Conflicting Water Change Info!

[navy]

Hi there, I am currently cycling my 290 litre (96 gallon) tank. It is in its 4th week and the ammonia is very high (5.0mg) and the nitritate is at .5ppm. I have been doing daily water changes for the past 2 days (about 15-20%) but my ammonia isn't going down.

I currently have 2 small mollies, 1 Mono and a barb in there. They seem to be doing fine, however one of my mollies is always up the top of the tannk (probably trying to breathe).

I have read on various websites and advice from the fish shop to do the daily water changes to reduce the ammonia. However then I do more research and it says NOT to do water changes because this will cause the cycling process to go slower, and just to wait for the ammonia to die down on its own.

I have added some gravel from my cycled tank into the canister (external) filter to try and speed up the cycling just today.

I'm very frustrated and once again with most aquarium info it is completely conflicting.

If anybody can help me with this it would be MUCH appreciated!! Thanks in advance

 

[navy]

Sorry I posted this in the wrong thread, can someone please move this to wherever its supposed to be? Thanks!

 

[Squid]

Sorry I can't help with this one, as i did a fishless cycle. However, if you go to the email you have been sent when joining this forum and click on the link to validate the membership, this will allow you into the other areas of the forum. You should then post this message into the beginner section, and you should have more luck with getting replies. This section is more of a hello area for new people, and might not get seen by as many people.

In My Opinion.. It's a difficult one. If you do water changes to remove the ammonia this may have an affect on the cycle, as the ammonia is required in order for the bacteria to build up in the filter and cycle the tank. however, as you know the ammonia will can harm the fish, so you want to minimise the impact. If you are doing daily water changes and the ammonia is still at 5ppm (5mg/l), then i would continue to do them. I say this because when you do a fishless cycle (add and wait method), this is the amount of ammonia that you use in order to cycle the tank. Therefore, it makes sense to keep this level as a maximum. However, this is just my opinion, and a bit of a guess, so wait for further advice. It just seemed to me that any more than 5ppm was not needed and would have more harmful effects on the fish.

Good Luck
Squid.

 

[tlagden]

however one of my mollies is always up the top of the tannk (probably trying to breathe).

I had two black mollies in my tank - i put them in too soon before the tank had properly cycled - it was foolish of me and they did the exact same thing - it started with breathing at the top of the tank then they died in quick succession over the next day - i'd carry on with the water changes as it's probably harming the mollies having the ammonia in there.

 

[navy]

Thanks for your responses. Yeah I just realised after I posted the topic I put it in the wrong section. I won't bother putting it in the other section as I think your answer was helpful enough. I will continue "searching". If my ammonia goes up I will do water changes, however if it stays steady I will leave it. I am from Australia and we are going through a major draught (we have water restrictions) so if they are not necessary I don't want to waste our precious water!

How long should the ammonia spike last though? Its been high for about 5 days now, which I think its far too long!

That's bad your mollies died, I have a feeling my yellow one is on its last leg. I will definately be doing Fishless Cycling in future! Like most people, I did not know about this until it was too late!

 

[Squid]

Thanks for your responses. Yeah I just realised after I posted the topic I put it in the wrong section. I won't bother putting it in the other section as I think your answer was helpful enough. I will continue "searching". If my ammonia goes up I will do water changes, however if it stays steady I will leave it. I am from Australia and we are going through a major draught (we have water restrictions) so if they are not necessary I don't want to waste our precious water!

How long should the ammonia spike last though? Its been high for about 5 days now, which I think its far too long!

That's bad your mollies died, I have a feeling my yellow one is on its last leg. I will definately be doing Fishless Cycling in future! Like most people, I did not know about this until it was too late!

My ammonia spike lasted a little over a week with the fishless cycle.. But... i would expect to see yours drop off fairly soon as you are seeing some nitrite already. One day i saw a little nitrite with still a load of ammonia, in a day or so the ammonia had gone right down and the nitrite started to spike. The nitrite is of course still harmful though, so as with the ammonia, I would keep on top of this. The nitrite spike lasts a while longer than the ammonia one, as the bacteria seem to take a little longer to build up..

Cheers
Squid

 

[navy]

Oh that's good to hear this info, I was starting to get very disheartened by it all! I wouldn't worry about the ammonia so much if there weren't any fish in there, i would just let it run its course. If I take the fish out now would it ruin the cycle? I'd rather put them into a different tank until the cycle has finished before its too late....it probably is too late as I read that once you expose fish to such high ammonia etc it damages them life

 

[Squid]

Good question,... Not sure. I have also heard it damages them for life, but it may be better than damaging them further. Do you have a cycled tank already then??? if you do, then you could transfer the fish, and put the new filter in the old tank along side the existing one for a couple of weeks and seed the filter that way.. cloned filter!!!!

Squid

 

[ASD]

navy, are you in the Navy?

 

[Creature Seeker]

How many water changes did you do within the first 4 weeks?

...

 

[Fishkrazy1]

Ok... you put gravel from an already devoloped tank into their to help cycle... did your pre existing tank have an undergravel filter? If not than all you did was drop rocks into the tank and didn't help with the cycling at all... their are some commercial chemicals such as Topfin Ammonia Remover that will lower the ammonia quite quickly if you'r hoping to get rid of the ammonia, other than that just be patient and the ammonia will drop on it's own... eventually

 

[vic]

Hi there, I am currently cycling my 290 litre (96 gallon) tank. It is in its 4th week and the ammonia is very high (5.0mg) and the nitritate is at .5ppm. I have been doing daily water changes for the past 2 days (about 15-20%) but my ammonia isn't going down.

I currently have 2 small mollies, 1 Mono and a barb in there. They seem to be doing fine, however one of my mollies is always up the top of the tannk (probably trying to breathe).

I have read on various websites and advice from the fish shop to do the daily water changes to reduce the ammonia. However then I do more research and it says NOT to do water changes because this will cause the cycling process to go slower, and just to wait for the ammonia to die down on its own.

I have added some gravel from my cycled tank into the canister (external) filter to try and speed up the cycling just today.

I'm very frustrated and once again with most aquarium info it is completely conflicting.

If anybody can help me with this it would be MUCH appreciated!! Thanks in advance

290 litres is 76.6USG fluid. (http/www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm)
Vic

 

[navy]

navy, are you in the Navy?

haha I get that alot....and no i am not

Ok... you put gravel from an already devoloped tank into their to help cycle... did your pre existing tank have an undergravel filter? If not than all you did was drop rocks into the tank and didn't help with the cycling at all... their are some commercial chemicals such as Topfin Ammonia Remover that will lower the ammonia quite quickly if you'r hoping to get rid of the ammonia, other than that just be patient and the ammonia will drop on it's own... eventually

I put gravel from my cycled tank into a stocking and put that in my external filter. My exsisting tank isn't that large so I had an undergravel filter so I can't do much with them in that respect, eg the "cloned filter" thing. I heard if you mess with the ammonia by using removers and such it would delay the cycle even further. I will probably just wait...even though its driving me crazy!

How many water changes did you do within the first 4 weeks?

I have done about 4 water changes so far...

290 litres is 76.6USG fluid

Hehe sorry got the Gallons wrong! It was just a guess...should have used a converter.

I can't put the fish in the other tank as it is a cold water tank with axolotls. I would have just given them to the pet store for a while.