Too many fish while cycling

[Kitkat28]

So this is my first tank..30 gallon (tall not long) rectangular tank. Not sure if all of this matters but we have an air pump, biowheel filter, heater set close to 80, a couple live plants and way too many fish! I didn't do enough research starting out so didn't know much if anything about the nitrogen cycle. Definitely didn't know you could do it without fish. (I do now and wish we had done this as we had the tank a long time before getting fish)

Originally only bought 3 phantom tetras and 2 ember tetras bc fish store told us tetras are hardy.. but I sent my bf to the store and he came back with 3 more ember tetras, 2 balloon mollies, 3 Cory's, and some snails.

So, I've been testing water daily (only have test strips for nitrites/nitrates, which I've read are not the most accurate)
Nitrites and ammonia have both been at or a bit under 1 ppm. I've read that if either of these get above one fish can die so we've been doing daily water changes (about 30%)..it helps temporarily but then in the morning the levels are right back to where they were. They haven't spiked above this yet..but I feel like they will. Nitrates are also at about 20ppm so not sure if this means we have some beneficial bacteria now converting the nitrites?

Tank has been stocked about a week, but the fish my bf got have only been in for like 4 days maybe?

Should I keep up water changes? Is there anything else I can do? I also heard aquarium salt helps them get more oxygen or something? So I put some of that in there too.
Any advice is appreciated, I really don't want any of these fish to die.

 

[jkkgron2]

I would up the waterchanges to 50%. IMO ammonia and nitrites combined shouldn’t get above 1.

 

[Kitkat28]

Okay, the only fish that seem stressed are the mollies, they are gasping for air at the top occasionally..I've also heard seachem prime will help protect them so I may go buy some of that. Any idea how much longer the cycle will take? And will daily water changes effect it?

 

[jkkgron2]

Okay, the only fish that seem stressed are the mollies, they are gasping for air at the top occasionally..I've also heard seachem prime will help protect them so I may go buy some of that. Any idea how much longer the cycle will take? And will daily water changes effect it?

I’m not sure how long it will take. The daily waterchanges may affect it but without them I doubt all your fish will make it. Seachem prime definitely helps

 

[corylover5]

I'm not the best at answering questions about cycling and stocking your tank but I know it will help other members if this has been posted. Do you have the GH, KH, and PH or your water? You can typically find it on your water provider's website.

Are you using a water conditioner for your tank? I would move your heater down to 76 or 78 degrees.
what substrate do you have? Corydoras need sand to prevent their barbels from getting infected.

 

[Essjay]

Water changes should be done when either ammonia or nitrite are over zero.

The best thing to buy is Tetra Safe Start. This is one of the most highly recommended bacterial starters.

Seachem Prime will help as it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite for about 24 hours. This will help keep the fish safe between water changes as ammonia nitrite build up again. it is not a medication and should not be just added to a tank; it should only be used to treat the new water at a water change.

Salt can be used to protect the fish against nitrite but it will do nothing against ammonia. There is a complicated equation for working out how much salt to use. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/
Salt should not be used routinely once a tank is cycled.

Feed the fish only once every 3 days as less food = less ammonia.

Get some live plants, especially floating plants. Even anacharis or hornwort left to float will help. Plants take up ammonia as fertiliser and they don't turn it into nitrite or nitrate.



corylover5 asked about the hardness of your water because you have soft water tetras & cories and hard water mollies. One or other will not be happy depending if your water is hard or soft.

 

[Kitkat28]

My water is very hard, like top of the chart, kh is high too. I actually told the employee at my pet store this because I was worried about fish being able to handle it and they just told me tetras are hardy and should be able to handle it. Really wishing I had done way more research.
Ph is between 7.5 and 8. And the temp is between 76 and 78, hard to read on my thermometer but somewhere around there.

I use tetra aqua safe water conditioner but will be buying seachem prime. I also bought amquel to help get rid of the ammonia and put that in earlier. Will be doing another 50% water change tonight. I do have some live floating plants also. And corylover5 I have gravel substrate. Is it possible to change this to sand? I use a gravel vac to change water though, would that be a problem with sand?

I also bought aqueon pure (?) Think that's what it's called, supposedly has live notifying bacteria. I thought about getting the safe start but decided against it, but maybe I should have.

Sorry if I didnt answer everyone's questions.

 

[Essjay]

All the images of Amquel on Kordon's website have the word 'detoxify' on the bottle and most of these detoxifiers become undetoxified in 24 hours. This is because they are aimed at water which has chloramine as the disinfectant. This is a chlorine and an ammonia joined together, and most dechlorinators split them up and remove the chlorine part, leaving the ammonia part in the water. Some dechlorinators also contain something to detoxify this ammonia and by the time the effect wears off in a cycled tank, the bacteria have removed the ammonia.
If these chemicals are used in an uncycled tank, there are not enough bacteria to remove ammonia in 24 hours so there is some in the water when it becomes toxic again. This is why water changes must still be done even when an ammonia detoxifier is used.


One of the lessons most of us have learned the hard way is that the advice given by store workers cannot be trusted. So many of them haven't a clue and will make up any rubbish. Most store workers, and a lot of websites, have no idea of the importance of hardness which is why hardness was not mentioned when you bought the fish.
For future research, Seriously Fish https://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/ is the best website for fish research.

 

[Tobek28]

I didn't see, but have you tested your tap water as well? I struggled with ammonia build up doing large water changes after a cycle and had to resort to ro/di water and remineralize for gh/kh for large water changes because my city has 1 ppm ammonia and some nitrites in it.

Test your tap if you haven't to make sure you are not adding additional ammonia or nitrites with water changes.