Cycling So Far....

[millie1]

my tank has been set up since wednesday last week, so far ive done 0 water changes... the Ph is 'normal' for the type of fish i want to keep

the nitrite is 0 and the nirtate is about 10

the ammonia was test y'day and it was yellow (less than 0.3)

im adding fish food daily.... my tank is amazingly clean etc...



ok hows my cycle doing??
am i getting excited for nothing yet???

 

[rabbut]

OK, something is amiss here. With enough fish food for 11 days, you should have more than 10 nitrate... Are you shure you have accurate ammonia, nitrtie and nitrate readings? Nitrate kits are notoriously fiddely. Test as you read the instructions. Any times you are supposed to spend shaking anything should be doubled but otherwise follew the instructions to the letter, or the test won't be accurate

The zero ammonia and nitrite are good (water readings from another thead). If they stay like that for a week, you are good for fish, assuming you can work out where the nitrate has gone.....

Have you got any live plants in there?
If so, how many?

All the best
Rabbut

 

[millie1]

so far3 live - planted and 2 clippings growing on the 'log'

ive ordered another 25!

so wait another 7 days + - keep feeding the tank

im cycling my tank but im doing my own cusomtised version i guess - not adding proper ammonia - dont mean to disagree with you guys!!!!! wasnt doing it on purpose just trying soemtimes new i guess that works for me.....

 

[rabbut]

With one fish left (other thread) it would be best to avoid feeding too heavily. One fish is a light load and would explain the seemingly quick cycle time, so it's possible it's done. Once you have had zeros for a week, add one more, then after another week of zeros, get another, and so on untill stocked. Never double your numbers in one go unless it is unavoidable and add your stocking slowly from this point to avoid any more cycling for the remaining fish

 

[millie1]

ok thanks!

im thinking of getting::::

guppys
rainbowfish
tetras
neons

i know i have to keep them in shoals and it willl stress them out being there one by one -so can you tell me what other fish go safely with them and i can introducec now??
thanks!!

just to add ot this thread so its relevent - thanks for your help rabbut - really knowledgable!!

i hope im right with saying its cycled!

 

[millie1]

*bump*

 

[Mr Bliss]

I would start with the guppies, as they can be introduced in smaller groups. You could start by adding one male guppy with a small harem of 3 females (if you don't mind getting baby guppies, of course).

 

[millie1]

no not at all - can re-home them if needed - havea apare tank etc - but im going to probably let nature run its course and let th fittest win (and then probably keep lol!)

love guppys - going today to see what they haev in

 

[chesterscot]

even when your tank is cycled i would w8 at least three or four months b4 adding neons
scot

 

[millie1]

thanks!

ive not got 6 danios and 2 plecs - as advised by the dude at the fish shop....

 

[Miss Wiggle]

You've gone from 1 fish to 9 in an only just cycled tank and two of those are massive waste producers.

bad advice from the lfs, very very bad advice.

you have to think of cycling as supply and demand. Say you have a fish tank with some fish in producing 2ppm of ammonia every day, when the bacteria have grown to a point that they can consume 2ppm of ammonia then this tank would be considered cycled. If you then doubled it so you had fish producing 4ppm of ammonia then the tank would not be cycled anymore because the bacteria could only handle the 2ppm. Bacteria will grow but you have to go through the cycling phase again to build up to this point. This is why if you've cycled with fish you build up very very slowly to avoid any future cycles.

What will happen now is you'll be in a full on fish-in cycle, the ammonia will shoot up over the next few days and you'll have to do several large water changes every day to keep ammonia and nitrite below 0.25ppm.

You're putting the new fish at considerable fish by doing this and the lfs should never have advised it.

I would suggest you take them back to the shop, whatever the species of the 1 fish you have is just get 1 more of that fish, carefully monitor ammonia and nitrite and if they're holding steady at 0 after a couple of weeks then add 1 more fish.

You should never go as high as 2 x the current fish load, you've gone about 10 x the fish load.

 

[Mr Bliss]

Literally every day someone mentions some really bad LFS advice here that makes me really angry. Why do they always recommend plecs for new tanks? I bet they're common plecos too, how big is this tank?

At the very least, I'd take the plecs back.

 

[millie1]

my tanks 200 liters.....

the guys said it would be fine... and to be honest i believed him as he'd always give good advice!......

why get rid of the plecs though?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well two reasons.... potentially.

soem plecs get up to 24" long, you've not told us what species of plec you have, the one's most often sold in lfs's are common's and gibbiceps, both of which get to well over a foot and would be too big even for a 200 litre tank. If you can confirm the species (post a pic if you don't know) then we can advise if they are suitable long term.

secondly plecs are very high waste producers, back to what i was saying about how many ppm of ammonia your fish are producing and the bacteria are consuming. you may just about get away with the extra from a few danios as they are low waste producers, but for the size of the fish plec's producee more ammonia than just about any fish out there, so they're just about the worst choice you could make at this point in time. What you want is to build up gradually with low waste producing fish for now.

 

[millie1]

ahhh right ok.....

rather than giving them back to the pet shop i will ask my friend to keep them for me for a few weeks - her tanks been running for a couple of years as far as i know