Fishless Cycled, Now Fish In, And Nitrite Readings Up!

[DanielG]

i finished fishless cycling a month ago,

added fish at about the same time, at first i added 5 corys 2 guppies and a bristlenose, everything was fine

on sunday i added 8 neons and now my nirtite levels are at 0.25ppm, ammonia still 0

have i been over feeding or has the added fish made to great a waste output for the filter!!!

help i dont want my fish to die, all was ok until now!!!

 

[Dark Wolf]

it's probably because of the large increase in ammonia from not only the waste produced but also the incresed amount of food you are putting in.

A decent water change should hopefully do the trick

 

[stang1]

What size tank is it?
How often are you feeding your fish?

 

[DanielG]

33 gallon

i feed once a day

a few pinches of catfish pellets, a few pinches of flake food and an algae waifer

is that to much?

 

[Matty P]

What is do when I feed my fish flake food is feed them all one flake at a time until they don't eat any more.

 

[mark.w.jones]

What is do when I feed my fish flake food is feed them all one flake at a time until they don't eat any more.

You'd be feeding all day if you had certain species then especially the greedier ones. You should only feed enough food so that all is eaten in a minute or slightly less. Over feeding is very common and when you bare in mind that most fish can last at least week without bening fed at all then it puts things in perspective.

When you finished your original fishless cycle there would have been a huge number of bacteria present in your filter media. Far more than you every need to cope with fish waste. After putting in your original stock these bacteria would then have gradually died off until there was just enough to "feed off" the waste produced by you stock. Adding your neons has made a fairly big increase in the waste production within your tank and it takes new bacteria a little while (a week or so) to grow to deal with this extra waste. This is why you have had you spike. Just keep up your water changes, 10- 15% a day and keep an eye on levels.

 

[rdd1952]

I'm sure the increased nitrite is just a mini cycle from the new fish. You approximately doubled the load and it takes about a day for the bacteria to double. It should be gone in about 24 to 36 hours.