Tank Cycle Emergency :(

[Kelly-Jo]

I've been keeping fish for a few years now and generally know what I'm doing with everything once the tank is set up, but the one grey area for me is tank-cycling. I've been a complete and utter idiot....

I have a 30L set up in my bedroom which has had the filter running for around 3 weeks with filter media from my other tank. I must confess I hadn't really been regularly testing the water as it wasn't high on my priority list to get it cycled. I tested it for about 3-4 days after it'd been running 3 weeks and every time I got the same reading of 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and around 30-40 nitrate.
Later that evening I had a cory in my other tank who had a very very nasty gash down his side from jamming himself between the filter and the glass and he didn't look like he had a hope of surviving. I put him into the 30L which I believed to be cycled and he soon picked up after about 2 days. I tested the water again after he'd been in for 2 days and fed and the readings were still 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 30-40 nitrate. They remained this way all week.


I've just gone to do a water change and suddenly I have around 1.2 on the ammonia chart (im not sure if that actually means 1.2ppm as i'm using a hagen test kit with a conversion chart depending on the pH of the water, if anyone can clarify it'd be great)

Where do I go from here? I've already done a 20L water change tonight but the ammonia reading hasn't changed.

 

[Akasha72]

have you tested your tap water? I'm no expert but it's the first thing that came to mind

 

[Kelly-Jo]

yeah my tap water is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 40 nitrate which is why I thought it was cycled but I had the biggest dumb moment and didn't think that the 40 nitrate could just be from my tap. It's just really strange because the ammonia doesn't seem to be coming down at all regardless of the 65+% water change.

 

[Akasha72]

I know when I was going through the cycling process (with fish in - nightmare) I was advised a few times to do a 90% water change. Have you still got the poorly cory in the tank or have you taken him out again?

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Hes still in the tank, he's a lot better now. He's been eating and at the minute hes digging all over the place so he's definitely back to his usual self. I'm about to do another water change despite doing one an hour ago. I'll do another bucket so in theory I will have done a 100% water change. If there's still ammonia then i'm completely stumped.


Any ideas on what I should actually do?

 

[Akasha72]

I'm stumped too if I'm honest. Are you using a gravel vac to syphon the water? I try to dig mine right into the gravel to suck up as much of the poo and any uneaten food as possible. You could try feeding less - other than that I don't know how much more help I can be.
Hoping someone more experienced will get back you.

Don't forget to dechlorinate the water and temperature match it. Good luck

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Thanks for your help.

I am using a gravel vac but I have sand. I still swirl it around just above the sand to pick up any uneaten food and gunk. I'm really precise over feeding so it can't be that. I measure his food out daily to a specific amount as the clicker I have provides for 5 fish so I divide that amount by 5 to make sure he only gets what he will eat.

 

[Akasha72]

it sounds like your doing everything right Kelly-Jo. I really hope someone else here can find an answer for you. Akasha

 

[HayzH]

personally i would do another 80-90% w/c now...each time you refil you just dilute the ammonia..taking the majority out will lower it.

 

[Kelly-Jo]

personally i would do another 80-90% w/c now...each time you refil you just dilute the ammonia..taking the majority out will lower it.

yeah i think i'll have to do it in the morning as it's late now but as soon as I wake up i'll do a 90% wc and then another 90% at night if needs be.

 

[the_lock_man]

It sounds to me as though the root-cause of the problem was the three-week period. It would have been a good idea that you used mature media, but it sounds as though you left the bacteria on that media for three weeks with no food source (ie any fish, or bottled ammonia as a fish-substitute). THerefore, the bacteria would have died off.

With no ammonia source in the water, then your readings would have been 0 for ammonia and nitrite, and 30-40 for nitrate in tapwater is perfectly reasonable. Mine has an average of about 30 in, the legal max in the UK is 50.

So it seems that you are now in a classic fish-in cycling situation, which means lots of big water changes.

Remember, too that 2 x 50% changes does NOT equal a 100% change. The reason is that when you do your second change, half of what you're taking out is the new water that you've just put in.

Look at it mathematically (I know, it's Monday, sorry). If you have 1.2ppm ammonia, and you do a 50% change, you are left with 0.6ppm ammonia. If you then change another 50%, you half the ammonia again, so you are left with 0.3ppm. Remember that 0.3ppm is still highly toxic, so maybe do another 50% change, to get it to 0.15ppm (which is better, although still not great).

However, if you do a 90% change straight off, you are left with 0.12ppm. In other words, a single 90% change is better than 3 consecutive 50% changes.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Yeah that really helps. How long will I have to do this until the filter has enough bacteria to process the ammonia without daily water changes? I'm guessing several weeks?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Unfotunately several weeks is right. As long as you keep up on the testing you should be okay. Be glad you have a small tank lol. Fish-in cycle on a 75 gallon wasnt fun lol.

 

[the_lock_man]

Yeah that really helps. How long will I have to do this until the filter has enough bacteria to process the ammonia without daily water changes? I'm guessing several weeks?

The whole process will take several weeks, but it's more work at the start.

You need to establish a routine of daily water tests. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to look back and re-read the thread, if you don't have a liquid-based test kit, you need to go get one. Not the paper strips, they're not accurate enough for your situation, IMHO).

Test the water daily. If you see the ammonia or nitrite levels approaching, or indeed over, 0.25ppm, you need to change enough water to get those levels down as close to 0 as you can. The amount that you need to change will depend on the actual level you see, use the maths thing that I said about yesterday.

Whilst any ammonia or nitrite at all is bad, in your situation it is impossible to keep those levels at 0ppm the whole time - you'd be constantly changing water, leaving no time for other things, like work, eating, sleeping, you know, the usual distractions.....

So, previous experts have established a practical maximum of 0.25ppm. By reducing your levels to 0ppm, you buy yourself time to go do the eating working thing, whilst the fish produce more ammonia, and increase the levels. What you need to do is work out how quickly the levels rise to 0.25ppm, and be available to change water again before the levels get there.

This may mean multiple water changes per day, or perhaps 2 x 90% changes consecutively - whatever it takes.

As time goes on, and your bacteria colonies grow, the levels won't rise so quickly. If, when you do a test, the levels stay at 0ppm for both ammonia and nitrite, then you don't need to change your water. But the next day, you probably will.

Fast forward another week or so, and you may be able to go 3 days without changing water, then 4, then 5, etc.

Eventually, you'll be able to go a whole week with 0ppm ammonia and nitrite (known as "Double Zeros"). At that point, your filter is officially Cycled.

If you can find some more mature media, this will help speed things up. Make sure when changing water that you always use dechlorinator, and that you temperature match the incoming water with the outgoing. The greater the %age, the more accurate you need to be.

 

[Kelly-Jo]

I've just done a 90% water change and my levels have dropped from 1.2ppm to 0.6ppm which is an improvement at least. I'm off to the doctors for my black eye and then i'll do another water change. Having a 30L makes it so much easier, I can do a 90% change in half an hour. I've got some mature media in my other tank that I can put in right now actually, I'll go and do that Do i just cut it up and put it in the filter? Thats what I did before but it clogged it up slightly I think.