Cycling Tank?

[Sammy]

Hello,
I am in the process of cycling my 200litre tank and am not sure what to do next.
Here is what I've done so far.

Day 1 added 3 fish
Day 4 realised 3 wasn't enough so added 3 more
Day 6 detected ammonia(slight trace)
Day 8 higher ammonia levels
Day 10 Ammonia levels are zero, nitrite levels between 1-5ppm, nitrate levels about 30ppm

Now i am unsure what to do next, because everything I've read says I shouldn't have any nitrate readings yet. Should I do a 10% water change now or wait?

Thanks for the help

 

[tttnjfttt]

Some people have nitrate readings in their tap water, so that is one possible source. Have you added anything to help speed the cycle up, such as filter media or gravel from another tank?

As for if you should do a water change, alot depends on the type of fish you have and what your nitrite level is. There is a big difference between a nitrite level of 1 and a nitrite level of 5. If it is 1 or close to it, you can probably ride it out, but if it is much hihger, then begin doing daily water changes. This will help reduce the stress on your fish but still allow your tank to cycle.

 

[Sammy]

Thanks for replying. There was no nitrate readings a couple of days ago so that rules out nitrate being in the tap water and the nitrites were closer to 1ppm than 5ppm. I did add some biozime at the start but only a small amount, but wasn't confident it would work. I am cycling the tank with 6 goldfish which were recommended by numerous LFS. The goldfish are going back to the store once tank is cycled and being swapped for tropical fish so should I just leave it for now???

 

[tttnjfttt]

are these feeder goldfish? If so, these often carry diseases, so you may need to quarentine your tank before adding your fish in.

 

[Sammy]

once the tank was cycled and the fish removed, we were going to med the tank for 24hrs and put carbon in the filter to remove the meds before putting tropical fish in.The LFS recommend goldfish to use.

So any other ideas as why i have nitrate readings already???

 

[rdd1952]

Nitrate is the end result of the cycling precess. If your ammonia has gone back to 0 and you have nitrite, it would stand to reason that you would have some nitrate although 30 ppm does seem high.

When you remove the goldfish and then treat with medication, you may well kill off all your bacteria again. Numerous medications will wipe out the bacteria colony. I don't think you will have much choice other than to add the tropicals right away (make sure you turn the heat up when you remove the goldfish so it will be settled at around 78F when you add the tropicals). Otherwise, if you run the tank for a day (to have any effect on any bacteria in the tank, you would need to treat for at least 5 days or whatever the medication recommends) with medication and no fish, your bacteria will begin to die off from lack of food.

 

[windtrancer]

possibly because of the biozyme you put in, but from what i hear, products like biozyme shouldn't work (unless they're refrigerated of course).

by the way, where do you live, sam?

 

[Sammy]

thanks for the advice on the medication, from the sounds of things we will give it a miss.
as far as water temps, we live in the tropics (northern australia) so our water temps are 80f constantly this time of year. In fact it would be higher if we didn't have the air con running all day.
Even though we used goldfish to cycle the tank, we had the environment set up for tropical fish as advised by our LFS who has had a lot of experience cycling tanks in this part of the country.
So assuming our nitrate levels are so high, should we do a water change and how much?