Fish In With Plants Question

[pnyf]

I have a small tank (3 gallons) that I have running with an internal canister filter, planted with 1 betta.  The tank has been running for about a month now. I have been checking my water parameters, hoping to get the filter cycled. What is happening is I am getting ammonia readings between .5 and 1 ppm, at which point I do a 50% water change. I check for nitrite and I have gotten 0ppm every single time I have checked. 
At this point I would have expected to see some nitrite in the water.
I am using tap water conditioner when I do my water changes but I fill up my bucket, put in the conditioner, stir the water and put it in the tank. 
Does the tap water conditioner take time to remove all the chlorine that would kill any bacteria that I have growing? I am using Topfin Water Conditioner. Do I need to let it sit in the bucket for a little while before I add the conditioned water to the tank? 
thank you for any help.
 
Peter

 

[KirkyArcher]

Adding dechlorinator is an instant chemical reaction, no need to wait. Fish in cycling will take a long time to get required levels of bacteria and high level of ammonia are the usual result of using this method so for the health of your betta you need to do lot more water changes and these water changes are the reasons it takes so long to complete a cycle.

 

[pnyf]

How long do you think it will be before I start seeing Nitrite in the water?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Can you please post the pH of your water. it is likely you are ding water changes that are not needed and which a re slowing your cycle. To show nitrite, you need ammonia first. How toxic ammonia might be depends on the pH and temperature of the water in which it is present.
 

 
Un-ionized ammonia (UIA) is about 100 times more toxic to fish than ionized ammonia. This UIA toxicity begins as low as 0.05 mg/L, so the result of the TAN test needs to be further calculated to find the actual concentration of UIA. To do this calculation, the temperature and pH need to be measured. Once the pH and temperature are known, the fraction of UIA can be calculated using a multiplication factor

from http/edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa031
 
Unionized ammonia is NH3 vs ionized ammonia which NH4. When you test for ammonia with a hobby kit your are reading total ammonia which is NH3 + NH4. The danger line is at .O5 ppm of NH3 for many fish. Some are more sensitive and some can tolerate more. Time of exposure is also a factor. Most research agrees that NH3 at .02 ppm is pretty much not a danger to any fw fish one might find in an aquarium. So we need to know how much bad ammonia is in your tank by knowing your pH and temp.
 
And when you get to the nitrite phase, there are other effective ways to handle this than doing water changes. Chlorides, which makes up about 2/3 of plain old table salt does the trick. It takes very little but does require math, etc. to calculate how much to add to the water. it will block the nitrite from harming the fish but not from being available to the bacteria.
 

 

[pnyf]

The Ph is between 7.4 and 7.6 when I check it and the tank temperature is about 78 degrees F.

 

[pnyf]

I just had a chance to read that article. What I understand is I should be waiting for my test kit to be reading between 2 and 5 ppm before I do a water change. This way there is ammonia in the tank,but not so much it harms the fish. Is this a correct understanding?
Also once I get closer to that level am I better off doing a smaller 25% water change more often or should I keep doing the 50% water change?

 

[daizeUK]

What is happening is I am getting ammonia readings between .5 and 1 ppm, at which point I do a 50% water change.

 
TTA is the expert but personally I think you're doing this perfectly already.  I would not wish to let the ammonia get higher than 1ppm.  There's a balance between ensuring the comfort of the fish and cycling the tank as quickly as you can, I prefer to err on the side of comfort.

 

[DerpPH]

Ammonia is usually more poisonous when it is in alkaline water or high pH water. Can I suggest you use Indian almond leaves for the pH to be lowered.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I usually stop at about 2 ppm for total ammonia, but not always. Its all about the NH3. So lets looks at your water: 7.5 is between 7.4 and 7.6, but I will use the 7.6 to use the highest possible reading.
 
At 7.6 pH and 78F, 1 ppm of total ammonia contains .0235 ppm of NH3. Unless you have young trout, or other salmonids, its a no worry number.
At 7.6 pH and 78F, 2 ppm of total ammonia contains .0471 ppm of NH3. Depending on the fish, action is likely needed to lower the ammonia. I would suggest 50-65% water change to get the ammonia down to 1 ppm or just under.
 
Now there is a caveat here. Given that different fish and their ages affects their ability to tolerate ammonia combined with the vagaries of hobby test kits, one also needs to observe their fish. If they show signs of distress such as hiding, moving slowly, gasping at the surface, red looking gills, loss of appetite, it doesn't matter what the ammonia readings are, you change the water. Fish showing signs of distress always trumps test results.
 
Now the next stage of dealing with fish in cycling is going to get more complicated. Even as the ammonia disappears, the nitrite appears. Unlike ammonia, there is a way to block the effect of nitrite inside the fish instead of doing water changes to lower it. Chloride at 10 times the concentration of the nitrite does the trick. Salt, plain old table salt, is about 2/3 chloride. So there is a bit a math needed to know the amount of salt to add.
 
1. Actual tank volume in litres.
2. Actual nitrite level in ppm. (This will likely mean you must learn how to perform diluted nitrite testing).
 
(Nitrite ppm) x 10 x (tank vol. in L) x 1.5/1,000 = grams of table salt to add.
 
The 1.5 multiplier is used to get 1 mg of salt, which is .66 ppm chloride, to become 1 ppm of chloride. The 1,000 divisor converts mg to g. In water, ppm and mg/l are very very close to being exact equivalents.