Help! Only Ever Seeing Readings For Ammonia (longish!)

[keithbrown53]

Hi there

I've been running a Bi-Ube (35ltr / 9 US Gallons) since the middle of January.

First ever tank. Before this, I knew nothing of cycling.

I added two rummy nose tetras right away (bad choice, I know now). These have been fine ever since.

A few weeks later, I added 2 cherry barbs. One died that night, the other has been fine.

Following the death of the cherry barb, I then read up on cycling, water changes and testing.

I have bought an API Master kit, and have been logging what I am seeing, displayed below.

What I am concerned about is that I only ever see ammonia building up, at which point I perform a big water change (between 50 and 70% depending on how bad the ammonia is). I never see any readings for nitrite and only rarely for nitrate, which is odd, l as I understand that ammonia should be processed into nitrite then nitrate.

Date Ph Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate

6/2/09 7.2 - 7.6 1 0 5 - performed a 40% change
6/3/09 7.2 0.5 0 5 - performed a 50% change
7/3/09 7.2 0.25 0 0 - performed a 50% change
8/3/09 7.2 0 0 0 - performed a 60% change
13/3/09 7.6 0.5 to 1 0 0 - just a test of water
13/3/09 7.2-7.6 0.25 0 0 - 70% change

Tap water has zero ammonia.

Fish look happy; darting around, interested in food.

What concerns me, is that I am not over feeding, I am performing frequent, large water changes, but I am still seeing ammonia rising, but not being processed into nitrites / nitrates. I am rinsing the sponge in old tank water, and have never replaced it.

I would have thought the tank would have been cycled by now?

What's going on?

Cheers,
Keith.

 

[Athena]

Can I just ask - are you rinsing out the filter sponge every time you do a water change?

Also, on the day that you had a 0 ammonia reading, why did you do a 60% water change?

Am I correct in thinking that you have only 3 fish in this tank at present? If so, they will not be producing a lot of waste over a daily period.

Also, although ideally your ammonia reading should be 0, it's really not uncommon for a reading of 0.25 to show up - but so long as your filter is converting this into nitrite and the nitrites into nitrates then all should be well. Having a 0 nitrite reading is great!

Most probably you are over-doing it on the maintenance/water changes, maybe cleaning of the filter sponge a little too often (this really only needs a little sloosh in tank water once a month). Over-cleaning can result in you stripping away good bacteria - and hence why you are getting a small ammonia reading.

Your tank has been running for about 2 months now, so I would think it is cycled by now. Cut down to doing weekly water changes, monthly filter rinse and gravel vac and to put your mind at rest you can test your water weekly/fortnightly just to make sure all is fine.

Athena

 

[keithbrown53]

Can I just ask - are you rinsing out the filter sponge every time you do a water change?

Also, on the day that you had a 0 ammonia reading, why did you do a 60% water change?

Am I correct in thinking that you have only 3 fish in this tank at present?

Your tank has been running for about 2 months now, so I would think it is cycled by now. Cut down to doing weekly water changes, monthly filter rinse and gravel vac and to put your mind at rest you can test your water weekly/fortnightly just to make sure all is fine.

Athena

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not rinsing out the filter every time; only when it looks like it's full of goo. Even when I do rinse it out, it's only in used aquarium water. I've read tap water kills the good bacteria.

My table isn't too clear - I did a 60% change to get to the zero reading.

I only have the 3 fish - two rummy nose tetras and one cherry barb. I'd like to increase this to 8 or 10 over time, but until I'm happy I'm not going to kill the ones I have already, I'm holding fire.

Cheers,
Keith.