Cycling Advice

[sham69]

Hi All

This is my first posting and I need a bit of advice.

I have had 2 goldfish in a small tank for a few years now and I bought a gigger tank 9 days ago.

The new tank is 24" x 12" x 12" (unsure how many litres) and I filled it up halfway using my previous tanks water, gravel and ornament.

I have added a fluval 1 plus pump, rather than using an under gravel system again, 1 plant and a small piece of bogwood (had been soakied for 5 days).

I have tested the water and get the following readings:

Ph 7.4
Amonia 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 5 ppm
Nitrate 40 ppm

How often should I do a partial water change to reduce the nitrite level or should I let the tank cycle naturally?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Ethos]

First off, Hello and

Secondly, are the fish in the tank right now? if they are you should remove them because, you need your nitrate and niraite down to a full 0. Zippo. Zilch. Nadda.

Other wise, your tank is quite small for goldfish, am I correct?
Or maybe the dimensions just look small to me for some reason, I'll try tro figure out how many gallons it is...

 

[sham69]

First off, Hello and

Secondly, are the fish in the tank right now? if they are you should remove them because, you need your nitrate and niraite down to a full 0. Zippo. Zilch. Nadda.

Other wise, your tank is quite small for goldfish, am I correct?
Or maybe the dimensions just look small to me for some reason, I'll try tro figure out how many gallons it is...

Yes the 2 goldfish are in the tank now.

The tank is possibly 55 litres.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

You will need to do daily 15 to 25 percent water changes to try to keep the ammonia and nitrite under .5 (1.0 max) until the both drop to zero. You don't ever want a reading on either of those. Some nitrate is not a problem as that is the end result of the cycling process. You will remove that with your normal weekly water changes. Even though you have upgraded, a 55 liter (about 15 gallon) really isn't big enough for 2 goldfish. The general rule of thumb is 20 gallon for the first one and an additional 10 gallon for each additional fish, thus 30 gallon for 2 fish.

On a side note, I see that you are still showing as "Validating". Go to the email you received when you registered and click the link in it. You will then be able to post in any forum.