Water Readings

[sarah86]

last week i had some problems with my filter after a power cut, after that my ammonia reading shot up to 2.0 i thought since i had also been trying to cure ich that my tank was probably uncycled again, i started daily 10-15% water changes and today my ammonia is 0 the nitrite is 2.0 and pH is 6.6. when we first set up our tank about 2 years ago unfortaunatly we were un educated and naive so did not cycle it properly, but recently the water has been fine and ive had no problems, unfortuantly this means i dont have much experience of cycling a tank so need some advice.

I have also tried to cut down on feeding the fish over the last week to once every other day (and even then feeding minimal amounts), to avoid polluting the tank even more and raising the ammonia

The fish seem happy enough apart from the one who has ich (which it had when i got it) but even that is fine apart from the spots.

Anyway what i wanted to ask is, is my tank going the right way and starting to return to normal? any more tips on how i can help it along?

 

[Squid]

last week i had some problems with my filter after a power cut, after that my ammonia reading shot up to 2.0 i thought since i had also been trying to cure ich that my tank was probably uncycled again, i started daily 10-15% water changes and today my ammonia is 0 the nitrite is 2.0 and pH is 6.6. when we first set up our tank about 2 years ago unfortaunatly we were un educated and naive so did not cycle it properly, but recently the water has been fine and ive had no problems, unfortuantly this means i dont have much experience of cycling a tank so need some advice.

I have also tried to cut down on feeding the fish over the last week to once every other day (and even then feeding minimal amounts), to avoid polluting the tank even more and raising the ammonia

The fish seem happy enough apart from the one who has ich (which it had when i got it) but even that is fine apart from the spots.

Anyway what i wanted to ask is, is my tank going the right way and starting to return to normal? any more tips on how i can help it along?

Looks like its heading the right way. When doing a fishless cyle, the ammonia will be first to hit 0 followed by the nitrite levels. This is due to the bacteria for reducing nitrites being a little slower to establish. With this in mind, and presuming your tank is experiencing a mini-cycle, then this would all seem fairly normal to me.

Squid

 

[sarah86]

thanx Squid, im going on holiday on friday for a week so im hoping all will be well by then *fingers crossed*

Im so glad i found this forum, everyone is so helpful and friendly. Ive been on other forums where people are very clicky and only help those that have been there for a while.

 

[Squid]

On the whole this is a pretty good forum. If anything I have noticed it go slightly the other way, where people are so keen to help you get loads of replies. Unfortunately it leads to some wrong or conflicting advice due to over-eagerness, but this is usually pointed out, or you can work with the consensus of opinion.

I guess this forum has a nice knock-on effect. If you feel like you have been helped in a friendly manner when you first arrive, it encourages you to help others new to the hobby or forum..

Have a good hols, and keep up with the water changes until then!

Cheers
Squid

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yep sounds like it is going through a mini cycle and moving in the right direction.

I would recommend doing a large water change (around 50%) asap to drop the nitrite down then do another 25% one the next day to drop it under 1ppm. This will prolong the cycling process slightly but will mean that the fish are expoused to a less toxic dose in the mean time.

Once problem you might have is that an ammonia and nitrite spike will have stressed the fish which lowers their immune system. If you have one fish in their with whitespot and the other fish are all stressed then it is likely uou are going to have a big outbreak of whitespot in the near future.

Bringing the nitrite levels down as much as possible will help and using something like Stresscoat might also help (this helps repair the slime coating on the fish which often gets stripped if there is an ammonia spike).

Your doing right but not feeding them to much until the cycle has finished.

 

[sarah86]

I need some more help! Since i last posted monday, my ammonia has stayed at 0 but my nitrite is still 2.0, i did a 40% water change as barney suggested to do a large change to drop it back down but it hasnt moved. ive been carrying on my 10-15% water changes and minimal feeding. is this still normal? i would have thought i'd see a change by now, or am i just rushing things?

 

[Squid]

Unfortunately it can take time . Have you done anything else with the filter that could have effected the cycle.. I'm assuming you haven't, otherwise you would have found that ammonia would have been present again.

Where do you live? You may find that you could buy something to aid the filter cycling again.. In the US there is BioSpira, and in the UK there is bactinettes. Bactinettes is not as good as BioSpira, but may help to bring the nitrite levels down and aid the filter in its recovery. My local Maidenhead aquatics stocks it.

Cheers
Squid

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The bacteria that process nitrite have a much longer life cycle then the ones that process ammonia so it can take awhile before it starts to drop. All you can do is keep on top of the water changes for the time being and wait for it to drop.

 

[sarah86]

i havent done anything with the filter but i have used bacterlife which i guess is the equivalent to the ones youve mentioned squid. im going on holiday tomorrow so will only be able to do one water change today then one tomorrow. hopefully it'll sort itself out then. theres not alot more i can do