Newbie Confused About Tank

[lalalauren87]

Hello

My name is Lauren, and I am new to the hobby and this forum. I have wanted fish for a very long time and am very excited to finally dive in. I have never actually had my own tank, but I was employed by a large pet store chain and I am familiar with the tank cycling process/fish care/fish compatibility.

I set up my first tank, a 29 gallon, approximately ten days ago. The filter is an Emperor 280 and seems to be functioning well. I added a school of 5 zebra danios as I have been told that they are a hardy fish. I planned on these being the only fish in the tank until the tank was fully cycled. I am aware of fishless cycling, but I didn't feel that I knew enough to do it properly, so I opted for the old fashioned way.

The problem I am encountering is that my tank doesn't seem to be cycling in the typical pattern. I test my water daily, and braced for an ammonia spike that never arrived. Currently, the tank is slightly cloudy, but registers zero ammonia, zero nitrite. The fish are fine. Frankly, I am confused. I was all set to do things perfectly but my tank threw me for a loop. I would really appreciate any insight from more experienced hobbyists.

Should I do a water change? Toss my test kit?

Help me!

Thanks!

 

[paul_219]

It needs some time to settle down. Give it about 3-4 days. I had the same problem then it settled down.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, welcome to the forum

there's a few possibilities, as Paul said it may take a few days for the ammonia to build up so it registers on your test kit, the cloudy water is a symptom of bacteria bloom, i.e. the cycling process so it does seem that something's happening.

However there are a couple of other possibilities

1 - what test kit are you using? it could be rubbish, out of date or simply a duff test kit so always worth a check

2 - what size are the danio's? bear in mind that when you fishless cycle a tank you'll be looking to add around 5ppm of ammonia, that's equivalent to a sensibly but fully stocked tank of fish, 5 danio's (especially if they're young) in a 29gal tank is not gonna produce anywhere near 5ppm of ammonia. Personally I say if you're going to cycle with fish you should actually stock the tank something like 1 third full so that you get some decent ammonia production going on.

While I prefer fishless cycling myself I do accept that some people will always cycle with fish, here's a pinned topic which will give you some more help and guidance http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...eady-have-fish/

 

[lalalauren87]

I expected the cloudiness, but I also expected to encounter ammonia along with it. For the first few days I thought nothing of it, but it's been 10 days. The danios not producing enough ammonia is actually something I had thought about, but it seemed to counter the whole "don't stock many fish" rule I was accustomed to. My test kit is the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. I read the thread about cycling already having fish, and I realize that the place I got my fish would in fact take them back. I suppose I need to find the threads on fishless cycling and go from there. I'm honestly not an overeager fishkeeper too impatient to wait on fish, I just thought this was the way it was done!