cylce help

[Cory Keeper]

:help:

Alright, I am most perplexed right now. over a month ago I decided to get an aquarium, I like fish, both eating and viewing, and my mom had one many years ago. So I got a nice little 20 gal tank, filled it with water and removed chlorine. Let it all get going for 24 hours, then fill with fish to start the cycle. I bought 2 male swordtails, well about 4 days in my better ST died for some unknown reason. Amonia did skyrocket however didn't get out of hand. Well I decided to leave my remaining ST alone and not add any fish until a week incase something happened. After about 2 weeks alone I noticed that he was not eating at all, not good. Come to think of it I've never seen him eat. well it seems that he starved to death shortly after I replaced the first male with a female swordtail (to quote my sister, "pudgy little thing" and mine, a pig). At this time I was having a minor problem with some kind white velvety growth all over the tank, and my nitrites were off the charts (8-10 would be a good guess). about a week and a half ago I did a 10%-15% WC to try and help the sky high nitrites, little to no effect, at least immediatly. What I had done was remove every single decoration (HMS battleship, and couple really nice plastic plants) and got into the gravel really good, then proceded to rinse the cartidge in the old tank water. In hindsight I might have goofed, It seems that a little later my nitrites went to zero, however the ammonia has stayed at a little over 1 PPM but on the other hand, no white growth which leads me to the idea that it wasn't supposed to be there. any ideas why the cycle has restarted?

[ostrangeone89]

I don't know about your cycle, but I don't think I would have used a swordtail and I wouldn't recommend two males in a 20 gall tank!

When cycling a tank I'd use danios, they are great fish and very hardy and then once cycled then I'd add the swordtails one. When having swordtails you are suggested to have a male and two females, because if theres one she'll get harrased 24/7. I havn't found that, my male use to bug her but now he's very protective of her and he's a gentlemen!

[silentskream]

if you must use fish for cycling, swordtails are not the best to go with.

also, when you cycle with fish you have to do massive water changes daily (or almost daily) to keep the ammonia low enough to avoid killing/severely damaging your fish. your cycle is "restarting" because it never finished starting to begin with.

the white stuff is a fungus, you should definitely kill that before anything else, and whatever fish you have you might want to take back to the store and try fishless cycling.. its much less harmfull for the fish!

[Cory Keeper]

well I've left the light off to reduce stress which might have been the final blow to the white stuff. However It seems I've been mis-informed about swordtails, was told that they were hardy. But shouldn't ammonia be dropping after a week and a half? I think the fungus came on the ST that lasted the longest.

P.S. Im not sure its possible to get straight ammonia around here, I havn't seen it.

[silentskream]

no.. when doing a fishy cycle, it can take two or three months to cycle a tank.. that's why so many of us recommend going the fishless route!

here's a link:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

[Rbishop]

Do you have a good liquid master test kit, like APIs?

You should test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Also test the tap water you are using for the same things. The tap water pH test should be done on a sample that has set out overnight in a shallow dish.

You could have ammonia in your tap water, which means you will most always have a ammonia reading on your tank. Using the right dechlorinator will convert the ammonia to a non-toxic form, still available for the bacteria but not harmful to your fish.

You need to do water changes during this fishy cycle to keep ammonia and nitrites below .25

[ThePBM]

swordtails are terribly sensitive to ammonia and nitrites. probably one of the worst fish you could've used for cycling. they do not acclimate all that well to changing water conditions and that happens about every second during the cycle.

[jonnyfry]

.

You need to do water changes during this fishy cycle to keep ammonia and nitrites below .25


this is the single most important thing to do , no matter what fish you cycle with , even if it takes multiple large water changes .