New Aquarium Chemical Levels!

[fatheadminnow]

The reason why things don't seem right is because you don't have any ammonia at a readable level in the tank, and at 2 weeks. Unless your fish are really small and they have not been in the tank long enough to bring the ammonia level up to a readable level. How many Goldfish do you have, and how big are they? Gold fish are messy fish and should be able to raise the ammonia level pretty fast.

This, to me, is the only logical explanation at this time, that your Goldfish just have not raised the ammonia level high enough yet for it to be readable. If you had any nitrite or nitrate present in the tank, then we would know that your cycle is progressing.

Did you add any water conditioner at all?

-FHM

 

[Mtvrdik10]

I have 2 gold fish in there currently at about 2 inches. Originally I had 7 but the other 5 died within a few days. However, these 2 have been just fine. And Yes I did also add water conditioner. I also added tank stabilization for the first 7 days of the tank set up as well.

 

[waterdrop]

FHM, your question about how many fish is what size tank was probably the right one. Two two-inchers in 50+ gallons is going to potentially make it hard to see the traces, especially because of the burst of 5 fish plus extra organic material initially. There may have been just enough A-Bacs to take advantage of all the ammonia a grow their colony a tiny bit early on, which would make the ammonia traces you'd catch even smaller. I think there are the potential for lots of fish-in cycles where the bioload is small enough that the traces can be hard to pick up or the short spikes go by and you miss them.

I forget, this is a straight-out new filter with new media, right Mtvrdik10?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Mtvrdik10]

yea man brand new eheim 2215 filter. New media and everything.

 

[waterdrop]

Then every sign is there that you are simply working your way through a proper fish-in cycle. As they say, a slow cycle (meaning not many signs that anything's happening) is a good cycle. Its almost always safest to consider that it may be doing its thing for 2 months. Its people who assume at 3 weeks or 5 weeks that they can go ahead and add fish that often have the surprise minicycles that tell them it really wasn't finished cycling yet, despite giving them zeros because of the small bioload and big tanka and big filter.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Thank you for all your help again guys. So you're pretty much saying the cycle is going just fine and will just need a few more weeks before I can safely add some fish??

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yup, I agree with WD on this on. That since you have a very light stocking, this is why you have yet to see any readable level of either ammonia, nitrite or nitrate.

-FHM

Thank you for all your help again guys. So you're pretty much saying the cycle is going just fine and will just need a few more weeks before I can safely add some fish??

Yes, I believe your cycle is going just fine, however it may be a little longer than a couple weeks until you can add more fish. Only water readings every so often will let us know if you are ready or not. You can post your readings on here and let us take a look at them as time goes on and we will let you know if it is safe for you to get more fish.

-FHM

 

[Mtvrdik10]

So basically I should add more goldfish and in time I will get more accurate readings??

 

[fatheadminnow]

So basically I should add more goldfish and in time I will get more accurate readings??

You readings are accurate right now.

If you add more Goldfish, then your ammonia level is going to go up faster, and then followed by your nitrite level. This will mean that you will be doing more water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite from getting to dangerous levels.

-FHM

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Alright I guess this is where I'm confused. Why add more goldfish to get nitrite ammonia and nitrate in the tank to readable levels...when I can just add the desired fish I want in there and just do routine water changes and keep an eye on the levels?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Alright I guess this is where I'm confused. Why add more goldfish to get nitrite ammonia and nitrate in the tank to readable levels...when I can just add the desired fish I want in there and just do routine water changes and keep an eye on the levels?

Do you know how the Nitrogen cycle works, or what exactly cycling a tank means?

Read these links to understand better:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271928&hl=
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=175355

-FHM

 

[Mtvrdik10]

Ha wow...well at one point I thought I did...but I'm certainly wrong from the looks of it lol. Two examples of why I never looked too much into cycling fish tanks.

A. Having had fish for 10+ years and having minimal issues with any of them I figured putting some goldfish in the tank for some bacteria for a coupld weeks would more than suffice...and well since its never seemed to fail with me I kept on with it.

B. Just last year a friend of a friend was moving and had to move this piranha so I only had a few days to ready my tank...add goldfish and add in my new tank stabilization in there. In a matter of 3 days the tank was running had gold fish and on the 4th day I added snap (piranha) and he's been just fine for over a year now...that's why I'm just a little taken back with how much goes into the fish cycling.

I've just always done the goldfish technique for 2-6 weeks and then add the fish and had no problems...and then hearing I'm completely wrong just leaves me a bit confused. Sorry if I come off a but defensive I'm not...just confused is all! Just trying to get a better understanding of all this.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Yes, stuff has changed over the years with fish keeping, especially when it comes to cycling a tank. Gold fish, and maybe piranhas, do not show signs of ammonia or nitrite poisoning, so that maybe why you "never had any problems." The only thing that happens to goldfish is that their life span is drastically reduced when exposed to levels of ammonia and/or nitrite above .25 ppm.

-FHM

 

[OldMan47]

If you are moving filter media around between established tanks, it is entirely possible to cycle a newly cloned tank in under a week. I do it all the time. That does not make the process we use wrong but does point out the value of having some mature media to start with.