Urgent Cycling Help!

[Amberleaf]

All righty, so -- you *may* have heard of my Mom's cycling tank; maybe not. Well, anyways....

This all started back when I was dividing my 5-gallon. I said that I didn't want to have to go through cycling, especially with any young Bettas, so she's like, "Okay," gives me her sponge, and goes out and buys another one. Well, *ANYWAYS*.... D:

I just tested the water.... Results were this:

pH: 7.0-ish ppm (strange, because my pH is *usually* around 7.6 D
Ammonia: 0.25-0.50 ppm (and, believe me, that's only the *first* worry)
NitrIte: 0.50 ppm
NitrAte: off the charts (and my test kit measures up to 160 ppm, so that's *really* sayin' something! )

Now, it's the 6-gallon.... DX And I *know* that it is over-stocked (during cycling that's especially bad.... right?), because it has 2 female Bettas, 4 platies, 1 pearl danio, and about 3 - 4 guppy fry. D;
EDIT: I just took her platies. *My* tank is now over-stocked, but.... It's not cycling; and I'll just have to step up the water changes. ^^; I'm water-changing, anyways; simply because I want my fry to grow. ^^;

Nows.... I feel, just, *so* guilty, because *I* was the one who didn't want to go through cycling.... But, now, just *look* what has happened!!!! D:

Is it normal for both ammonia & nitrite to be raising at the same times

What is the best course of action? My Mom was doing something, but I *will* get her to help me to do an absolutely *enormous* water change; and, yeahs....

1. Can I.... squeeze the sponges from my 5- and 10-gallon tanks into the 6-gallon tank? That helps seed the filter.... right? ^^;

2. Cut off some of each sponge (this can be done with scissors, right?), and stick it in the 6-gallon filter-slot, like this (c is cycled sponge, u is uncycled.... you know the drill ):

cccc - uuuu - uuuu
cccc - cccc - uuuu
cccc - cccc - cccc
uuuu - cccc - cccc
uuuu - cccc - cccc
uuuu - cccc - cccc
(6g) - (10g) - (5g)

Or.... Or *something* like thats. >.<; Should I maybe take a few of her fish to baby-sit? ^^; Like, the 4 platies, or maybe the two Bettas -- I'm just worried about the female Bettas, thoughs; seeing as if I move them, even though they *are* the best of friends, they might make territories or such, and fight!!

Please.... Help. Please. I'm worried. D:

 

[rebrn]

cut your cycled sponge and split it between the tanks in the same proportion that the tanks are stocked. So largest stock = largest piece of mature sponge. Basically what you did by taking the complete cycled sponge and putting it in the new tank is avoid cycling in the new tank, BUT that means you are starting from scratch in the old tank. One of your tanks is going to have to go through a cycle. When you take mature media for a new tank, you are only suppose to take 1/3 of the mature media, or so understand. It looks like you have 3 tanks in total, 2 cycled and 1 uncycled, is this correct? If yes, you may want to put all the sponges back in the original tanks, take 1/3 of the sponge from one of the cycled tanks, take 1/3 from the other cycled tank, and place the 2/3 worth of sponge you will have in the new tank. I am kinda new at this myself, but that is what I would do. Someone with more experience may be able to advise better.

Good Luck

 

[LauraFrog]

Okay, I'm a bit confused, could you please post a list of all the tanks you have, what fish they have in them and whether they are cycled or not?

Bacteria can double virtually overnight, so cutting the cycled sponge up and dividing it between your tanks is your best option. Squeezing the sponge into a tank will not work. Squeezing it onto a new sponge sometimes does, but results from seeding a filter this way are sketchy at best.

Test your tap water for nitrate. I cannot imagine how you could have over 100ppm of nitrate in a new tank, unless it's already present in the tapwater or there is something wrong with the kit. Is it a strip or a liquid test kit? If it's a liquid test kit, did you shake the bottles very thoroughly, is the test kit old, and have you had really cold weather? The liquid nitrate test is notoriously inaccurate because one of the reagents likes to settle, and when it settles it affects the results but I believe this results in false negatives rather than false positives. (Could the bottle have sat upside down for any length of time, causing the solution to settle to the dropper end?) We normally take the nitrate results as a rough guide rather than a definite reading, but that's ridiculous.
Anyway, test some tap water and if that comes up really high, test some bottled drinking water. If the bottled water reads zero or close to it, then you have seriously nitrate contaminated tapwater. If the bottled water comes up with a high nitrate reading, the test kit is stuffed.

You're on the right track to dealing with ammonia and nitrites by a) knowing what they are b) testing for them and c) water changing. You're in a better position than most people with a cycling tank because you know what's happening. Keep doing big water changes whenever the level of either substance comes up more than 0.25 ppm. Yes, it's normal for ammonia and nitrites to be up together at one point in the cycle. It means that some, but not all of the ammonia is being processed - ie the fish are producing 4ppm a day of ammonia, and the bacteria are converting 2ppm of this to nitrite, so you'll see a reading of about 2ppm ammonia and 2ppm nitrite.

Good luck!

 

[grumpysteve]

im a bit confused about whats where and wheres what tbh.

daily water changes in the bad tanks, you're seeing ammonia and nitrite because the cycling has started, but not finished. bacteria colonizes any surface and not the water itself, so anything from a cycled tank will help, be it filter media, decor, whatever. another thing that will help is live plants, they consume ammonia (and later on they'll help with nitrate). the test result for nitrate may have been off the chart because the tank is cycling, same with the pH, they both fluctuate during cycling for different reasons, and the presence of too much ammonia and nitrite can effect the test itself. if need be transfer fish to a cycled tank even if that means overstocking it, you want as few fish as possible in the cycling tank/s for now, and with any luck the mature tank will be able to cope with the extra bioload. daily water tests and water changes when required is the easiest and probably quickest way out of this, its hard work but you'll get there in the end