishtank. I was thinking about making a post asking for people neer where I live to give me some filter media but I dont think its such a good idea because the post that is already here about donations, and people will probably just direct me to this anyway.

This post has been edited by MollyFresh: Jun 25 2008, 05:04 PM

An ammonia reading of .5 is high and how tocis it is depends on your pH and the water temp. Ammonia becomes more toxic at higher pH levels and at higher temperatures. For instance, a reading of .5 in a tank with the water pH at 6.2 and temp of 76 would be considerable less dangerous as the same reading with a pH of 7.6 and temp of 80.

For now, you should do water changes as needed to get the ammonia below .25 ppm. If that requires 2 a day, then that's what you should do. Also, you may want to cut back on feedings. Once a day is fine. I actually skip a day here and there on my tanks. Fish can easily go several weeks without being fed.

The bacteria will eventually process the ammonia and the subsequent nitrite but they have to build to numbers that can handle it first. Most bacteria multiple in very short time spans but the nitrifying bacteria that process ammonia and nitrite need anywhere from 8 to 30 hours to double so it takes while for their numbers to catch up to the waste producted by the fish.

Have you tested for nitrite or nitrate yet? If you have nitrite, then at least some ammonia is being processed and a climbing nitrate level indicates that ammonia AND nitrite are being processed.

Finding media is difficult. Thepinned topic hasn't been kept up to date very well and a lot of the names on it aren't active any more. You can try a threadand just put in it that you know the pinned one exists but that you didn't find anyone near you on it.

Molly/Cassie,
OK, now that we know you only have the 10-gallon with fish in it, that is cleared up. Our help follows a very basic path... with fish in there you are already doing a "fish-in" cycle (fishless cycling has different instructions for ammonia and you are getting confused by hearing some of those instructions.) What RDD is telling you above is correct for your fish-in cycling process. It is very, very important to do whatever water changes are necessary to get ammonia and nitrogen way down to between zero and 0.25ppm as he says. Don't worry about the bacteria, in a fish-in cycle they will be getting a little ammonia all the time, despite your water changes.

In a fishless cycle we can worry about the bacteria full-time. In a fish-in cycle like yours, the fish have to take first priority and the bacteria take a back seat. (In -either- type of cycling process a mature media donation will help, but you have seen that there is a somewhat low chance of finding a donation.)

~~waterdrop~~

Okay, I will try my best to get the ammonia down to .25 or 0
right now its at .50 so I guess thats not too bad but it is still bad so i'll do a water change now


Edit: I am done the water change. I changed the water by 50%
I just tested the water and the results are the same as before. .25-.50 Ammonia
I can't seem to get it down to 0

This post has been edited by MollyFresh: Jun 26 2008, 03:46 PM

hi all i hav just set up my new 70 litre and ready to put fish in ,,can enyone give me some advice on wot fish to put in help plz!!!
i like bigest as possible and colurful but i wont to make the fish happy

It seems the opposite of what you'd think but it gets harder as you get closer down to the lower number. As there is less ammonia and it is distributed evenly, when you take out your 50%, less and less of that is ammonia. Does that make sense?

On a different note, every "fish-in" cycler becomes someone who has learned the hard way why fishless cycling is easier. Four weeks or so of lots of water changes just gets downright hard and tiring at some point!

~~waterdrop~~


hey jaffee, maybe you should look into some of the smaller german rams, like german blue rams

Okay, well Imma tough it out and keep the fish. Either untill they die or... well yeah thats it. Call me mean but I'm too lazy to take them back and my mom has had it up to here * raises my hand as high as it will go in the air* with driving me to the fish store every single day =/

well m8 u are a good guy and a credit to these forums



well u should not even hav fish