The LFS lady said start everything over - is my cycle really messed up?

I

inck243

AC Members
Dec 29, 2006
15
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0
Hi,

I brought my water in to the LFS to be tested to see how things are coming along with my tank cycle. So, the lady (who was considerably rude) took our water sample and put them in the test tubes, added the drops, but mixed it with her finger plugging the top... So I was thinking "great..she sucks" in my head, lol. (because it specifically says do not cap the tube with your finger in the instructions..)
So, after she compared the tests products with the chart, she dumped them in this weird looking grid bucket thing that looks like it had no drainage, and then rinsed the test tubes out in one of her fish tanks with fish for sale inside. :eek: :eek:
So, based on her knowledge from the tests, she was very very set on the fact that my water is "bad" and that I need to start over with everything (except the filter) She said dump the water, and wash the gravel. I was like "uh..no" lol

So, I bought Nitrate, Nitrite, and ammonia test kits, and I already have the PH one.

Here are the readings for my 6 gal. tank that i set up 4 days ago.
Ph - 7.0
ammonia - .50
nitrate - 10
nitrite - .50
(ammonia could have been .25 because its was hard for me to tell a difference between .50 and .25 with the sample that my water produced)
So, I did a water change after these tests, and I have 3 goldfish in the tank now, and I was not planning on following her advice... but I'm wondering if anyone thinks I should.
I don't know if she knows about cycles or not.. I didn't really want to talk to her about it anymore because she would just keep saying "NOoooopeee you need to dump all the water and wash the gravel"

Is the tank in a normal cycle?
 
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My advice?

If she didn't seem helpful, I wouldn't go with her suggestions. Continue with the fishless cycle and wait for the recommendations from some of the ultra-helpful experts over here.
 
Thanks :D

The only reason why we went there was because the owner is much better than his assistant. He wasn't working there when went though. :(

I do take the advice that I get from people on these forums a lot heavier than I do from that guy though :) If only we could get my mom to..lol. I wanted to do a fishless cycle but she came home last week with these goldfish that he gave her... So we are actually doing a fish-in cycle :/
 
tank size, ur cycle looks like it is done, ur goldfish are just poop machines, i looked through ur posts is it a 6 gallon, if so we already know the problem, but i will let someone else explain it

ooooo k it is a 6 gallon srry i had missed that i ur post
 
get those goldfish back to the store as soon as you can! they will not last much longer in there. your cyclke sounds towards the halfway point for me, but you never can tell.....
 
I think shes not very smart. Those chems are toxic. anyways your cycle seems to be proceeding ok. Ammonia is dropping nitrites are low and nitrates are developing.. seems ok to me. might be a bit early to be adding fish though.
 
Sounds like your cycle is finishing. I just question the bio-load. What type of gold fish?

How often do you change the water and what %?

The is obviously being converted to Nitrite, but quick enough yet. It looks like the Nitrite is starting to be converted to Nitrate.

I would leave things alone. Just do a large enough water change every day to keep the ammonia and nitrites at non-toxic levels. Say 20-30%.

Tested Ammonia and Nitrite daily, Nitrate every couple of days.

Don't go back to that store. If it was me I would send a letter to the owner.
 
Ok thanks everyone for the tips! :)

I don't know about 2 of the goldfish in the 6 gal. but one is all gold, and other has white patches. And the 1 other goldfish in that tank is a baby koi from my pond.

The water in this tank is actually kind of confusing -- lol I’ll explain it now:
On Dec. 29, 2006 I started a 3 gal. tank. Then, on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 10 goldfish (yes overstock I know, that is the fault of the LFS and my mom for not taking less fish, but we brought back most of the goldfish) were added to start a cycle. Then, Last Sunday, January 7, 2007 we got the new 6 gal. tank. We took about 2.5 gallons of water from the 3 gallon tank and put it in the 6 gallon. Then, we took about 1.5 - 2 more gallons from a fishbowl that had 3 baby koi fish (the water was 3 weeks old in the fish bowl), ran it through a coffee filter, and then put that in the 6 gallon tank as well. Then, the 6 gallon tank was topped off with tap water. So I guess that can be sort of considered a water change. So, 3 fish were taken from the 3 gal. Tank and kept in the 6 gallon tank.
Then, today I changed about 2.5 gallons after I tested the water.
lol good thing I'm keeping a blog on this or that would have been harder to answer! lol

Should I test the water again for ammonia to see if I still need to change more water? Or do I need to wait for the new water to settle in or something?

lol I feel like printing this out and giving it to the lady. (of course I would censor all of our usernames and everything)
 
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