Sorry, Yet Another Fish-In Cycle

[hikerman]

Hi peeps
Yet another noobie given dodgy advice by LFS, short and tall of it is: currently have 180l tank stocked with 6 platys and 3 mollies. I now appreciate that I short have gone down the fishless cycle route but was assured by LFS that if I purchased 'safe start' I could stock with a low level of fish immediately. Not knowing any better this is what I have done.
Question is, how long will it be before I start getting ammonia readings on my test kit and subsequently nitrite readings? I have trace nitrate readings from my tap water. Fish have been in for 36 hours now and still showing both 0 on ammonia and nitrite.
I also have a high pH of 8.1, tap water is 7.9 but rises over 24 hours presumeably because of the loss of co2 in the water.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Cheers

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Hikerman.

I would expect to start seeing ammonia in about another 24 to 48 hours with your present stock levels. If you stay on top of the chemistry measurements and water changes, you can get through the fish-in cycle with success. There is a link to the fish-in cycle thread in my signature area if you would like to read up on it.

 

[fluvial]

Hi Hikerman.
I cycled my 180l tank with 6 lemon tetras in it, and have had a look at my log.

I first got an ammonia reading during the week before putting fish in the tank -
then having added them in the second week I was getting zero on the ammonia, but with small traces of nitrites.
This went on for the first 3 weeks after adding the fish.
I was doing daily water changes of about 25%.

In week 4 I hit zero on both ammonia and nitrites - with about 20 on Nitrates.
I was using the API master test kit.

My readings have stayed at zero ammonia and nitrites since then - with between 10 and 20 on the Nitrates.
I lost one of the Tetra after 6 weeks but the others have all appeared to be healthy.

I have now had the tank established for the past 4 months, and have built up a community tank with a pair of dwarf cichlids.
I deliberately keep it slightly understocked which helps maintain good water quality, and i have about 15 plants in it.

Good luck

 

[hikerman]

Many thanks for the re-assuarance, maybe all is not lost after all.
Hopefully the safe start will help as well. Will keep very watchful eye on test results along with daily water changes and see what happens.
cheers

 

[waterdrop]

Establish a regular time morning or evening or both when you try to run your tests and make entries in your aquarium notebook. That way you'll be able to scan the daily lines up and down the notebook page to watch for trends. It will help you get a better feel for the percentage and frequency of water changes that will be neccessary in your particular aquarium and fishload to maintain ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm and give your fish the best chance of surviving the cycling and not having their lives shortened too much. A nice large tank like that will make it easier to give them a better chance.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[hikerman]

Hi folks
Have followed all advice and am now worried, I am on day 10 since start up and have still to get any ammonia or nitrite readings, but am getting a 10ppm nitrate reading. Was so suspicious of readings have replaced my nutrafin test kit with an API kit, with the same results. Do I take from this that my tank is now cycled and the 'safestart' actually worked Am not sure now to continue with twice daily readings or go ahead and stock with more fish.

 

[furry catfish]

I think I read some where on this forum that safe start is just more pent up ammonia from dead bacteria.A good way to see if it works is check if it's refrigurated at the store if not then it is probably dead bacteria.

 

[waterdrop]

At 36 hours, your fish-in cycling situation in probably not really even close to starting yet, you are still just enjoying the fresh tap water. If you have a new filter with no mature media added, it will take up to a couple of months to get past the point of fragile bacterial colonies. They continue to mature for the the first year.

~~waterdrop~~