advice please

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walah

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i tested my water today and the ammonia was 4.0 (dangerously high i know) so i added ammo-lock 2 (10mls as i have a 20 gallon tank) nitrite was 0.25. It is a new tank(set up since 21/3/03) and admittedly i didnt know what i was doing when setting it up and prob added too many fish. shop wont take back any. can someone explain if this is a natural cycle (ammonia rises before nitrite kicks in???) on wed i tested the water and ammonia was 0.5 and nitrite was 0. so a lot has happened since wed. i dont want to kill any fish thru my ignorance.

please help
 
walah

i was in the same boat i tried adding a Bio Start by Interpet every day and my tank cycled within 3 weeks!! theres also products called Nitrafin Cycle all of which contain mirco organisms that help to control ammonnia, nitrite etc. why not give it a try and see the difference, i promise you, you wont be disappointed.

Try most retailers i got my Bio Start powder from Pets at Home within focus DIY store.

p.s keep any eye on the ammonia and nitrite results and do regular water changes until it stablises i.e cycles

I was lucky not too loose my fish as they were in toxic water!!!

:D Good Luck
 
walah, Unfortunately you have what's known as new tank syndrome. Putting Bio -sttart and anything else in the water will not speed up the maturation process. These bacteria in a bottle need the proper environment to activate them and raw water isn't it. You have done what countless others have done. Set up your tank and in your excitement to have fish in, you've bought fish without thinking and put them into the tank. The sudden surge of ammonia and other fish excreta will not have the opportunity to be absorbed by bacteria-basically cos' there ain't any!
The only way to detoxify the water slowly is to add Ammo-Lock 2 into your tank. It doesn't take out the ammonia but does detoxify it for your plants to do their work. I assume you have plenty of plants-real ones? Cycling take at least 2 to 3 weeks. I know looking at a fully operational tank without fish for 3 weeks is murder! Then you should only add a few in at a time to let the filter start to work and seed itself. It's usually over a period of a month or more before an average sized tank is stocked safely.
A lifetime-I know.
 
It's just something that cant be helped walah, but you've properly learnt from your mistake now havent you?

Dragonslair i found using Bio Start help to lower my ammonia and nitrite levels as it contained Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria to help the filter mature and therefore help to get rid of ammonnia and nitrite, i just felt it helpful thats all.
 
Bigfish,
There was no disrespect meant with regards to your suggestion to walah about starter kits. It may have shortened your cycle time, not for me to say. What I do know because I wrote to Hagan laboratories in Switzerland, and conversed with their lab team (customer services) is that all bacteria in a bottle is in a state of dormancy. Only certain environments can trigger them out of that state. Otherwise how would they survive sealed in a plastic bottle for up to 3 years! Even if respiration took place anaerobically, after a little while the bottle would explode! So from the lab people they told me that the bacteria is cocooned in a "shell" until the environment dissolves the shell and then the bacteria comes to life.
 

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