Cycling

[Angiey]

Hi. I have a juwel 180 litre. I am doing a traditional cycle with a few zebras. They have been in for 8 days and I have an ammonia reading of approx 0.35. What can I expect ammonia to rise to and what time scale are we looking at before nitrite kicks in and what would be considered a dangerous reading if nitrite still has not started. I would assume I would start water changes then if this instance occurred.
Thanks in advance.
AY

 

[dwarfgourami]

Hard to tell exactly, but you might be looking at maybe another week for the ammonia stage and then another 3-4 weeks for the nitrites, though could also be less. Then again, a couple of danios for a 180 ltr is not a lot of fish, so you may not get much of a spike. But then again, you will have to carry on adding fish slowly after that. I would do a water change whenever either ammonia or nitrites go over 0.5 ppm.