Cycling Madness!

[GRJ]

Ok, so i have asked these questons millions of times before, but i need to know that i am on the right track here. I am cycling 'fish in' my 108ltr tank. I have 4 fish(platies) left and a few fry and they have been in there two weeks tomorrow. I managed to get some donated filter media and put it into the basket in my fluval 205 external and some gravel which i laid on top of my gravel. Its been 2 days since doing this and nothing much seemed to have changed. My ammonia is still 1.0. nitrite 0 and nitrate 10. PH varies between 7.8 - 8. I am carrying out 25% water changes daily. Is what should be happening, happening? Is this the waiting game now? Should i expect ammonia to go up more and drop before the nitrite kicks in? My platys that are remaining seem to be happy enough. GRJ

 

[rdd1952]

Have you seen any nitrite reading at all yet? You should be doing more water changes to get th ammonia below .25ppm. With your pH in the high 7s, the 1ppm ammonia reading is very toxic. The ammonia will continue to rise between water changes until the bacteria begin to process it. You should also see some nitrite and then the nitrate should start to rise (has it gone up any yet). The filter media you go may not have done any good as the bacteria on it should have started workng on the ammonia already.

 

[GRJ]

I did have some nitrite readings, they went up to 0.25 but have been negative for the past 3 days. I did start doing 30% water changes but i am not ure wether to to do 2 20% changes a day or to do 1 30%. Whats best?

 

[GRJ]

OK, so i just tested the water again and the readings are as follows. Ammnia 1.0, Nitrite 0, PH between 7.4 - 7.8. I have tested my regular tap water for ammonia and its negative. What should i do now? I really am at a loss as to what to do. More water changes and if so, what volume and amount? I keep getting conflicting answers. GRJ

 

[rdd1952]

You should actually be doing 2 or 3 25% water changes a day until you can get the ammonia under .25ppm. The stress of high ammonia is much worse on the fish than the stress of water changes.