I am wondering if someone can please shed some light on the cycling process for me ?
Basically, I have 4 zebra danios in my new tank and I am changing a percentage of the water daily along with testing all the important levels.
All of my levels are zero, even the nitrates. However, the PH is 7.8 BUT I have already taken action on this with API PH Down. I am going to see what the result says today.
How do I increase the nitrates ? Is it because I am changing the water daily and it isn't giving enough time for the 'good' bacteria to form ?
It is not plant heavy and only a piece of driftwood (which I soaked for quite a long time). The filter is working fine. I have already cleaned it once.
I have only been cycling the tank for 3 / 4 days so it's very early.
Let me know your thoughts on the nitrates and the water changes ?
The important ones are ammonia and nitrite. Those are the ones that will kill your fish.
Use Seachem Prime and Seachem Stability to neutralise any ammonia/nitrite (Prime) between water changes, and build up your filter bacteria (Stability).
What’s your pH out the tap? It’s best to stock fish that suit your natural water supply rather than mess around with buffers (until you have more experience at least). Your gH is more important than pH for which species you keep anyway. As long as your pH stays stable then it’s less important if it’s 7 or 7.8 for example.
240L Fluval Roma with Oase 600 Biomaster: 1 German red bristlenose, 4 male cherry barbs, 6 standard rummynose, 3 golden rummynose tetra, 9 emperor tetra, 14 cardinal tetra, 2 hengeli rasbora, 3 nerite snails, 1 adult Sulawesi snail and multiple juveniles continually appearing.
Parameters: gH2, kH1, pH7.4 (tap).
Fish fiend since October 2017.
Hi, I have just re-measured now. The PH is 7.6, High Range PH is 5.8, Nitrates now exist at the lowest level, nitrites now exist at the lowest level and ammonia is still zero. I did do a water change today.
Let me know if you think this is how the cycle works ?
Thank you.
We promote a fishless cycle as a forum, purely because your fish will suffer with any level of ammonia or nitrite.
Fish create ammonia in their waste. Bacteria eventually turn that ammonia into nitrite. Further bacteria turn that into nitrate, which can build up a little before it needs to be removed by water changes.
If fish are already in the tank, you will be doing water changes daily for several weeks, potentially months. You are only cycled once you measure 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite with a tank full of fish or the equivalent amount of liquid ammonia (approximately 1.2ml in a 54L tank).
As you have fish in, you need to add Prime to neutralise the ammonia and nitrite for maximum 48 hours before doing a water change and re-dosing Prime for another 48 hours. If you add Stability, you can generally establish bacteria much quicker but you’re still looking at 10-14 days minimum. That’s 10-14 days your fish are potentially getting poisoned. Shops really need to stop giving poor advice!
So...if you haven’t got Prime you need to do more water changes today until 0 nitrite remains as well as 0 ammonia.
High range pH of 5.8 doesn’t make sense so i’m guessing a typo.
gH stands for general hardness and is a measure of the minerals in your water. Soft water (never get limescale in your kettle) has a low gH, hard water (scummy tea and scrubbing the taps every week) has a high gH. Generally the higher the gH the higher the pH, but not necessarily. I have gH 2 (very soft) but pH 7.6 because Scottish Water add buffers for some reason. But I don’t chase the “perfect” pH, I choose fish that are good at low gH/soft water. All the pH does generally is determine sex of fry.
So ignore the pH, find your gH (water supplier will have the information online), but Prime and Stability and/or return the fish and learn about a safer fishless cycle. Then you can stock safely and appropriately for your specific water.
240L Fluval Roma with Oase 600 Biomaster: 1 German red bristlenose, 4 male cherry barbs, 6 standard rummynose, 3 golden rummynose tetra, 9 emperor tetra, 14 cardinal tetra, 2 hengeli rasbora, 3 nerite snails, 1 adult Sulawesi snail and multiple juveniles continually appearing.
Parameters: gH2, kH1, pH7.4 (tap).
Fish fiend since October 2017.
that said it is perfectly possible to cycle with fish in (my first tank started last August I did that because I knew no different) but it does take longer and need way more patience and work than doing a fishless cycle (which is the (relatively) more recently recommended method of cycling.
The tank was zero on all levels before the fish went in and they have only been in the tank for four days. .Today, was the first day the nitrites has been over zero. I will try the Prime and see if that reduces the nitrites.
FishLadyUK wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 11:03 am
It is not plant heavy and only a piece of driftwood (which I soaked for quite a long time). The filter is working fine. I have already cleaned it once.
When you 'clean' the filter, which you should not have to do after only a few days, just make sure you simply rinse any sponges or floss in old tank water and then put them back in. This is where your various bacterial colonies will live and break down the fish waste.
Some shops or filter manufacturers 'recommend' you throw out part of your filter media every so often but this is completely unnecessary. If you do, you effectively just throw away your bacterial colonies, leading to ammonia spikes and mini-cycles.
Hi Ric, Yes that all makes sense, thank you. My sponge doesn't seem to come out of the filter but it does have open areas so I rinse the actual filter and flushes everything out of it.
I intend to do a filter wash once a week only.
Yeah you shouldnt clean the filter while cycling will just set yourself back you want decaying fish waste to feed growing bacteria. Daily water changes is good and necessary with a fish in cycle to keep levels low until the bacteria can take over. Also it's normal for ammonia and nitrates etc to be zero to start (worry if your tap water has high levels of ammonia lol) You want zero to start and then it will all rise and then drop again. Its after it has dropped and stabilised that the cycle is over. Higher levels of nitrates is also a good indicator that it's all working.
A simple to use calculator for working out how much to dose of a certain product, based on your aquarium water volume and the requirements of your product.
There are two major causes of fish deaths in an aquarium; new tank syndrome and over feeding.
If you take the time to read this you will hopefully not have to deal with new tank syndrome and you will create a healthy environment for your fish.
Cycling a fish tank can be confusing to beginners and experienced fishkeepers alike. If you’ve already read about it you’ll probably still be confused, because most cycling guides don’t really explain cycling in a manner that’s easy to understand. Here I’ll try to explain in simple terms what is essentially a very simple uncomplicated process.
Algae is a natural occurrence that has been present on Earth for over a billion years, thriving in environments with light and water. In moderate amounts, algae can have advantageous effects, such as utilizing ammonia as a food source, acting as a food source for fish and invertebrates, and producing vital oxygen through photosynthesis.
