I think my cycle has crashed

[fishy_sean94]

A few weeks ago I decided to change the substrate in my already established and cycled tank, which I’m guessing is what’s causing what I think is a crash in my cycle. I’ve also changed out my plastic plants for real ones but I wouldn’t have thought that would make a bad impact in anything.

I am doing regular water changes and tests and today my Nitrates are very high along with what looks like 0.25ppm on Ammonia and Nitrite.

I use (and have been for many months) using Tetra NitrateMinus when doing a water change as I believe my tap water is high in the stuff and found that was before helping, but it seems to be doing nothing at the moment to lower them.

Any suggestion on the best thing to do to safely speed it up and get everything back down to zero/really low?
Would it be wise to add some Tetra SafeStart to the tank which did help me originally cycle it last year when it was new?

 

[Essjay]

The general consensus is that Tetra NitrateMinus doesn't actually reduce nitrate.

How much nitrate is in your tap water? If the tank nitrate is a lot higher than your tap water, it's being made in the tank so you'd need to look at things like how many fish you have, how much you feed, whether you remove the debris from the bottom of the tank during a water change etc. But if it's the same as your tap water you would need to look into removing it before you add water to the tank. There are various ways to do this from Pozzani nitrate filters to storing water in a container with a lot of floating plants then using that once the plants have removed the nitrate.


For ammonia and nitrite, yes you could try Tetra Safe Start but you also need to do a water change whenever they read above zero.

 

[fishy_sean94]

According to my water providers website on average it contains 33.5mg/l.

As I said though for a long while all my water perimeters were fine until recent weeks it seems after swapping out my substrate.

I do regular siphon cleaning where I can, though now with real plants I have to be more careful obviously not to uproot anything. I clean the filter regular (in old tank water) and haven’t added any new fish since adding the initial 6 which are still in it now.

I’ve done another 50% water change and clean up today and will do another test later. For now is it best just to keep doing this more often until the levels fix themselves, or is there any product I could try which would help?

 

[Essjay]

According to my water providers website on average it contains 33.5mg/l.

That explains why the tank nitrate is high. You won't be able to get that any lower with water changes.

In an established tank, a lot of the good bacteria are in the substrate so you will have removed a lot of them when you changed substrate. The real plants will help as they will remove ammonia and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate but they need to become established and start growing before they have any significant impact.
The best thing you can do going forwards is to keep an eye on yuor ammonia and nitrite, doing a water change when they read above zero. Once the plants start to flourish, they will help as well. Tetra Safe Start may also help, but it's not an instant fix.

 

[fishy_sean94]

In the past despite my water being high in nitrates, I definitely have seen readings of it very close to zero before. Would this be the case once the tank has fully cycled again?
I assumed the NitrateMinus stuff was helping, but today I didn’t add any in after a water change as I’ve read (including yourself) mentioned it doesn’t do much.

Would using Prime in the tank also improve things? A lot of people I’ve noticed seem to swear by the stuff but I’ve only ever used Tetra AquaSafe.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Prime won't affect trAte levels, only water changes and plants (along with cleaning filters, not media) will reduce trAtes.

That being said, you are better off using either Prime or API Tap Water Conditioner for WC's...

 

[Essjay]

Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrite for around 24 hours, which is one reason a lot of people use it. That means it keeps the fish safe between daily water changes.


Tetra's website says this about Aqua Safe

Contains a natural plant extract to protect fish gills and mucous membranes

This is usually aloe vera, which doesn't protect gills, it coats them and harms the gills. Fish do not need these 'natural plant extracts' and Prime and API Tap Water Conditioner don't contain them. Finish the bottle, then get one of the other two.

 

[fishy_sean94]

Okay thanks I’ll likely switch to Prime then and see how that goes. Apparently it’s cheaper as well given a bottle will treat a lot more water than the equivalent of AquaSafe which is a bonus.

I have done another test and these are the results:

Glad to see the Ammonia and Nitrite are looking okay but I still don’t understand the huge spike in Nitrates. I know my water is rather high in it but as I said before I was doing tests and it was at most 20ppm.

 

[Essjay]

Is your nitrite the sky blue of the chart in the flesh (as it were)? In the photo it looks a greeny blue.


I'm at a loss about your nitrate. When your tank nitrate was 20, was your tap nitrate also low?

 

[Avel1896]

Hey keep in mind that substrate beneficial bacterias dislike any kind of "tillage"

 

[Avel1896]

@fishy_sean94 sorry I'm a quibbler but could you shoot results one by one at full day light please ? (no sun).

 

[fishy_sean94]

Sorry if the picture of the results didn’t look very good. Daylight has gone here now as it’s too late but I will be doing another test tomorrow.

But yes the Nitrite was the sky blue colour in person, definitely no green that I could see.

And I have never tested my tap water directly so I’m unsure if the nitrates have changed recently.

Thinking hard about things it could be, I just remembered I added some (4 I believe) plant root tabs in the substrate also. Would these cause the huge nitrate spike?

 

[Naughts]

Thinking hard about things it could be, I just remembered I added some (4 I believe) plant root tabs in the substrate also. Would these cause the huge nitrate spike?

There was a thread a while back where root tabs had affected water quality...what brand did you use?

 

[Essjay]

Does the pack list the ingredients?

 

[fishy_sean94]

They are from eBay. The description lists these as the ingredients:
17% nitrogen (N)
9% phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5)
11% Potassium oxide (K2O)
2% Magnesium oxide (MgO)
0.01% Boron (B) 0.006% soluble in water
0.025% Copper (Cu) 0.017% soluble in water ** see note below **
0.22% Iron (Fe) of which soluble in water , chelated by EDTA 0.033%
0.03% Manganese
0.01% Molybdenum 0.008% soluble in water
0.008% Zinc

Here is the link to them: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-10-Fr...2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0