Cannot Get Ammonia/nitrite Down

[mfernott]

Ok, so here's the deal

About 5 weeks ago we got a tank and set it up. On the advice of staff at the fish store we added 4 Zebra Danios to the tank after the tank had been set up with the filter on for about 7 days (knowing nothing about cycling at this point)

Within 10 days three of the Danios had died, I'd discovered this forum and established that the tank should have been cycled without fish in it in an ideal world, so I was pointed in the direction of fish in cycling.

So, for the last 2 weeks it's just been the last surviving Danio on his own (again not ideal but i've been very reluctant to add more fish to the tank whilst we were losing fish). He has seemed absolutely fine for the last couple of weeks (eating everyday whereas before when all 4 danios were in there, none of them were interested in food)

Since then (for about 2/3 weeks) I have been testing the water every day. For a while (when there were more than 1 fish in the tank) all the levels apart from ammonia were fine, ammonia was consistently 0.25.

Now, I am having nitrite and ammonia troubles (about 0.5 for both) with just the one fish in

As i said he seems absolutely fine, has regained his energy which he didn't have with 4 in and is eating very well.

What do i do? no amount of water changes etc seem to be helping (i have had contrasting advice on whether or not frequent water changes are appropriate at the moment) and have cleaned the filter sponges last night in aquarium water.

Do we add more fish? Is the trouble because there's only one small fish in a 64L tank there isn't enough bacteria being produced?

I'm kind of at my wits end. I want to add more fish but don't want to introduce them to a harmful environment!

Thanks
Martin

 

[mark4785]

Ok, so here's the deal

About 5 weeks ago we got a tank and set it up. On the advice of staff at the fish store we added 4 Zebra Danios to the tank after the tank had been set up with the filter on for about 7 days (knowing nothing about cycling at this point)

Within 10 days three of the Danios had died, I'd discovered this forum and established that the tank should have been cycled without fish in it in an ideal world, so I was pointed in the direction of fish in cycling.

So, for the last 2 weeks it's just been the last surviving Danio on his own (again not ideal but i've been very reluctant to add more fish to the tank whilst we were losing fish). He has seemed absolutely fine for the last couple of weeks (eating everyday whereas before when all 4 danios were in there, none of them were interested in food)

Since then (for about 2/3 weeks) I have been testing the water every day. For a while (when there were more than 1 fish in the tank) all the levels apart from ammonia were fine, ammonia was consistently 0.25.

Now, I am having nitrite and ammonia troubles (about 0.5 for both) with just the one fish in

As i said he seems absolutely fine, has regained his energy which he didn't have with 4 in and is eating very well.

What do i do? no amount of water changes etc seem to be helping (i have had contrasting advice on whether or not frequent water changes are appropriate at the moment) and have cleaned the filter sponges last night in aquarium water.

Do we add more fish? Is the trouble because there's only one small fish in a 64L tank there isn't enough bacteria being produced?

I'm kind of at my wits end. I want to add more fish but don't want to introduce them to a harmful environment!

Thanks
Martin

For a fish-in cycle, you need to stock your tank with an hardy fish that can withstand high readings of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. One presumably small fish in a 64L tank won't be producing enough ammonia so I'd highly advise getting a few more hardy species that are compatible with the fish you already have.

Either that, or take your current fish back to the LFS and begin a fishless cycle which involves adding some liquid ammonia from a bottle (can be purchased here) for the beneficial bactera in your filter to feed on. Pure bottled ammonia should be added every 24 hours, and the dosage can be calculated by clicking the 'calculator' link at the top of the forum. The dosage is dependent on your tank capacity.

12 hours after each dosing, you should test your ammonia and nitrite readings. Once you're getting readings of zero for both and have a reasonable nitrate level, only then should you place fish in the tank. Fishless cycling is by the most preferred and nicest method of preparing your aquarium for inhabitants.


You say that you are having issues reducing your ammonia and nitrite. From my experience, only a 95-100% water change will bring them down to zero. In order to do this you will need to remove the fish and ensure that when you fill the aquarium back up you have sufficient water dechlorinator. Filling the tank up with non-dechlorinated water will kill the beneficial bacteria on your filters that neutralises your water toxicity, thereby creating another ammonia/nitrite spike.

I'm not sure what temperature you are required to keep the tank at in order for your fish to survive but if you can check that the fish can survive in 29 degrees C temperatures then it may be worth adjusting your thermometer to this level at a rate of 1 degree C per hour until you reach 29. 29 degrees C promotes optimum beneficial bacteria growth.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

How much food were you feeding your fish? The size of their eye is a good ballpark.

Is there any chance that you overfed them and that some food is decomposing in the tank and/or in the filter sponges? A good "gravel/sand vacuum" with a syphoning device could help draw most of the detritous out of the sand/gravel (with a little wiggle of the vacuum into the substrate); rinsing the filter sponges gently in a small bowl of extracted tank water could help detritous within the filter system (which I've now just seen you have tried last night, after re-reading your post).

You say "no amount of water changes etc seem to be helping" without actually saying what percentage of water you are changing. You should have been doing something in the region of 50% water changes daily (which literally takes 10 minutes with a vacuum syphon).

• I'm presuming that you have been adding a de-chlorinator such as Nutrafin Aquaplus to the fresh tap water, yes?
• You say that you are getting 0.5 (mg/l I presume) readings for both ammonia and nitrite. You need to get both of these down to 0.1 at the very worst case, pronto. So you need to dilute the toxins to 20% of their current concentration, if not more... So you need to do an 80% water change immediately i.e removing 51.2 litres of the current water at absolute minimum. The more of the poluted water you can get out the better. Yes this may stress your remaining Danio in the short term, but he/she will be very thankful for the dilution of toxins in 15 minutes time.
• There are mixed opinions on my next suggestion, as some say it does not help... Visit your local fish shop (LFS) and buy a bottle of Tetra SafeStart that is of a suitable size for a 64l tank, ideally one that will enable you to re-dose upto three or four times (as you may have to do some more big volume water changes befoe things settle down).

 

[mfernott]

Ok, so here's the deal

About 5 weeks ago we got a tank and set it up. On the advice of staff at the fish store we added 4 Zebra Danios to the tank after the tank had been set up with the filter on for about 7 days (knowing nothing about cycling at this point)

Within 10 days three of the Danios had died, I'd discovered this forum and established that the tank should have been cycled without fish in it in an ideal world, so I was pointed in the direction of fish in cycling.

So, for the last 2 weeks it's just been the last surviving Danio on his own (again not ideal but i've been very reluctant to add more fish to the tank whilst we were losing fish). He has seemed absolutely fine for the last couple of weeks (eating everyday whereas before when all 4 danios were in there, none of them were interested in food)

Since then (for about 2/3 weeks) I have been testing the water every day. For a while (when there were more than 1 fish in the tank) all the levels apart from ammonia were fine, ammonia was consistently 0.25.

Now, I am having nitrite and ammonia troubles (about 0.5 for both) with just the one fish in

As i said he seems absolutely fine, has regained his energy which he didn't have with 4 in and is eating very well.

What do i do? no amount of water changes etc seem to be helping (i have had contrasting advice on whether or not frequent water changes are appropriate at the moment) and have cleaned the filter sponges last night in aquarium water.

Do we add more fish? Is the trouble because there's only one small fish in a 64L tank there isn't enough bacteria being produced?

I'm kind of at my wits end. I want to add more fish but don't want to introduce them to a harmful environment!

Thanks
Martin

For a fish-in cycle, you need to stock your tank with an hardy fish that can withstand high readings of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. One presumably small fish in a 64L tank won't be producing enough ammonia so I'd highly advise getting a few more hardy species that are compatible with the fish you already have.

Either that, or take your current fish back to the LFS and begin a fishless cycle which involves adding some liquid ammonia from a bottle (can be purchased here) for the beneficial bactera in your filter to feed on. Pure bottled ammonia should be added every 24 hours, and the dosage can be calculated by clicking the 'calculator' link at the top of the forum.

12 hours after each dosing, you should test your ammonia and nitrite readings. Once you're getting readings of zero for both and have a reasonable nitrate level, only then should you place fish in the tank. Fishless cycling is by the most preferred and nicest method of preparing your aquarium for inhabitants.


You say that you are having issues reducing your ammonia and nitrite. From my experience, only a 95-100% water change will bring them down to zero. In order to do this you will need to remove the fish and ensure that when you fill the aquarium back up you have sufficient water dechlorinator. Filling the tank up with non-dechlorinated water will kill the beneficial bacteria on your filters that neutralises your water toxicity, thereby creating another ammonia/nitrite spike.

I'm not sure what temperature you are required to keep the tank at in order for your fish to survive but if you can check that the fish can survive in 29 degrees C temperatures then it may be worth adjusting your thermometer to this level at a rate of 1 degree C per hour until you reach 29. 29 degrees C promotes optimum beneficial bacteria growth.

Thanks, I was thinking about adding 4/5 more Danios as our current little guy seems to be a lot happier than when we first got him. Hopefully this will start speeding up the natural bacteria growth in the filter.

I will do a big water change ASAP ( i have water dechlorinator and have always used this when doing changes ) and then think about adding more Danios in the very near future and seeing where that takes me.

 

[mfernott]

OK, so, I have done an 80% water change.

I'm thinking of adding more Danio's when I can get them on the weekend, hopefully this might help things along with the growth of bacteria in the filter...fingers crossed...

 

[OldMan47]

Do not add any fish while you are working your way through a fish-in cycle. It will just make things worse.