4 weeks into fishy cycle and no nitrites at all

[TKOS]

I assume your room is kept at least at 70F or more. I fill up some buckets for my water change and set them near the tank (on a shelf underneath). I find that since I am only changing 20% of my tank water at a time this is close enough. Otherwise run the taps and mix wrm and cold water til it "feels" about right. Close is good enough.

I would do a change when the ammonia climbs over 1.0 and nitrites over 0.5. So do another water change tomorow or if you have the time first thing in the morning.

 

[ClimbAZ527]

Very cool, thank you so much for your help. I hope I can depend on you for more troubleshooting on fishy cycling. Oh, another question now that I'm thinking about. I have 3 Kenyis now and my more mature one is chasing her reflection against my acrylic tank, should I be worried or is this just a normal thing fish do with their spare time?

 

[ClimbAZ527]

Just thought of something else. HOw long should the cycle take if I follow your advice to the letter?

 

[TKOS]

Well if you are already getting nitrites then I can't imagine that it would take more than a couple of weeks. Changing that filter media set you back a bit.

I do big water changes often and have small fish loads in my tank so when I did a fishy cycle (before I knew about fishless), I never even noticed the cycle because I never saw ammonia register on my test strips. But since it is 9 months later and I still never have ammonia I figure it must have cycled somewhere back there. And they are all still the original fish, never a loss yet. So I figure I must have done it right. Many water changes are my thing.

 

[ClimbAZ527]

I just bought some of that bio-spira stuff. I've read a lot of good things in this forum about it, so hopefully it'll help with the cycle. Do you have an opinion on it?

 

[TKOS]

Never used it myself but eveyone raves about it. If you use it make sure to do a water change and get the ammonia and nitrites as low as possible. Then add a full does of biospira as per the bottle instructions and within 24 hours you can add a full load of fish. That doesn't mean to stop testing but you should be fine. That was a great purchase.

 

[ClimbAZ527]

You said wait 24 hrs. before adding the fish, does that mean I should take my fish out of the tank? If so, where would be a safe place to put them since I don't have an isolation tank and can't afford too much since I've been too injured to work.

 

[TKOS]

No, no, Within 24 hours you can add a full bio load to the tank. After 24 hours the bacteria will start to die back to the level of food that is available. It should all be in the instructions. The fish that are in there are great, just leave them be.

If you don't add a full bioload of fish then each fish you add from that point on will have to include some biospira as well or else add them slowly one at a time and watch out for ammonia.

 

[ClimbAZ527]

So basically I should keep the 3 Kenyis I have there right now and wait for the cycle to finish, then after the cycle is done I can add as many fish as my tank can hold right?

 

[TKOS]

The 3 fish can stay. Do a water change to reduce the ammonia as much as possible. Add biospira as per bottle instructions. The tank is cycled right away and you can add anymore fish you want to. If you don't add more fish within 24 hours then the tank will be cycled but only for 3 fish. Any new fish you add will start a mini cycle so you will be able to combat this with water changes or by adding more biospira. That is it. Real easy.

Just remember that even once cycled you should do periodic tests just in case.