Water quality

[Y2J]

Hi i got my tank tuesday. Went for a food cycle because i couldnt get my hands on ammonia. I havent put any food in since wednesday though. Yesterday i did an ammonia test and it read 8.0. Today it reads 4.0 so its fallen slightly, nitrite is 2.0 and nitrate 10. The nitrite was 0 earlier in the week so looked like having a spike..

Is this okay?.. i was planing on putting fish in on tuesday so wanna make sure its fine

 

[Tolak]

It's pretty normal for a cycling tank. You have to wait until the ammo & nitrite are at 0 before adding fish. I don't think this will happen in a week, especially since you haven't added food since Wednesday. The bacteria need a constant source of ammo to survive, the fish food needs to decay to ammonia. The fastest I've ever cycled a tank was around 2 weeks, with ammonia & some mature filter media.

tolak

 

[Y2J]

Should i add more food then?

 

[Tolak]

Add a little bit daily, this link should help http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=73365

Tolak

 

[paulthegreat]

If you can get some Tetra Bactozym tabs they will provide you with all the benificial bacteria you need to turn ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. The tank is ready for fish in 24 hours with these little helpers! I have also heard of a product called pearls or something like that, that do the same thing. Even filter squeezings from an established tank will work.HTH

 

[Tolak]

Um, I don't know about those tabs. Did a search for them, and this is what I came up with http/66.102.7.104/search?q=cachenv5Y1a...l=en&lr=lang_en

They have a couple of products that are supposed to cut your water changing frequency. "Easy balance" will cut water changes down to a minimum of every 6 months. "Nitrite minus" in the gravel will insure the nitrite levels stay low for an entire year? That's what it says on page 3.

Silly me changes 50% of the water weekly in my tanks. Wish I had known about this line of products. Wasted hours of my life, along with thousands of gallons of water.

Some things in aquatics have no short cuts. Cycling, along with water changes, are a couple of them. You have to watch what companies claim, some will say anything to sell a product. This seems to be one of them. Glad they include an e-mail address. I wouldn't trust their products to do what they say.

Tolak

 

[Y2J]

I added more food yesterday and today day 6 of the tank the water reads as

ammonia 0 to 0.25 (i would say more 0)

nitrite 0

nitrate 0

I saw ammonia at max once 8.0 so thats a spike right.

The nitrite i think i had a spike..i havent been testing everyday. I saw it at 2.0 at one point.

Is the water ready for fish with these readings?

I dont really want to put any fish in though because the water is very cloudy and i have been using products to clear it up but they are not working.

 

[loafybones]

If everything is at 0 then go ahead and add fish.

When you do your first water change, get some filter aid, not everyone uses this but it's good stuff, it sticks all of the bad particles together so it's easier for the filter to catch.

Sorry if that was a bit of an obvious answer!!

 

[Tolak]

If you have 0 nitrates, your tank has not cycled yet. It take around 4 days for an ammo spike, 14 for a nitrite spike. Around this time you will be seeing nitrates. This is only an average, some go faster, some slower.

Tolak