Ready For Fish.

[seth]

is this tank ready for fish? the ammonia lvl is baout .50 and ph is 8.0. i have a penguin 150 filter, a heater, and gravel bottom. it has been running for 3 days now. im only getting 3 fish for now, just to cycle tank.so simple question yes or no is it ready for fish?
thanks

 

[dthoffsett]

is this tank ready for fish? the ammonia lvl is baout .50 and ph is 8.0. i have a penguin 150 filter, a heater, and gravel bottom. it has been running for 3 days now. im only getting 3 fish for now, just to cycle tank.so simple question yes or no is it ready for fish?
thanks

I saw you posted earlier that the tank was running for 3 days with an ammonia reading of 0.75. Is this the reading straight from your tap? If your not doing a fishless cycle as Oohfeeshy suggested and there are no fish in the tank, then w/o bacteria present your ammonia level shouldn't be flucuating. And if you actually have an ammonia reading straight from the tap, I would suggest contacting your water company, as any ammonia amount isn't really safe for you much less your fish.

If you aren't cycling at all, leaving the tank running for days isn't doing anything at all towards getting it ready for fish. If you've decided to do a cycle with fish all you have to do is have the tank running for about 24 hours to get the water up to temp. Then add 2-3 hardy fish, feed sparingly, and do constant water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels out of the deadly range, although you still may lose fish.

With a fishless cycle, you let the water come up to temp, add your ammonia (check out the link Ohhfeeshy gave you in your other posting) and wait until it's completely cycled (ammonia and nitrIte 0, nitrAte sky high), do an 75 - 80% water change, and add all of your fish at once.

Sure, if you cycle with fish, you can put some in right away and not look at an empty tank, but you'll be exposing them to toxic ammonia levels, and potentially killing them, and shortening their natural life span. Not to mention that you have to stock very slowly once your done, and if the fish you cycled with weren't in your original stocking list, you're stuck with them.

 

[Dong]

is this tank ready for fish? the ammonia lvl is baout .50 and ph is 8.0. i have a penguin 150 filter, a heater, and gravel bottom. it has been running for 3 days now. im only getting 3 fish for now, just to cycle tank.so simple question yes or no is it ready for fish?
thanks

I saw you posted earlier that the tank was running for 3 days with an ammonia reading of 0.75. Is this the reading straight from your tap? If your not doing a fishless cycle as Oohfeeshy suggested and there are no fish in the tank, then w/o bacteria present your ammonia level shouldn't be flucuating. And if you actually have an ammonia reading straight from the tap, I would suggest contacting your water company, as any ammonia amount isn't really safe for you much less your fish.

If you aren't cycling at all, leaving the tank running for days isn't doing anything at all towards getting it ready for fish. If you've decided to do a cycle with fish all you have to do is have the tank running for about 24 hours to get the water up to temp. Then add 2-3 hardy fish, feed sparingly, and do constant water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels out of the deadly range, although you still may lose fish.

With a fishless cycle, you let the water come up to temp, add your ammonia (check out the link Ohhfeeshy gave you in your other posting) and wait until it's completely cycled (ammonia and nitrIte 0, nitrAte sky high), do an 75 - 80% water change, and add all of your fish at once.

Sure, if you cycle with fish, you can put some in right away and not look at an empty tank, but you'll be exposing them to toxic ammonia levels, and potentially killing them, and shortening their natural life span. Not to mention that you have to stock very slowly once your done, and if the fish you cycled with weren't in your original stocking list, you're stuck with them.

If his tap water contains ammonia, the cycle will start automatically... I think that's why the ammonia level fluctuate.

 

[dthoffsett]

If his tap water contains ammonia, the cycle will start automatically... I think that's why the ammonia level fluctuate.

Duh Dawn, guess I should have thought of that, ammonia source = bacteria colonies, only they whole point of fishless cycling.
It was late, I was half asleep, that's my excuse.

 

[modernhamlet]

If his tap water contains ammonia, the cycle will start automatically... I think that's why the ammonia level fluctuate.

If his tapwater contains ammonia, he should immediately report it. That level of ammonia in tapwater is unsafe for human consumption.

 

[Katana]

Dude, you REALLY should do a fishless cycle. It's not fair to the fish to make them suffer just because you are impatient to get fish in there. And no, the penguin biowheel filters do not eliminate the need for cycling. But, that is just my advice.

 

[BigIan]

the amonia may be there IF he used a water treatment that breaks down the cloramines in the water...

 

[seth]

on my back form school my uncle gave me some guppys. i wish i would have waited after reading these posts but they have been in there for 3.5 hours now. and none have died or anyhring thay are pretty active.

 

[Katana]

To be quite frank, your going to have a lot of ammonia and nitrite spikes. Frequent water changes (or getting your uncle to take back the guppies for a bit) are probibly your best bets to keep them alive.

 

[seth]

how do i change my water little by little

 

[Katana]

Change out like 2 gallons per day. That's 10%. When you add new water, be sure to use something that neutralises chlorene. Keep doing this till you get an ammonia and a nitrite rating of 0. Do not add any more fish until the ammonia and nitrites are holding at 0. This is just what I would do. Someone else may very well tell you differently, and their advice may be better than mine. You would definitely be better off finding another home for them and doing a fishless cycle if you can.

 

[boozybears]

Hey Seth, I responded to your other thread in chitchat about this, but will here too. Don't worry, many of us used fish to cycle (I learned about fishless cycling just after I purchased my tank and fish). I had a 25 gallon tank (US gallon) and it ended up taking me 6-7 weeks to properly cycle it. I did lose a few fish along the way (and sorry to say, my 3 guppies were them ). Best thing to do as others have said. Complete a 10-15% water change daily. Check your levels daily (do you own a test kit for amonia, nitrite and nitrate?)

Read all you can about the cycle (there are tons of pinned articles in these forums to explain, but bottom line you need good bacteria for a healthy tank (called nitrate).

first you get a build up of amonia (fish pee lol) that's VERY toxic to the fish. you'll see the levels rise and rise (which is why you need to daily water changes to decrease it's toxicity for the fish.

eventually the amonia levels will drop and you'll see nitrite start to build. This is also bad bacteria, however not quite as toxic as the amonia.

eventually the nitrite will drop and you'll see the nitrate start to build! This is your time to start breathing easily

Full cycle is done when amonia and nitrite read 0 and you show at least some nitrate in your tank

Good luck!

 

[Jules H-T]

You're getting there Boozybear, but a few things you've said are slightly off beam.

Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are chemical compounds, not bacteria.

There are two types of bacteria that we need in our tanks- those that convert Ammonia to Nitrite, and those that convert Nitrite to Nitrate.

Once your Ammonia and Nitrite are reading zero and you're getting Nitrates like you say, you're hot to trot.

The only reason I mention this is that suggesting Nitrates are good bacteria might lead you to believe that more is good- it's not, and it still needs regular removal- through regular partial water changes.

 

[seth]

i have been doing the 2 gallon a day test but i only have ammonia and p.h. test kits. im testing the water first thing in the morning for ammonia/ p.h. leval. well ttyl