Fish In Cycle

[weejen]

i got a new tank for my xmas. 55l hexagonal tank. filter is a fulval 2 + and i have the heater set to 28c

i started a fish-less cycle
i tested mt tap water
results

ph.7.4
ammonium <0.01ppm
nitrite 0
nitrate0

and my tank water

ph.7.4
ammoinium 3.0 ppm
nitrite 0
nitrate0
that as after dosing my tank with ammoium to correct ammount

2 days later i was givin 3 fish 2 black mollies and another mollie

so had to start a fish in cycle. i pmed the ppl on the list in my area to get filter media but no one replied i asked in lfs and they sed the couldnt not donate any.
so i teste4d my water tonite and the resluts were as follows

ph. 7.7
ammonium 3ppm
nitrie 0
nitrate >1ppm

help what should i do

 

[tom_os]

im doing a fish in cycle at the moment and as yet dont have a test kit (should come tomorrow)

i have 2 guppys which are fine and as i dont kno any water stats i am doing a 25% water change every day to try and dilute the concentration of ammoina

however im pretty new to this so dont compleatly take my word for it

hope that helps

 

[waterdrop]

I agree, with 55L/15G and only 3 mollies, even if you don't have a test kit yet, you could change anywhere between 25% to 50% daily and probably the fish would be safe until you can measure and know for sure.

The important action of course is to obtain a liquid-reagent based testing kit such as the API Freshwater Master Test Kit or the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit and post up your tap water and tank water results here for Ammonia, Nitrite(NO2), pH and Nitrate(NO3) and the members will then be able to further advise.

Unless you can re-home the fish (which would be optimal), you are in a Fish-In cycle situation. Its not always possible to keep the fish alive in these situations but the process to give you the best chance is pretty well known and can be recited by many of the members here. You need to test, usually morning and evening, and try to keep the ammonia and nitrite(NO2) levels as close to zero as possible. If either poison is above 0.25ppm then you should perform a 50% water change (with conditioning and rough temperature matching) and test again in one hour. If it is still not below 0.25ppm, then you do another 50% change and so forth. Usually, other than the first time, a single water change daily will usually accomplish this need for manual filtering. Its like a detective game, testing and figuring out what frequency and percentage of water change will allow you to never max more than 0.25ppm on ammonia or nitrite(NO2).

Good Luck and keep us informed!
~~waterdrop~~

 

[weejen]

i have just done a 50% water change and heated the water up from the kettle and used dechlorinator.

i have a liquid test kit and posted results in first post in the topic

 

[waterdrop]

i have just done a 50% water change and heated the water up from the kettle and used dechlorinator.

i have a liquid test kit and posted results in first post in the topic

Fishless and Fish-In are totally separate processes (just making sure here!) Since you are now in a fishless cycle, you should not be adding any ammonia to the tank, right? So the test results in your first post would not help us know what your water change has acheived.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[weejen]

i havnt added anymore ammonia since i first got the tank. and deffo not since the fish went in

 

[pippoodle]

take some more tests tomorrow morning weejen and post the results

good luck on the cycle

Sarah xx

do a new post requesting filter media in your area -- someone might reply hun

 

[weejen]

i will test first thing in the morning.

thanx

what forum should i request some filter media?

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree, next set of tests should give us a better idea.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[JustKia]

Have you read Miss Wiggles' post on the fish-in cycle? There's a link in my sig, definitely worth reading (and much better than my trying to say it).
I've fish-in cycled my tank and found that post invaluable.

 

[weejen]

just done a water test

p.h 7.4
ammonia 2ppm
nitrite 0
nitrate 5.0 ppm

should i do another water change?

 

[Truck]

yes ammonia is present get it down to 0, do a 50% water change

 

[weejen]

i will thank you. anything else i should do

 

[waterdrop]

Again, your goal is to determine what pattern of water changes, both how many and how large, will allow the water the fish are in to never reach measured levels of ammonia or nitrite(NO2) higher than 0.25ppm (that's a pretty small level!)

As an ammonia level of 2.0ppm is very high, your water change pattern so far has failed. You need to change 50% right away (with conditioning and rough temperature matching (your hand is good enough)) and then an added complication is that you really can't find out what you acheived with that until about an hour later when the water will have mixed and settled well and you can again get a reliable reading and see if you brought it down to 0.25ppm ammonia. If you didn't, then you need yet another 50% right away. Its very, very hard work and quickly one sees why we recommend fishless cycling so strongly.

Anything over 0.25ppm ammonia is causing permanent gill damage in pretty bad amounts and any nitrite(NO2) over 0.25ppm is causing permanent nerve damage from suffocation, although the real situation varies by species and is not well documented in the literature.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[pippoodle]

hows it going weejen any more updates?