Am I Headin In The Right Direction

[snowfam]

Hello All, Im Jason And Am New To This FascinatingHobby. im Still Trying To Understand This Nitrogen Cycle... ALittle Hard When Working A 55 Hr Wk and A Curious 3 Year Old 1 Year Old And A Pregnant Wife Lol..... Am I Heading In The Right Direction As Far As Getting My Tank Fully Cycled? I Attatched A Brief Log Of My Readings.. If Im Understanding Correctly.. I Am In The Second phase Of Nitrogen Cycle If Thats The Case Is My Amonia High Due To Feeding Every Other Day?You Thonk I Should Stop Feeding For Like 4 Days Or So To See If It Drops?

Had 6 Glowfish And 3 Guppies And Live Grass Not Sure What Kind, All Under 100Actinic Lighting, 12 On 12 off..c Lost 1 Of Each fish 2 Days After Introduction... All 6 Fish And 4 Snails Seem Happy, Very Active Aside From Daily napping.. The Guppies LovE How I Have The Bubbler And Filter By Each Other.. They Go ThroughThe Current Like They On A Slide.. Its cool

ApparentlyI Couldnt Upload It So Ima Copy And Past It....

Had a 2 month old 3.5 gallon somewhat cycled tank.. Upgrades to a 10g. tried to cycle it till i accidently poisoned my sons fish with bleach residue. Had to get fish asap.....

First 4 days (no fish)..

Used all decorations to from old tank in new 10g tanK(Pre Bleach Poisoned) Thank God Cause Then Id Have No Bacteria To Grow Into New Tank... Tested water for about 5 days withph at 7.8, ammonia readings of around 3 nitrItes at 2 and nitrAtes at 5(nitrAtes stay at 5 from this point on).... Killed fish, added new fish to 10g

Next frw days with no water changes.... Added 4 mystery snails

Saw a little spike, Amonia 3-6, nitrites at around 2-3 ..

This past week with water change everyday and double dose of zyme start and start right

Amonnia comming down at 1-3, nitrites 1+- and ph dropped a tad to7.2-7.8.

Meanwhile i test mytap water and find that the ph is at 7.8 nitrAtes at 20+- and bitrites at 1.. Amonia shows as 0-.5...

 

[RCA]

Jason to the wonderful world of fishkeeping
 
The best place to start is in the Beginners Resource Section where you will find information on cycling an aquarium.  It is better to do a fish-less cycle as there is less risk to the fish, but it looks like you have some fish in already?
 
Also, can you confirm have you lost two lots of fish?

...i accidently poisoned my sons fish with bleach residue

 

... Killed fish, added new fish to 10g...

 
 
Can you also confirm the reason for ...

...i accidently poisoned my sons fish with bleach residue. Had to get fish asap.....

 
 
There are a lot of people on this forum that will help you, but it will assist us if you can clarify a little more about your current situation and reasoning.  As well as the questions above please can you advise...
 
Are you using a liquid test kit, and if so which one?
Do you have fish in there now, and if so what?
 
Can you put your location in your profile as it helps with advice, as different countries/places have different equipment and treatments.

 

[kad191]

If you could make a list of all your tank stats including
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
pH
Tank temp
Tank volume
Type of filter
All tank mates
Any plants
Lighting
Substrate
Liquid or strip tests
This way it's a lot easier for someone to help.

 

[snowfam]

Just Cheap Test Strips.. Im In Texas.. I Re Edited ThE OP With Specs Of My situation

This Is All Within The Last 10-14 Day......



irst 4 days (no fish)..

Used all decorations to from old 3.5 G tank in new 10g tank... Tested water for about 5 days withph at 7.8, ammonia readings of around 3 nitrItes at 2 and nitrAtes at 5(nitrAtes stay at 5 from this point on).... Killed fish, added new fish to 10g

Next frw days with no water changes.... Added 4 mystery snails

Saw a little spike, Amonia 3-6, nitrites at around 2-3 ..

This past week with water change everyday and double dose of zyme start and start right


Today....

Amonnia comming down at 1-3, nitrites 1+- and ph dropped a tad to7.2-7.8.

Meanwhile i test mytap water and find that the ph is at 7.8 nitrAtes at 20+- and bitrites at 1.. Amonia shows as 0-.5...

 

[kad191]

When your talking ammonia and nitrates I take it you are reading in ppm (parts per million), mg/l??

It's a lot easier if you lost everything, then someone can instantly see what's going on and spot any potential problem

*list

 

[RCA]

When your talking ammonia and nitrates I take it you are reading in ppm (parts per million), mg/l??

It's a lot easier if you lost everything, then someone can instantly see what's going on and spot any potential problem

*list

 
I think kad191 means list (not lost) everything, as per the list he has provided.  If you could do that please it is easier for all concerned.

 

[snowfam]

If you could make a list of all your tank stats including
Ammonia... 2
Nitrite... 1
Nitrate...5
pH... was 8.4 now 7.8
Tank temp...78F
Tank volume.......... 10 gallon
Type of filter......... aqua-tech 10-151
All tank mates................. 4 glowfish 2 guppies and 4 mystery snails 1 dwarf frog whos lived for 3 months now(from origonal tank)
Any plants..................... not sure on type.. bought from petsmart, grows 3-4" and looks likelong grass
Lighting.......... 18" 100 percent actinic lighting
Substrate.... not sure what that is
Liquid or strip tests.........strip
This way it's a lot easier for someone to help.

my levels were higher 3 days ago.. since then weve been doing 20 percent water changes along with double does of start right to bring levels down


i am wondering if its the second stage of the cycle? my ammonia has always been high but peaked at around 4-5 ppm a few days ago, then my nitrites climed to 3 ppm and now comming down(with daily water change)... if it  is the second phase that is the reason my ammonia never dropped due to over feeding? fed the every other day about 1-2 partialy crumbled flakes per fish


yes ppm, sorry
 

When your talking ammonia and nitrates I take it you are reading in ppm (parts per million), mg/l??

It's a lot easier if you lost everything, then someone can instantly see what's going on and spot any potential problem

*list

oh where are my manors..... Thank you for the welcoming and for the time and advise

 

[Mamashack]

I'm sure others are taking good care of you snowfam however it would help if you stopped writing every word with a capital letter - it makes it rather difficult to read as it feels like a stop after every word - just an observation!
As already advised please got to the Beginners Resource Centre as your fish will show signs of stress or worse before much longer unless you act quickly.
Good luck!

 

[snowfam]

lol, That was my Pphone doing that not me.. have no clue as to why though
 
I'm sure others are taking good care of you snowfam however it would help if you stopped writing every word with a capital letter - it makes it rather difficult to read as it feels like a stop after every word - just an observation!
As already advised please got to the Beginners Resource Centre as your fish will show signs of stress or worse before much longer unless you act quickly.
Good luck!


im going to go buy a liquid test kit and see what that says

 

[snowfam]

well i got my liquid test kit and its as follows 
 
Ammonia looks like 1 or 2 ppm to me
Ph looks like 7.8
nitrites look like 0 ppm to me
 
here are some pics of the results
 
https/docs.google.com/file/d/0B0N1zM9YlaDUOUN4R3oxRmNTaG8/edit?usp=sharing
https/docs.google.com/file/d/0B0N1zM9YlaDUMXBncWVDdlpXeXc/edit?usp=sharing
https/docs.google.com/file/d/0B0N1zM9YlaDUNkdlanRNY3NFdjQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

[snowfam]

apparently my wife just told me that when she has been doing water changes that she was deep vaccuuming the gravel... did that mess things up?

 

[kad191]

Are there any nitrates? If you have ammonia, no nitrites and no nitrates then your filter is not cycled. If you do have nitrates then disturbing the gravel may be upsetting things, releasing waste and decaying food, etc into the water, this could certainly cause an ammonia spike if you filter isn't up to scratch.

 

[snowfam]

Are there any nitrates? If you have ammonia, no nitrites and no nitrates then your filter is not cycled. If you do have nitrates then disturbing the gravel may be upsetting things, releasing waste and decaying food, etc into the water, this could certainly cause an ammonia spike if you filter isn't up to scratch.

 
heres another testing i took today.. yes i have nitrAtes and nitrites..
 
PH is between 7.4 and 7.6
NH3 looks like 1-2ppm
Nitrites look .25
NitrAtes are 5-10 ppm
 
heres a pic of the test for nh3 ph and nitrites
 
 
 
https/docs.google.com/file/d/0BxJfcUVdFgm9OC1oTExxd0taTDQ/edit?usp=sharing
https/docs.google.com/file/d/0BxJfcUVdFgm9MktqdjZzdXZfZ2c/edit?usp=sharing

 

[snowfam]

ok. soits been a week and the levels are not changing.. they ammonia and nitrates actually went up due to a snail dying,, did a water change and levels are still high,,,
 
4ppm ammonia and 2ppm nitrites
 
 
 do i have to change the water changes from once a day to 2-4 times a day?... i can not seem to get to 0 ammonia and nitirites

 

[This Old Spouse]

Do you still have fish? How many and what kind? Please answer right away.
 
Start off with doing a major water change, like 90%, where there's just enough water left in the tank so the fish can swim upright. Refill with temperature-matched dechlorinated water. Take readings after an hour and let us know what they are.
 
Get yourself some Seachem Prime to use for dechlorinator. It also removes other additives to your water.