Still no nitrates?

[bluex]

I seeded a 20g tank with a used filter plus half new/half cycled water, then I introduced a few hardy community fish (dwarf gourami, 3 tiny panda cories, 4 endlers). I'm at the end of week 2 and I'm still seeing no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. None. However, two panda cories died. Can't figure out what's going on. Any ideas?

 

[bluex]

Very disappointed that no one cares to reply. Animal lives are at stake, and clearly no one in this forum cares. Meh. Not what I expected based on prior experiences with other communities.

 

[kwi]

Woah, chill dude.
Firstly sorry about your fish.
It can be easy to miss new threads, especially when there is only a few that read posts in this part of the forum.
This area is usually people asking questions about doing fishless cycles.
If it was an emergency we have a fish emergencies section which often gets a very fast response.
Now can you tell us what test kit you're using?
Have you any plants?
It is possible your bio-load is little enough you won't see ammonia or nitrites, which is what you want.
If you have plants they could be dealing with the nitrates.
If your test kit is old, or you're not following the instructions 100% you could be getting bad results.

When did the cory die? Did they show any symptoms? I didn't think Panda where known for being hardy so any swing in paramameters could of caused harm.

 

[kwi]

@Ch4rlie is our cycle guru, maybe he can help, he's also a mod so maybe he can move this to emergencies if you want?

 

[Ch4rlie]

I was very busy yesterday and apologise for missing your thread.

Very unusual not to see any ammonia, nitrite and no nitrate after two weeks.

Kwi has already asked some good questions that are definitely worth answering.

What kind of kit are you using?
Liquid test kit like api freshwater master test or more of a strip that you dip into the water?

You say it’s a used filter, what does this mean exactly?

You bought a second hand filter or its a filter you had lying around insured for a while or possibly I t’s a filter you had on another tank and still had wet filter media inside?

Does this tank have any live plants ?

If you can answer both my and Kwi questions that would be a good start in trying to determine what is happening.

The more information and details you can provide, the better.

A picture of your tank set up and perhaps of your livestock can help too as we may be able to see something that could be of help.

 

[AilyNC]

The tank isn't cycled is the most likely cause.

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ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
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Volume and Frequency of water changes:

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