can anyone help me..again

[ichboy]

20 gallon tank, ammonia 0.25, nitrite2 - 0, nitrite3 - 0, 4 black widow and 4 platies. PH 6.6

I have had my tank setup for about 3 weeks, adding 4 platies, after week2, then adding 4 black widow at week 3. The problem is my ammonia is at 0.25mg and i dont seem to have any nitrites whatso ever. why do i have no nitrite???

my lfs advised me there is no need to cycle my tank and just to add stress zyme everytime i add fish. I was informed that this would do the cycling for me, is this correct?

I have a interpet duo 3 filter (all equipment bought with second hand tank). I have had the filter set at the lowest setting as the fish were getting blown all over the place at medium and high, but since i am getting ammonia i have turned up to medium tonight. Does this matter and any advice on where to point my filter to reduce the the fast water flow?

I was advised by the very helpful glolite last time to change 25% of water everytime i get positives from nitrite/ammonia but now i have advised of the above, Am i making things worse by doing this?

HELP ME.. I AM VERY CONFUSED

 

[tttnjfttt]

Right now, you should do a small water change (up to 20%), and keep doing so daily until your ammonia is at zero. also, don't buy any more fish until your water stats have been at zero for a few weeks.

when you say nitrite2 and nitrite3, do you mean NO2 and NO3, which are nitrIte and nitrAte? there is a big difference between the two. There are many possible reasons why you have no nitrite. Have you ever seen any nitrIte or nitrAte in your tank?
If you have, then something probably sent your tank into a mini-cycle, possibly over cleaning the gravel if you have a undergravel filter, forgetting dechlorinator, or some medicines can do this too.

The info from the LFS was totally bogus, sorry. Every tank (with the exception of betta tanks) need to be cycled. Stresszyme will more help the fish from the stress of being moved around.

As for the filter, I know over in this is a commom problem with bettas, and in the betta forum they have talked about ways to reduce the current from a filter. They are do it yourself projects, go do a serch over there, type in current as a key word.

hope that helps

 

[ichboy]

i thought my LFS chap was a fool, he has been telling me not to cycle my tank. grrrr. oh well whats done is done i supoose.

Sorry yes i do mean NO2 and N03, trying to sound like i know something about fish but you foiled my evil plan!

when i first added my platies my water did go a little cloudy, which i believe is a bacterial bloom (I think), is this what you mean?

sorry im not sure what you mean by the term 'betta'

i know nothing about fish to be honest, just trying to learn quicklyh before i cause any fish deaths!

thanks for the help tttnjfttt

 

[sinistral]

Stresszyme supposedly adds "millions of bacteria" (according to the AP website) to your tank and jumpstarts the cycle.

I can't really say whether it works or not, but given that you seem to have a zero nitrAte reading (NO3, as tttnjttt suggested), I'd agree that your tank isn't cycled (and that Stresszyme isn't doing what it's advertised to do).

At this point, you have two tasks you are to accomplish with your tank. One is to cycle it. The other is to maintain the health of your fish.

Frequent water changes will slow down the process of cycling, but will be more beneficial for your fish. I would advise you to go with glolite and tttnjttt's advice and keep up with the water changes to keep ammonia down.

I don't think it'll matter much what you put the setting of your filter on. As long as you're circulating water through the filter, the bacteria housed in the filter will be exposed to ammonia. At this point you most likely won't have much bacterial colony growth anyways, so if you leave the filter on low it'll most likely be fine.

 

[ichboy]

thanks sinistral,

I guess i'll have to start to learn how to be patient pretty quickly with fish keeping.

cheers

 

[ichboy]

sorry tttnjfttt, just realised bettas are obviously my type of fish.....DOH

 

[sinistral]

I guess i'll have to start to learn how to be patient pretty quickly with fish keeping.

Patience is the number one quality you can develop in fishkeeping-- it's been a learning experience for me, certainly.

 

[ichboy]

i hope its the same for me sinistral
and not a regretful experience