The order of a cycle?

[Erynn]

What exact order does a cycle follow (talking fishy cycle here). I have read posts where people have an ammonia spike then a nitrite spike. I have read posts where people have just one or the other. I'm just curious is there is a "proper order" it will follow if the tank has been seeded, has fish and has fake plants.

My little 10 gallon is still cyling! Just to update everyone. The ammonia is going up and down, I do water changes every day to keep it from climbing all the way up to 8ppms! Nitrites are at 0 still!

[NJ Devils Fan]

The order is ammonia(fish waste), nitrite, nitrate.

[wetmanNY]

What's making the ammonia go up to 8ppm? High concentrations (over 5ppm) tend to slow down the process.

[Erynn]

I have absolutely NO idea what is going on in that tank. I am tempted to just tear it down and be done with it, put the danios into my 20 gallon. The ammonia goes up, up and up some more no matter what I do.....and it won't stop. I hardly feed them. I have seeded the tank a couple times now with very established gravel, plants and a filter sponge into the filter. I do water changes every day to try to keep it the ammonia down.

So anyway, I am clueless right now. I have no idea. I have never had this problem in any of my other tanks....which are all bigger....maybe it's cause it's a tiny tank that it's hard to cycle?

[wetmanNY]

There is some source within your system of organic matter being broken down, because of course you are not adding 5ccs of household ammonia on a daily basis and you are adding no conditioners that might give a false positive reading. So it's very mysterious.

[VoodooChild]

How many danios are there? I wouldn't put in more than 4 or 5 to cycle it through, if that.

[Erynn]

There are 4 zebra danios. That's it. They get fed once a day at night.

[Kaylee Skylyn]

Heres a link that should help you understand how a cycle should go:

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html#cycle

But if you are changing a little of the water every day the amonia shouldnt be so high. Two reasons for this came to mind: 1) your water is clorinated(or maybe another chemical) and your killing the bacteria befor they can get a hold and do their work. 2) your water is high in ammonia...tho I have never heard of that happening...(and it most likely would be bad for YOUR helth too.)

Otherwise how long has it been? the cycle takes a few months to totaly complet itself...not just a few weeks.

[GillBates]

I'm thinkin' that you need to leave the tank alone for 30 days to let it complete the cycle...changing the water every other day basically puts your tank back to square one every time! The bacteria never have a chance to balance out..

[carpguy]

Originally posted by GillBates
I'm thinkin' that you need to leave the tank alone for 30 days to let it complete the cycle...changing the water every other day basically puts your tank back to square one every time! The bacteria never have a chance to balance out..

Water changes do NOT slow down your cycle.

Water changes may help your fish survive the cycle. They are a crucial part of fishy cycling. Frequent and as much as necessary to keep ammonia below critical levels.

If you can detect ammonia in the water it means that there is more than the bacteria can deal with. As long as there is more than they can deal with they will continue to grow as a colony. Diluting it from 5ppm to 1ppm does not slow this growth. It will, on the other hand, make a world of difference for the fish.

[GillBates]

carpguy....water changes WILL slow down cycling....true, changing water may help the beginner fish survive, but the results will be the problem that she is experiencing...ammonia levels erratically moving up and down......both methods will eventually work....one just more efficient than the other.....the ammonia buildup supports a different strain of bacteria.....if you continually artificially remove the ammonia, the bacteria have less chance to develop.

[carpguy]

Gill,
The bacteria in my tank are fine with no detectable ammonia. They are ok with water changes. If there is detectable ammonia then there is more than the colony can process. Any ammonia you remove is immediately replaced by continued output from the fish. If there is a supply of ammonia there will be bacteria. The colony will continue to grow until it reaches a balanced point where it can continually process the available ammonia. Until it reaches that point there is no restriction on the growth of the colony -- it doesn't slow down to conserve.

If it did slow down and you managed to keep from killing the fish that wouldn't be a bad thing. Once the fish are dead, no more ammonia (assuming you take them out of the tank at that point). :(

Water changes are standard practice for a fishy cycle. Skipping them in an effort to speed things up will produce nothing but dead fish.

[JSchmidt]

I agree with carpguy. Water changes won't slow a cycle. As long as food (ammonia) exists in excess of what the bacteria can process, they will continue to grow. Changing water only reduces the concentration and protects the fish.

Jim