Confused With Water Test Results - Fish In Cycling

[HerMooness]

Hiya everyone.

So I set up my new tank about 6 weeks ago, 24 litre one, and got two Glowlight Tetra's (Tarquin and Tulula!) as per recommendation of the fishy guy at downtown. I had bought an interpet easy set up kit which had fresh start, filter start and a load of test tablets in and I was following the instructions to the letter and when it said the tank should have been cycled, I took a water sample to pets at home and they said everything was too high, and no nitrates. So I went and did as they said, massive water changes, etc. And anyway, I kept going back every 3 days and doing what they told me next. It wasn't getting anywhere fast (although definately improving) and it was costing my fiancé a fortune in petrol back and to from town. So I took a dive and bought my own API Master Test Kit.

Great - I can see what I'm doing. Dosing pH down by 0.2 a day and aiming for about 7.4 for now (I heard that too low slows cycling down). Either way its better than 8.4 hich it was on my first test - betweeb 7.8 and 8 now).

My question is, can anyone tell me where abouts I am in the cycle from my test results. I'm not sure what to make of them?

My water tests are (after a 20% WC - ammonia was 0.5):
Temp.: 27.3 C
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrates: 10
Nitrites:0

I desparately want to add more fish because tetras are supposed to be shoaling fish and while they seem happy enough I feel guilty about them having no friends, but I wont add any until my tanks ok.

I'm getting a bit of an algae overdrive (green and brown) with my light on for about 6 hours in an evening. But thats not bothering me atm.

One last thing, I was getting some white spot things floating on the surface of the water last night, fish are fine and I just skimmed it off using a jug. I have had it once before though, can anyone tell me what it is and if its detrimental to the tank or just unpleasing for the eye?

Thanks a bunch!!

 

[techen]

It looks like your tank is cycled but not enuff to keep up with ammonia, you must zero that ammonia so that there's nothing there. It's had to tell between 0 and 0.25 with the APIs so it might be zero but I'd try water changes and tests to make sure that there's no ammonia in there. Nitrates are a good thing but never let it past 40 PPM.

 

[Chad]

+1 the addition of the fish increased the ammonia level to beyond where the current bacterial population could handle. This can happen each time you add more fish if you add them too quickly. I like to wait a couple of weeks between each fish addition to give the bacteria time to increase accordingly.

 

[scotty]

hope you are using water dechlorinator during waterchanges

 

[snazy]

Don't use the Ph down thing. This can kill your fish. 24 litres tank can't take too much more fish.

 

[HerMooness]

I haven't added any more fish other than the pair I started with yet...the pH down stuff says its perfectly safe as long as I don't change it more than 0.2pH in a day....how does it harm the fish?

I always use stress coat to treat my water before adding it to the tank. I had some fresh start (same sort of stuff) but I've noticed it smells really bad, an eggy smell, the fish specialist at the pet shop said it was fine but I'm still not so sure so I stick to my diddy bottle of stress coat instead!

Any ideas on the floating white flecks anyone?

Thanks for your help

 

[snazy]

how does it harm the fish?

It has a temporary effect and the Ph will eventually swing to what it likes to, which will shock the fish and even kill them in most cases. If there was an easy out of the bottle way to change Ph, all of us would be doing it but chemistry inside a tank doesn't work as simple as it's written on the bottle which is just a way to make them these type of products being bought. Waste of money and time, and dangerous stuff to use.

As for dechlorinators, some of them have that type of smell, it's normal.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

+1 don't use pH modifiers, keep the daily tests going and keep ammonia and nitrite minimal with daily water changes. It'll be another couple of weeks before your bacteria colony is strong enough to cope with the ammonia, but assuming the nitrate isn't from your tap water (best check that), it looks like you're almost there with the "fish-in" cycle. Don't add more fish until stable at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite for a week. Keep nitrate below 20ppm with water changes. Be sure to use temperature matched dechlorinated water for your changes, and all should be good. Don't clean the filter media while your cycle is progressing! Good luck.

 

[HerMooness]

Great! Thanks ever so much for your help. Shame I didn't know about the pH down before I bought it but hey ho!

Got my water changes off to a T - run 2L of water through the water filter, in the microwave for 3 minutes, (comes out 1 degree warmer than my tank on average), go upstairs add 5 drops, stir, wait,stir and in it goes......back down stairs for the next 2L!

It says the dechlorinators works in seconds on the bottle? Is this true? I always wait 3-5 minutes before I add it to my tank, can I pop it in straight away once its added?

Never thought to test my tap water for nitrates....I'll do that tonight. What do I do if the nitrates are high in there?

Thanks again for all your help everyone!

 

[snazy]

Dechlorinators should work instantly. I just drop it, stir and water in, no problems, even with shrimp.
NitrAtes at around 20-ish is ok. To lower them-water change, water change, water change....presuming your tap water doesn't have nitrAtes or they are lower than the tank.

 

[DrSlackBladder]

Same here; match water temperature using hot and cold mixer taps, fill 10 litre bucket, add 5 ml AquaSafe, stir, add to tank. Also with shrimp, no problems!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

+1 the addition of the fish increased the ammonia level to beyond where the current bacterial population could handle. This can happen each time you add more fish if you add them too quickly. I like to wait a couple of weeks between each fish addition to give the bacteria time to increase accordingly.

A fully cycled filter should be able to handle a 50% increase in bioload without a measurable rise in ammonia (assuming that you wait to feed the fish for 2 or 3 days after adding them). If you add less than 50% then the filter should be fine immediately.

 

[Chad]

Maybe so. It probably depends on the filter, the existing bio load, water volume, and the feeding regimen as well.

 

[HerMooness]

Great, that will make water changes oh-so-much less time consuming! lol!

Ok, so I've tested my tap water tonight and its come out at 10ppm too, exactly the same as my tank near enough (tap water test was slightly weaker in colour but not enough to match to another value). Does that mean that I've got nowhere with cycling my tank in the last 6 weeks, or have I got that much algae that its supping them all up for now?! (I do have a cow dec with a snorkel on....not that you can tell what it is any more!)

Is my tap water nitrate too high and if so is there anything I can do to remove nitrates before adding the water to my tank?

I feed them once a day except on Fridays - when I don't - they have one flake each (broken up) and on a Thursday they have freeze dried bloodworm instead, just a diddy bit. Would you say thats an ok feeding jig for 2 glowlights?

With regards to adding more fish, it won't be anytime soon unfortunately because I have to find a day where It wont matter if I only get 4 hours sleep like I did the night I first got these 2 fish(!).......I lose hours watching them.

Thank you again for all your help, I really do appreciate it!

 

[Chad]

With regards to adding more fish, it won't be anytime soon unfortunately because I have to find a day where It wont matter if I only get 4 hours sleep like I did the night I first got these 2 fish(!).......I lose hours watching them.

That sounds very fun! I'm a bad one to ask about feeding as I like to overfeed so to me it sounds like not enough...I want to say give them two flakes each! But realistically it's likely enough for small fish.