Fish-In Cycle Advice Needed

[AshleyGracie]

Ok so I ended up doing a fish in cycle by accident (see my other thread for the story) and I'm about 3 to 4 weeks into it. I found this forum about a week ago and got ammonia and nitrite test kits and started doing daily water changes. I have been able to get and keep ammonia levels under .25ppm but I'm not seeing any nitrite yet. Does this mean I still have not grown any ammonia eating bacteria? How long until I should expect to see nitrites in my tank?
Also, just before I found this forum I medicated my tank with an anti fungal med. My black tetras weren't looking so black anymore so I went to the pet shop and told them they were kind of white looking and they said it may be fungus and sold me some meds. I now know it was probably just stress from the extremely high ammonia levels I had going on. A day or so later I found this site, did a massive water change, monitored the ammonia and everything was fine. They got their black color back and seem very content now. So my question on that is could the med have killed off my bacteria and put me back to day one on the growth?

I have not done a nitrate test yet; waiting for some test kits to arrive, should be tomorrow; so is it possible I have grown nitrite bacteria but missed it?
Please let me know if anything I said here does not make sense. Still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Gilli]

Some medications can also have an effect on your biological system so you want to read carefully to make sure that you are not going to end up killing all the bacteria in your filters.Take a look at the information on the bottle and phamphlet. Provided its ok if you are doing water changes you need to re-dose with the meds for the amount of water you have removed.

It could be that your tank is cycled and you are just having a mini spike with the ammonia reading if you have no nitrite reading, although its doubtful as 3-4 weeks is not long - usually a tank takes between 6-8 weeks to fully cycle if you are not using any seeded media. You will only be able to tell once you test for nitrates - if you have a nitrate reading and a 0 nitrite reading then the tank is cycled and you will be having an ammonia spike.If your nitrate reading is also 0 then your tank is not cycled.

carry on with your daily water changes and cut right back on feeding while you still have an ammonia reading and once you get your nitrate test kit you will know what you are doing.

 

[AshleyGracie]

Ok, read the package and it says for fungal and secondary bacterial infections. So I'm assuming my bacteria was affected Do that mean I'm starting from scratch again?
I'm hoping my nitrate kit tells me something tomorrow.
Sad thing is, is I don't even think it was fungus. More just stress and ammonia so I feel as though I medicated for no reason.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you might have decimated your filter bacteria depending on how effective the antibacterial action is. I seriously doubt you are completely back to the beginning but you may need to do some water changes.

 

[AshleyGracie]

I've been doing water changes everyday, so all is good there. And I got some great news today! I found someone with a cycled tank and is going to give me some of their filter sponge!
I will have it later this evening so will be putting it in and kipping my fingers crossed!

 

[CezzaXV]

It may be possible that there has been nitrite, but with your water changes the levels have never been high enough for you to detect.

 

[AshleyGracie]

Ok, I have a nitrate kit now and I'm not showing anything. Still no nitrites either.
I put the old filter in with my filter yesterday. Still doing major water changes to keep the ammonia down. Hope this all works out in the end

 

[TheJ0kerrr]

I went through a full fish-in cycle without ever reading nitrites... by doing water changes, you keep the levels so low that nitrites don't build up high enough for our test kits to read them clearly. Once you have nitrates and your ammonia is steady at 0ppm, you'll be cycled.

That mature media donation your are getting will help you a LOT to speed up the process. Keep up the good work!

 

[Salam]

The mature media will help immensely! You are doing a great job keeping your fish happy and before you know it all will be good and you can finally relax and properly enjoy your tank.