Cycling Question

[AMorra]

Hi Everyone,
I just tested my aquarium water, here are my levels:

• Ammonia: 0.25ppm
• Nitrite: 0.50ppm
• Nitrate: 10ppm

In this 20 gallon hexagon tank, there is currently: 7 gouramis (5 small "dawrf" and 2 larger ones - medium sized - not too large), 5 cory cats, 2 plecos, 1 clown loach, and about 8 to 13 guppies.

The problem seems that I cannot get my tank to cycle (read my last thread awhile back to see what has happened). I threw away a bottle of Top Fin Bacteria Supplement, as I tried throwing in about 60ml yesterday to finish it off because I don't think its doing anything, but ruining the cycling process as my Nitrites rised to 5ppm. I did a water change (about 50%), and brought it down to 0.50ppm (what it is now). It just seems that I cannot get my tank to cycle, but it once did have a 0ppm reading of nitrites, maybe I am experiencing a mini cycle because I cleaned a lot of the gravel and changed the carbon in my filter, and also squeezed out the sponge in tank water, as well as rinsed the bio-max pellets in tank water also when I did the water change.

If it helps, I am using an Aqua Clear 50 (200 gallons/hour), temperature of the water is 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Please don't say my fish are going to die because they lived through it so far, I will retest tomorrow morning and probably do another water change if the levels do not go down.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Hmm. Your tank is overstocked, bottom feeders produce a very large bio-load, you have 5 cories, 2 plecos and one clown loach, one clown loach is not enough they are social fish and get huge, I wouldn't even reccomend a 75 for them try something close to a 200 just for about 5 of them, plecos also get huge, unless they are bristlenose plecos but still, I struggle with two
bristlenose pleco's bio-load and they are only juveniles. You have enough room for about 6 pygmy cories and about one bristlenose plecos, I would get rid of the clown loach as It will take up a lot of room in a hexagonal tank, probably the whole bottom, and 7 gourami is a bit much, and guppies breed very fast and while their bio load is very small compared to the rest of the fish in about a year the population will double may I dare even say triple if conditions are optimal. Please do a fishless cycle, while this is Very incoviniet in your situation it puts a lot less stress on your fish and I can't see you not succeding if you do the "no fish"
Cycle method
Any live plants in the tank?

 

[AMorra]

Do I need to do a water change? Or just leave the tank to cycle? I don't know when I should do water changes or not, does anyone have any advice... for example, leave it when the nitrites are only so high or the ammonia is only so high, etc?

 

[TekFish]

Definitely do water changes, big ones. Also I agree that you are MASSIVELY overstocked. I have a 20G cube and there's 24 fish in there. But they are Celestichthys Margaritatus and Hyphessobrycon Elachys (I think?), so they only grow 2cm/~1" long.

The Clown loach will grow about 5-6" (~ 12-15cm) and, as mentioned, requires conspecifics to be happy. The gouramis are territorial and you should only have one male in a tank that size. Although, admittedly, if they are all male it should spread aggression.

Without knowing the exact species of pleco, it is hard to know whether they will grow 3" (7-8cm) or 1' (30cm). You may need to provide pictures.

You will need to do several LARGE water changes a week, maybe around 60% of the water every 3 days. But really you should rehome the larger species/get a bigger tank.

 

[flchamp89]

1. Tank may be on its way to cycling. A GENERAL rule of thumb is a 50 pwc will cut params in half. Since you have fish in and it sounds like no bb additive left watch params and do wc for fish safety.
2. Hex are terrible to stock due to small footprint. There is no loach, pleco, or cory for a footprint as small as yours. If you return a pleco you could get by with a 55g and fix the shoal numbers.
3. If your guppies are not all M or F. Then youve got another problem
4. MY OPINION when I recommend stock for hex first thing I do is cut volume in half. So a 20...becomes a 10g. Even then its tough because a standard 10 has a longer footprint.
5. If you keep current stock. Params will never be right and yes fish will die.


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[Gruntle]

With the information given, may I suggest that some of your problem has come from changing the carbon in your filter. In my humble opinion, carbon is not very useful unless you're trying to get medication out of the tank (once it has done its job of course). However, the bacteria will colonise on the carbon, so removing it will have removed some of your bacteria.

In one of my tanks, I had a carbon/floss combination element, so like a good little fishkeeper, I was replacing this every month as recommended by the manufacturer (the company that makes the inserts, and also makes a tidy profit every time I buy a new one). I have replaced this with some sponge, and miraculously, I no longer get ammonia and nitrite spikes.

Keep up with your water changes and testing, things should settle down again. However, I cannot comment on the health of your fish, exposure to ammonia and nitrites will not be good for them. I suspect they may not live a full and happy life.