Fish In Cycle

[tjacksonpfc]

Hi all I have a new tank after getting totally addicted with my 120ltr. I now have a rio 240. I was planning on setting it up doing a fishless cycle. However all best plans and all that. My 120ltr developed a leak so I have had to add the fish to my new tank after only 24hours of cycling it.

I put my old filter across as well as having a big fluval external filter on it. The water was crystal clear initally I now have cloudy water.

I tested my levels this morning and they are as follows.

Amonia 0.25ppm
ph 7.2
Nitrite 0.25ppm
Nitrate 20ppm

Is this ok and is there anything i can do to speed the cycle up so as not to stress the fish to much, i only have 3 green tigerbarbs, 3 swordtails and 5 danios in it.

 

[Warehouse]

Hi TJack, with an already established filter the bacteria is already in a good place that should deal with the fish waste as the external filter gets up to speed, but to be on the safe side it would probably be best to read the "fish in cycle" article to cover all the bases.

Fish in cycle

 

[tjacksonpfc]

Hi warehouse thanks for that I have read the fish in cycle article on here but it is very in depth and i never was much good at science

I was after some really basic idiot proof advice lol.

 

[Tizer]

Did you dechlorinate the water in the new tank?

If you didnt you may well have annihilated the bacteria in your filter.

Both your ammonia and nitrite are relatively low, i would leave for 24 hours and see if it changes and see if your filter kicks in.

If it doesnt, i would consider kicking off nightly water changes of 10%/15% until they read 0.

 

[tjacksonpfc]

Hi Tizer yes I did dechlorinate the tap water before putting it in. The tank had only been running 24 hours though before I had to put the fish in. When I test the water tommorow at what levels will I know if i need to start doing water changes? Thanks

 

[Tizer]

if you see ammonia/nitrite, you need to do a water change. Simples.

 

[tjacksonpfc]

Simples the way I work lol great thanks Tizer I will keeep and eye on it hopefully they will drop to 0 shortly