10 gallon idea............

I have one. How do you tell. What spikes and when? It's ammonia spike, and then nitrite, then nitrate? Or what happens and how long is each spike?
 
I have one. How do you tell. What spikes and when? It's ammonia spike, and then nitrite, then nitrate? Or what happens and how long is each spike?
yep, that's how it goes, and each spkie can last anywhere from a day to a week.
 
thanks....How do you know how far you are in a cycle?
test for ammoina, nitrite and nitrate using a liquid test kit.

there will be a spike in ammoina. it will get very high, and once it start to drop, you should start to see nitrites, for the bacteria that eat ammoina are starting to grow. their byproduct is the nitrite. once the nitrite peaks and starts to fall, you will start to see nitrates. nitrates is a byproduct of the nitrite eating bacteria, and is an indicator of dissolves organic compunds such as ammoina and nitrite
 
ok....my ammonia is 4.0, my nitrites are at 0. My ph looks like it is at 6.0. Uh oh, that can't be good. Besides that, where in the cycle am I? I set the tank up on December 31....24 days seems like a long ammonia spike....
 
ok....my ammonia is 4.0, my nitrites are at 0. My ph looks like it is at 6.0. Uh oh, that can't be good. Besides that, where in the cycle am I? I set the tank up on December 31....24 days seems like a long ammonia spike....
whew... any fish that are still alive in that tank need to get out of there QUICK! that level of ammonia could be fatal, and is at least very damaging. please return the fish as soon as you can. sound slike you are in the first 3rd of your cycle.
 
I just did a water change after that....If that will help at all.
yes, but your ammonia will still be too high. they need to get out of there or they will get hurt. it should NEVER exceed 0.25 PPM if you're fishy cycling.
 
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