Stalled Cycle Progress?

[Msquared]

I have a new 20g tank that I'm trying to finish cycling. I started with no fish, added a bit of food and the the water got cloudy (I didn't test at the time, but assume the ammonia was way up like it should have been). I added some water from an established tank, and the very next day the water was really clear. I added four Zebra Danios that day and tested (last Wednesday) and got: Ammonia=.25, nitrite=.25, nitrate=20. I was really pleased with this, assuming I had progressed quickly through the bulk of the cycle by adding the established water, and expecting to see ammonia and nitrite levels drop to zero from there. But since then, I get the same test results every day. Well, my nitrates have risen a bit to about 30. But I still have these steady, low levels of ammonia and nitrite. Based on that, the bacteria must still be there doing their job, but it seems like they haven't multiplied enough to really clear the bad chemicals. Am I just being impatient, or has my cycle stalled, or what?

 

[Mikaila31]

what type of test kit are you using?

 

[rdd1952]

The problem is that your tank wasn't actually cycled when you added the fish and is still in the cycling process. The fact that your nitrate is rising is a good sign as that means that both ammonia and nitrite are being processed. Just keep an eye on the stats and do water changes as needed to keep the ammonia and nitrite at or below .25 and they both should return to zero before much longer. How often are you feeding? Quite often, the ammonia you are seeing isn't as much from fish waste as it is from left over food caused by overfeeding.

Just keep in mind that once the numbers are back to zero, the tank will only be cycled for the 4 fish you have so adding more fish will require that the bacteria catch up again so once the ammonia and nitrite are at zero for a full week, you can add 3 or 4 more fish. Then you will go through the process again of watchiing the ammonia and nitrite. It shouldn't take as long the second time though before they return to zero.

 

[Msquared]

I do/did know that my tank wasn't finished cycling when I added the Danios. I just kind of thought I'd see some kind of significant movement in levels in the last week. FWIW, I'm using test strips of a brand I can't recall (I'm at work right now). I'm feeding once/day, and no more than they can eat in 2-3 minutes. Should I cut this to every other day? I am definitely clear that I can't add too many fish at once at any time. My next addition will probably be 3-4 Cory (not sure what variety yet). I will definitely wait for ammonia and nitrate to disappear again before the final couple of fish are added (not sure what those will be yet).

 

[rdd1952]

Since you're using strips which are notoriously inaccurate, it may be that you don't actually have the ammonia and nitrite at all, thus the readings staying constant. You may want to get a good liquid kit for a more accurate reading or even take a water sample to the LFS to have them test it. If you go that route, make sure you get the exact reading from them rather than their usual "your water's in the acceptible range", what ever that means.

 

[Msquared]

Since you're using strips which are notoriously inaccurate, it may be that you don't actually have the ammonia and nitrite at all, thus the readings staying constant. You may want to get a good liquid kit for a more accurate reading or even take a water sample to the LFS to have them test it. If you go that route, make sure you get the exact reading from them rather than their usual "your water's in the acceptible range", what ever that means.

You know what's funny/sad about that? The LFS is the one that recommended the strips because that's what they use! Being the newbie that I am, I would have bought the liquid kit if they'd advised that. Okay, note to self: ask more questions on the forum, less at LFS. I guess I might go back to the drawing board with a liquid kit, then. Thanks for this tip!

 

[rdd1952]

Unfortunately, fish stores, more particularly, pet stores that sell fish, give terrible advise. Even the true fish stores are shakey most of he time. Until you learn the questions to ask, you almost have to research first so you know the answers as you never know whether the answer they give you is correct or not. I read something a while back that basically said more fish had died as a result of bad advice from the LFS than any other reason and I would tend to agree with that

 

[Msquared]

What a revelation! I just got a liquid test kit and my numbers are - ahem - quite different: ammonia = 1.0; nitrite = 0.25; nitrate = 7.5. So while I had accurate nitrite readings on the strip, I was getting way-low ammonia readings and way-high nitrates. What stinks is that I now do not have a week-long log of good results. I'm starting to test and track results from scratch again. Oh well, better late than never. I think we're going to back off to feeding every other day also, in order to not overstress the cycle.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[rdd1952]

It's amazing how bad the strips usually are. Too many things can mess up the numbers. They're ok for spot checks later on. If you see something that's out of the ordinary, you can do a better test with the liquid.

Feeding every other day will be fine. Fish can easily go a week or 2 without food. I think your cycle will be fine as it would appear that ammonia and nitrite are being processed since you have nitrate. Just do a water few water changes to get the ammonia down to around .25 ppm and then do them as needed to keep them there.