Please Help... Beginner Aqua Hobbyists

[JodeeGust]

PetSmart is one of the best pet stores to buy fish from, but it's not the best place to get advice for keeping your fish. Like someone said before, their main concern is selling products. I recently found this out when I, myself purchased fish from them. I'm relatively new to this whole fish keeping thing, so I had no clue as to the types and whatnot of fish. They convinced me that I needed aquarium salt for my fish, so I bought it. I later found out that the fish I had purchased were freshwater fish and I didn't need the salt. Freakin salespeople...

You made a great decision when you decided to come here for help! The people here are extremely knowledgable and are very willing to share their knowledge with newbies like us! lol!

 

[Drew&Dora]

PetSmart is one of the best pet stores to buy fish from, but it's not the best place to get advice for keeping your fish. Like someone said before, their main concern is selling products. I recently found this out when I, myself purchased fish from them. I'm relatively new to this whole fish keeping thing, so I had no clue as to the types and whatnot of fish. They convinced me that I needed aquarium salt for my fish, so I bought it. I later found out that the fish I had purchased were freshwater fish and I didn't need the salt. Freakin salespeople...

You made a great decision when you decided to come here for help! The people here are extremely knowledgable and are very willing to share their knowledge with newbies like us! lol!

Thanks for the support! Yes we have learned A LOT!!! I have a question though.... if we already acclimated our fish with the aquarium salt would it harm the fish if we just stopped using it?

 

[JodeeGust]

PetSmart is one of the best pet stores to buy fish from, but it's not the best place to get advice for keeping your fish. Like someone said before, their main concern is selling products. I recently found this out when I, myself purchased fish from them. I'm relatively new to this whole fish keeping thing, so I had no clue as to the types and whatnot of fish. They convinced me that I needed aquarium salt for my fish, so I bought it. I later found out that the fish I had purchased were freshwater fish and I didn't need the salt. Freakin salespeople...

You made a great decision when you decided to come here for help! The people here are extremely knowledgable and are very willing to share their knowledge with newbies like us! lol!

Thanks for the support! Yes we have learned A LOT!!! I have a question though.... if we already acclimated our fish with the aquarium salt would it harm the fish if we just stopped using it?

How long have you had your fish in the tank with the salt? How are they doing with the salt? If they're doing ok, I wouldn't change anything. Some salt is ok for most fish. Salt also aides in healing if your fish is sick or injured. So, you didn't completely waste your money.

 

[Mikaila31]

Salt is OK for the fish you have, but some fish cannot tolerate salt. If you don't want to use it you can just stop adding it to the tank and it will be removed through the water changes. I suggest that you keep using it during the cycle as it will help the fish deal with the ammonia and nitrite.

 

[Drew&Dora]

Thanks Mikaila and Jodee. I was wondering if anyone had any information or know where we can find out how long ammonia is present in a tank before breaking down to nitrites. We do tests every 6 hours and log the results. We noticed that ammonia is at its highest (.25 ppm) around 6 am and 6 pm. We know that ammonia is really bad for our fish and don't want to let them swim in it for extended periods of time. Is it better just to do a water change when we notice a spike in ammonia or let it sit for a couple of hours to see if it converts to nitrites?

P.S.
I'm still doing water changes every time I noticed an increase in ammonia since we are doing an in-fish cycle.

 

[pirate monkey]

I think the best thing to do for your fish is keeping the ammonia and nitrite levels as low as possible, ideally keeping ammonia below 0.25 ppm as rabbut said above. If you notice a spike I would water change immediately to bring it to a safer level for your fish.

As I understand it, you are waiting for your bacteria colony to multiply to a suitable number such that it can process the total amount of waste produced by your fish. Although doing water changes potentially lengthens the cycling process (which would be pointless for a fishless cycle), until you have sufficient bacteria numbers you will continue to have ammonia/nitrite present in your tank and so water changes are vital for your fish's health and well being! (Hope that makes sense).

The higher the levels the ammonia and nitrite they are exposed to the worse the long term effects.

Hopefully somebody can back me up on this...

Seems like you're doing well with all the water changes so far, so just keep it up At the end of the day, water changes won't harm your fish and ammonia and nitrite will!

 

[Drew&Dora]

I think the best thing to do for your fish is keeping the ammonia and nitrite levels as low as possible, ideally keeping ammonia below 0.25 ppm as rabbut said above. If you notice a spike I would water change immediately to bring it to a safer level for your fish.

As I understand it, you are waiting for your bacteria colony to multiply to a suitable number such that it can process the total amount of waste produced by your fish. Although doing water changes potentially lengthens the cycling process (which would be pointless for a fishless cycle), until you have sufficient bacteria numbers you will continue to have ammonia/nitrite present in your tank and so water changes are vital for your fish's health and well being! (Hope that makes sense).

The higher the levels the ammonia and nitrite they are exposed to the worse the long term effects.

Hopefully somebody can back me up on this...

Seems like you're doing well with all the water changes so far, so just keep it up At the end of the day, water changes won't harm your fish and ammonia and nitrite will!

Hey pirate,
That makes perfect sense. I guess what I'm asking is; once a tank is fully cycled, how long will it take for ammonia to break down into nitrite? Will we even notice that ammonia is present in the tank?

 

[rabbut]

I guess what I'm asking is; once a tank is fully cycled, how long will it take for ammonia to break down into nitrite? Will we even notice that ammonia is present in the tank?

In a word, no, you will never see ammonia or nitrite in a fully cycled tank. A fully cycled tank would have the capacity to process ammonia and nitrite quicker than it is produced, thus none should ever be detectable in a tank with fish in

HTH, and sorry bout the time taken to reply again
Rabbut

 

[Drew&Dora]

I guess what I'm asking is; once a tank is fully cycled, how long will it take for ammonia to break down into nitrite? Will we even notice that ammonia is present in the tank?

In a word, no, you will never see ammonia or nitrite in a fully cycled tank. A fully cycled tank would have the capacity to process ammonia and nitrite quicker than it is produced, thus none should ever be detectable in a tank with fish in

HTH, and sorry bout the time taken to reply again
Rabbut

Thanks rabbut.

 

[OldMan47]

The time to be converted to nitrites is very short. My tap water tests at 1 ppm so when I do a 25% water change the tank goes to 0.25 ppm of ammonia. If I test it 2 or 3 hours later I cannot detect ammonia or nitrites. This means enough has cycled all the way through to become nitrates that it is no longer detectable in the intermediate stages. That is where you want your tank to end up but of course the bacterial colony needs to get big enough to do that for you. Until it does, you will be doing the water changes everyone has been talking about but your final end point is when you change water only to keep your nitrates lower than about 40 ppm. Be aware that tap water, especially where I am in farming country, can also contain a fair amount of nitrates. Just to be sure what you are doing, I would suggest getting a set of readings on your tap water. That way you will know and won't end up making things worse with water changes.

 

[Drew&Dora]

The time to be converted to nitrites is very short. My tap water tests at 1 ppm so when I do a 25% water change the tank goes to 0.25 ppm of ammonia. If I test it 2 or 3 hours later I cannot detect ammonia or nitrites. This means enough has cycled all the way through to become nitrates that it is no longer detectable in the intermediate stages. That is where you want your tank to end up but of course the bacterial colony needs to get big enough to do that for you. Until it does, you will be doing the water changes everyone has been talking about but your final end point is when you change water only to keep your nitrates lower than about 40 ppm. Be aware that tap water, especially where I am in farming country, can also contain a fair amount of nitrates. Just to be sure what you are doing, I would suggest getting a set of readings on your tap water. That way you will know and won't end up making things worse with water changes.

Thanks Oldman,
That's exactly the kind of information that we were looking for. We are still keeping up with our daily water changes. Now we have an idea of when the aquarium is cycled. Thanks again.