# ready to give up



## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

who knew cycling a tank could be such a pain in the a$$. first all seems well, then im all wondering why i have nitrates 110+ before they cyle is half complete, then i find out "cycle" is doing that... well ammona was zero, nitrites were 0.2, and nitrates were round 30-50... well i did a water change, bout 30% now i have ammonia reading of 0.6-1, nitrite is still around 0.2, nitrates is 110 again!!!







oh and the pet store wants the fish out by sunday. should i get the nitrates to 50 and put him in? will 0.6 ammona and 0.2 nitrite hurt him?


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

ohh and i didnt add any more feeders and im not feeding them anymore than i did, maybe its these live plants, maybe i should pull em all out, maybe the lil brown spots are makin ammonia or sumtin


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## mechanic_joe (Dec 4, 2003)

What are you running for filtration on that 30 gallon tank ? if you did a water change and a day later you have ammonia, then possibly you don't have enough surface area for the nitrifying bacteria. Have you been doing small daily water changes to bring those nitrates down ? Your cycle should be over and everything should be smooth sailing now.


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## Guest (Apr 28, 2004)

Maybe the ammonia reading is from the chloramine (NH2Cl) breaking down after the dechlorinator is added. Or maybe you stired up some deitrus that was hidden in the gravel. Either way, your filtration system should knock that right out.

I don't know why your nitrate levels are jumping around like that. Possibly an error with your test kit.


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

im using a emp 280 on that tank


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

and i did the ammonia test 20 min after the water change


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

oh and one last thing, this is my first water change.


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

ok, heres the plan,...... my ammona is like 0.2, nitrite is 0.1, nitrate is bout 20-50, im going to put my fish in today, then do a notehr 20% water change tomorrow, how does this sound. should i go, or wait for zero zero


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## mechanic_joe (Dec 4, 2003)

*Ideally* you want your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate to all read as close to zero as possible. If they will hold your fish till Sunday then I think thats what you should do, and you should do small 10% watter changes once a day till then. Bullsnake is right, after conditioning your water its common to see a small ammonia spike, but your filtration shouldn't have had a problem with it.


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

isnt 0.2 and 0.1 perrty damn close to zero? i didnt think readings this low would affect him, but maybe im wrong


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## mechanic_joe (Dec 4, 2003)

> isnt 0.2 and 0.1 perrty damn close to zero? i didnt think readings this low would affect him, but maybe im wrong


 I'm concerned with your nitrate readings, not those. Ps can survive under very high nitrate concentrations, but that doesn't mean its a good thing for the fish.


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

well i got my spilo today, i just checked my readings, they are ammona 0.2, nitrite 0, nitrate between 10-20, so i think i should be good to go


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## alexm (Aug 18, 2003)

Some Nitrate test kits can be affected by nitrites.... wait until your nitites have reached zero before testing for nitrate!


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## joefromcanada (Apr 16, 2004)

well my 30 gallon should be good to go, i threw my feeders from that tank into my 10 gallon... well guess what, 3 days later, i have zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and 5-20 nitrate.... wow i guess it cycled in 3 days without biospira, how bout NO. maybe my test kit is garbage, oh and there is no nitrates in my tap water. so i dont know whats going on.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

You should be fine. Which test kit are you using ? How many feeders did you have in the 30 gallon ? You shouldn't have had more than 3 feeders for that size tank.


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## Scottish_Piranha_Fan (Apr 12, 2004)

I don't cycle and my fish are fine. I use a product which rapidly aids the development of beneficial bacteria. It's called nutrafin - Clycle. I set my tank up and added my fish in less than a day. and there all happy and healthy... 3 weeks later... i've never cycled a tank since i started fish keeping, and my fish have never died from poor water quality.


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