Re-entering The Hobby

[rliming]

I have owned tanks before but spent a few high stress filled yrs without any kind of a tank. It is amazing how much I forgot. I bought a 56 gal tall waited until I assumed I could add a couple African Cichlids. Several days went by and water tested perfect so I added 6 more. I completely forgot about the 6 week cycle a tank ALWAYS does, which is where I am at now. The Nitrite and amonia levels were sky high so I have done two 15 to 20% water changes in tha last 2 days. Even though I don't love chemicals I added some stress zyme in hopes it will help. My amonia is still around .15 ppm and nitrites are around 1 ppm.

I need some advice please. Should I do a bigger water change? If so, how much?

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Rliming.
I would start with a 50% water change right away to start bringing the nitrites down. You will need to use a dechlorinator and roughly temperature match the new water. If your nitrites are still above 0.25 ppm, which seems likely, you can follow along with another 50% water change in the next hour. The second large water change should make the water quality good enough for the fish to go until tomorrow's water test. I thought Stress-zyme was a dechlorinator but may be getting the name mixed up with something else. All we usually recommend, except in extreme cases, is a good dechlorinator. The name of the game for the next several weeks will be to do a large water change any time the ammonia or nitrites approach 0.25 ppm. With a tank that size, you will be going through some significant dechlorinator. When you need to buy more, try the Prime. It is a bit more expensive to buy but you use so much less that it ends up costing less to use in the long run. There is a link in my signature to a fish-in cycling thread because many people find themselves right where you are right now.

 

[rliming]

Welcome to the forum Rliming.
I would start with a 50% water change right away to start bringing the nitrites down. You will need to use a dechlorinator and roughly temperature match the new water. If your nitrites are still above 0.25 ppm, which seems likely, you can follow along with another 50% water change in the next hour. The second large water change should make the water quality good enough for the fish to go until tomorrow's water test. I thought Stress-zyme was a dechlorinator but may be getting the name mixed up with something else. All we usually recommend, except in extreme cases, is a good dechlorinator. The name of the game for the next several weeks will be to do a large water change any time the ammonia or nitrites approach 0.25 ppm. With a tank that size, you will be going through some significant dechlorinator. When you need to buy more, try the Prime. It is a bit more expensive to buy but you use so much less that it ends up costing less to use in the long run. There is a link in my signature to a fish-in cycling thread because many people find themselves right where you are right now.

I did another 30% a couple hours ago and my amonia is near zero. But nitrites are even higher. I just don't understand. I am going to do a 50% change now and I will recheck in the AM. Thanks for the name of Prime I couldn't remember for the life of me.

I guess the bigest thing I forgot was patience.

 

[indir-emir]

I also suggest testing your water just to see if it has ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. Post that up for the more knowledgable then me (as im new too lol) and also try to post updates whenever you can so they can help you out more

Regards,
Indir

 

[rliming]

I also suggest testing your water just to see if it has ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. Post that up for the more knowledgable then me (as im new too lol) and also try to post updates whenever you can so they can help you out more

Regards,
Indir

I did test my tap water for amonia and it has 1ppm. Now what do I do? Will test it for everything else soon.

I did a 50% change last night and this morning they all look much happier 'cept 1 looks like it has actually lost weight and lathargic. I won't be suprised to see him die later today.

 

[indir-emir]

Well it sort gives the smarter then me people a better idea on how to help you

Goodluck mate, get the rest of the stats up ASAP for more help

Regards,
Indir

 

[OldMan47]

The better dechlorinators will neutralize the ammonia in the tap water until your filter has a chance to process it. The ammonia comes from chloramine breaking down into chlorine and ammonia when the dechlorinator works on the chloramine. I get about 1 ppm in my tap water also but it is basically gone in a couple of hours by the action of my filter bacteria. During a fish-in cycle you will be doing a balancing act because the water change will add some ammonia while removing the nitrites. By your original post, it sounds like your ammonia processing bacteria are already starting to work for you so the ammonia won't be quite the concern that it might otherwise be. The truly large water change might be enough to save that fish that you think will die today. I am always amazed at how much good a water change can do for my fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes, i would go for a big 80% water change or thereabouts, as oldman say's you will be adding in some ammonia however it seems you have the bacteria there which eat up the ammonia so that should be gone fairly shortly, then you'll need to monitor the levels and change water every day.

your goal is to keep ammonia and nitrite as close to 0 as possible never letting them get above 0.25ppm, so do whatever size and frequency of water changes you need to achieve this.