Fish in cycle

[Bking426]

Hi. I’m new to cycling tanks. I have had a betta on and off for years. But never in a cycled tank. I’m trying to get my 10 gallon tank cycled. My betta from eBay shipped faster than I anticipated! I set up my tank Thursday and he came Friday. I put him in. Saturday he looked to be breathing hard. I took a sample to petco which said nitrites were high. So I bought an API kit. Since he came so fast I had to use gravel, a moss ball from another tank, and two ghost shrimp. I’d anticipated using an eco substrate and live plants. But I was low on funds. Anyway I’ve been testing my water and I’m so lost. It’s all over my head. I’ve been dosing the tank with prime and stability. I did little water changes yesterday and today. Probably 20%. Here’s my parameters today.

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[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you ever get an ammonia or nitrite reading, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day until the levels are on 0.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Keep feeding down to once every second day and only feed him as much as he can eat in 30 seconds. Remove uneaten food after that.

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When you check the test results, put the phial on the white part of the card and have a white light (cool white light) on in the room. Yellow lights (warm globes) can make the colours look a little off.

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If you have another tank that has an established filter, you can take half of the filter media from the established filter and put it in the new filter. The bacteria will help speed up the cycling process and help remove the ammonia and nitrite.

 

[Bking426]

Thanks! I have a carbon filter on two tanks but they are different sizes. I switched them anyway just now. But one is way too big to close the other tank lid.


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[Bking426]

These are my readings today. I hope I used the right lighting [emoji51]

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[Colin_T]

The latest test results look like 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite and a very low level of nitrate. Looks pretty good

 

[Bking426]

Yay!! I started this tank 5 days ago. This fish in cycle stuff is stressful!


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[Colin_T]

Y... This fish in cycle stuff is stressful!

lol, yeah it can seem like that at times. It gets easier once the filters have established

 

[Bking426]

Okay here’s tonight’s. Nitrate definitely looks a little darker I think.

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[TallPaul]

Nitrate looks right around 5.0 ppm. That's pretty normal. Has ammonia gone up slightly? Could be the water conditioner, some have additional chemicals that render the ammonia harmless and they can sometimes show up. If you do a water change and your ammonia seems to have gone up immediately after then that could be a reason .

 

[Bking426]

I’ve been using Prime.


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