Cycling Tank Advice Please

[Althamon]

I am new to maintaining an aquarium and as most new starters jumped to the running stage thinking thats all that was needed.....

I now know otherwise as when I started out I started with 6 zebra danios and 6 glass bloodfin (at this point making the mistake of overstocking immediately and before cycling had begun) the bloodfins unfortunately didnt survive the 12 hours they were in the tank for and as it turns out I had the new guy at the lfs who just sold the fish no questions asked. I had a refund for the dead ones but no signs of anything bad in their water tests so I assume it was the stress.

I am now just over a week into the cycle and the danios are racing around all seeming to be healthy and playful and what I assume to be 2M/4F due to the Males being more yellow and less rounded underneath if I am guessing correctly.

I am not going to add any more to the tank until the cycles are stable, but I was wondering if I would be able to introduce some bacteria from my housemates aquarium filter (his tank contains 5x goldfish, plec and shark) into my own to aid with the cycling?

Also is doing a 10-15% water change every few days too much at this early stage of cycling?

And finally the testing method I use are the 6 in 1 tetra sticks?

Apart from the initial bad experience at first how would you say I am doing?

 

[Aqua Tom]

I am new to maintaining an aquarium and as most new starters jumped to the running stage thinking thats all that was needed.....

I now know otherwise as when I started out I started with 6 zebra danios and 6 glass bloodfin (at this point making the mistake of overstocking immediately and before cycling had begun) the bloodfins unfortunately didnt survive the 12 hours they were in the tank for and as it turns out I had the new guy at the lfs who just sold the fish no questions asked. I had a refund for the dead ones but no signs of anything bad in their water tests so I assume it was the stress.

I am now just over a week into the cycle and the danios are racing around all seeming to be healthy and playful and what I assume to be 2M/4F due to the Males being more yellow and less rounded underneath if I am guessing correctly.

I am not going to add any more to the tank until the cycles are stable, but I was wondering if I would be able to introduce some bacteria from my housemates aquarium filter (his tank contains 5x goldfish, plec and shark) into my own to aid with the cycling?

Also is doing a 10-15% water change every few days too much at this early stage of cycling?

And finally the testing method I use are the 6 in 1 tetra sticks?

Apart from the initial bad experience at first how would you say I am doing?

Hello & Welcome.

Well done for identifying that your are now in a fish-in cycle.

You mention you have test strips but have omited to post any test results, please do so, with these we can see whats going on with your water.

You are aware that you need to change water but are not doing enough. You need to change at least 25% every day.

Most of our members go with a liquid based reagent test kit rather than the test strips. Some find teststrips inaccurate but i have never used them so cannot answer from experience. personaly I use the API Master Test Kit. Avaiable for abou £20 from Ebay, or £30+ at your local lfs.

If your freind is willing to give you some mature media by all means grab it. It can help speed your cycle along.

Hope this helps

~Tom~

 

[twodoctors]

I am new to maintaining an aquarium and as most new starters jumped to the running stage thinking thats all that was needed.....

I now know otherwise as when I started out I started with 6 zebra danios and 6 glass bloodfin (at this point making the mistake of overstocking immediately and before cycling had begun) the bloodfins unfortunately didnt survive the 12 hours they were in the tank for and as it turns out I had the new guy at the lfs who just sold the fish no questions asked. I had a refund for the dead ones but no signs of anything bad in their water tests so I assume it was the stress.

I am now just over a week into the cycle and the danios are racing around all seeming to be healthy and playful and what I assume to be 2M/4F due to the Males being more yellow and less rounded underneath if I am guessing correctly.

I am not going to add any more to the tank until the cycles are stable, but I was wondering if I would be able to introduce some bacteria from my housemates aquarium filter (his tank contains 5x goldfish, plec and shark) into my own to aid with the cycling?

Also is doing a 10-15% water change every few days too much at this early stage of cycling?

And finally the testing method I use are the 6 in 1 tetra sticks?

Apart from the initial bad experience at first how would you say I am doing?

I think you are doing fine.

Using your mate's fitler media is fine provided his tank is disease free. You didn't mention testing water yourself so I am assuming you haven't bought a test kit yet. It is an essential piece of kit so go and get one now!

I suffered a mini-cycle recently because I bought too many fishes in too short a period of time. What I did was to do 50% water change when the ammonia and/or nitrite rise to 0.25mg/l (ppm). This would brign it down to 0.125mg/l, still high but at least won't harm the fish too much and also still encourage bacteria growth. Others may have different opinion on this subject. If the reading is less than 0.25 but more than 0, then I do 25% change. I check my water daily and the mini-cycle lasted about 12 days.

Don't forget the water conditioner. I used to use tetra AquaSafe. Now use SeaChem Prime as it is way cheaper.

Hope that helps.

Adrian

 

[KittyKat]

I am not going to add any more to the tank until the cycles are stable, but I was wondering if I would be able to introduce some bacteria from my housemates aquarium filter (his tank contains 5x goldfish, plec and shark) into my own to aid with the cycling?

Yes! If you can, put some of their media into your filter.. media is what we call sponges, etc. If you can't take any media, then clean their filter in your tank (I know, sounds horrible, but that would dislodge some of the bacteria form their media.

Also is doing a 10-15% water change every few days too much at this early stage of cycling?

Ammonia and nitrites *must* be kept below 0.5ppm, which often means people end up doing 50% water changes every day. Make sure you dechlorinate your water.

And finally the testing method I use are the 6 in 1 tetra sticks?

Liquid tests are more reliable, but strips are better than nothing at all. Important readings right now are ammonia and nitrites -- both are toxic to fish.

Apart from the initial bad experience at first how would you say I am doing?

You're researching, which is good, but you also need to know the water readings...

 

[Althamon]

I did a water change last night next was planned for tomorrow and will increase to 25% and do one tonight.

According to the strips my results are as follows:
NO3[sup]-[/sup] = about 50mg/l
NO2[sup]-[/sup] = 1-5 mg/l
GH = 16 degrees (remains constant each test)
KH = 15 degrees (remains constant each test)
pH = 7.6 (this stays between 7.2 and 8 on all tests)
CL[sup]-[/sup] = 0 (use tap safe equivalent)

I am in a fairly hard water area which is probably why the GH and carbonate values are probably so high.

 

[twodoctors]

I did a water change last night next was planned for tomorrow and will increase to 25% and do one tonight.

According to the strips my results are as follows:
NO3[sup]-[/sup] = about 50mg/l
NO2[sup]-[/sup] = 1-5 mg/l
GH = 16 degrees (remains constant each test)
KH = 15 degrees (remains constant each test)
pH = 7.6 (this stays between 7.2 and 8 on all tests)
CL[sup]-[/sup] = 0 (use tap safe equivalent)

I am in a fairly hard water area which is probably why the GH and carbonate values are probably so high.

What about ammonia level?
Nitrite is high at 1-5mg/l. Personally I would do a 75% change, then retest. Repeat the water change if necessary.

Adrian

 

[Althamon]

I don't have an ammonia test kit but I shall be picking one up in the morning and I shall post the results but in the mean time I shall do a 50% change tonight to tide me over til I can do the proper test

 

[Aqua Tom]

Great. Let us know the test results then we can get to the nitty gritty of your cycle.

 

[Althamon]

After completing the 50% water change the results were as follows: no3 = 10-25 mg/l
No2 = 1 mg/l
PH = 7.6

All other values same as before and the ammonia was at 2mg/l possibly 3 as it wasn't dark enough for 4 (using api liquid test) although I am a little colourblind...

I didn't have enough time to change water after test but will be able to in the morning. And plan on another 50% to get the levels down further.

 

[KittyKat]

After completing the 50% water change the results were as follows: no3 = 10-25 mg/l
No2 = 1 mg/l
PH = 7.6

All other values same as before and the ammonia was at 2mg/l possibly 3 as it wasn't dark enough for 4 (using api liquid test) although I am a little colourblind...

I didn't have enough time to change water after test but will be able to in the morning. And plan on another 50% to get the levels down further.

Those ammonia and nitrite readings are high enough to cause permanent health problems in fish. You should start doing 50% waterchanges at 12 hour intervals to bring them down to less harmful levels.

 

[Althamon]

Thankfully they weren't high for too long as tested a few min ago and no3 was 25mg/l and no2 was barely registering so was below 1 mg/l

Ammonia reading is now 1mg/l

Water change was done about 7am

 

[twodoctors]

Thankfully they weren't high for too long as tested a few min ago and no3 was 25mg/l and no2 was barely registering so was below 1 mg/l

Ammonia reading is now 1mg/l

Water change was done about 7am

Ammonia at 1 is still high.

Time for another 75% water change! That will only reduce it to 0.25, but at least it's not as bad as 1 (ie less likely to die).

What I would do if I were you is to try to reduce the reading (ammonia and nitrite) to zero (on your test kit). Then the next time you test if it reads 0.25 then do a 50% change. If it reads higher than 75% change. If it reads 0 then 25% change. Do that at least daily. Once you find that Ammonia and Nitrite are consistently reading 0, try delaying the water change for 24 hours, then retest. If it remains zero then you are done. Will take about 2 weeks if not more. Ignore the nitrate for now. With your regular water change it shouldn't cause any problem.

Adrian

 

[Althamon]

After frequent water changes and help from housemates media my tank finally completed it's ammonia cycle (took about 2.5 weeks) and now ammonia reads 0mg/l. I am now assuming I am on the nitrite spike as this had rocketed up to near 50 mg/l so did 75% change. On average how long does this part of the cycle normally take?

 

[Skins]

After frequent water changes and help from housemates media my tank finally completed it's ammonia cycle (took about 2.5 weeks) and now ammonia reads 0mg/l. I am now assuming I am on the nitrite spike as this had rocketed up to near 50 mg/l so did 75% change. On average how long does this part of the cycle normally take?

On average between 2-3weeks. With the introduction of your housemates media this could be shorter, fingers crossed.

Keith.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Keith and looks like you're getting good advice up there. Hang in there and keep giving them the nice fresh water! WD