Am i doing something wrong?

AndrewM6097

AndrewM6097

AC Members
Dec 21, 2006
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I have a 29 gallon tank and im trying to establish a community tank. My tank has had water in it since November 6th, and has had 4 zebra danios in it since November 9th. I have kept the water between 76 and 80 degrees. Doing 15-20% water changes every few days. I feed them sparingly and they seem happy and healthy. Now whats worrying me is i have NO trace of nitrites or nitrates at all. My ammonia is reading about .5 ppm and hasnt gotten any higher. Should i just keep being patient and do what im doing? or is there something else i should do.
 
You are doing a fishy cycle with a light load in a medium tank and doing water changes. It will take a while for you to see nitrites show up.

I would monitor frequently, daily, and do water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites less than .25 ppm.
 
is there anything i can do to speed it up, maybe add a couple more hearty fish or just keep doing what im doing
 
I would prefer that you did not add more fish until you have an established bacteria colony. Though it causes much discussion, there isn't any set point where you can identify when gill damage occurs due to ammonia and nitrites. This damage, while not necessarily causing death at low levels, can damage gills and shorten life spans. Thus the push for fishless cycling.

When you have your established bacteria, slowly increase your bio-load, 1-2 fish every 2 wks to let your bacteria grow and respond.

If you must rush, the only thing that you can buy to assist is Bio-Spira.

Know anyone that you could get some substrate or filter media from an established tank?
 
im really in no rush i was just curious if there was a way to safley speed up the proccess. i'll just keep at what im doing and be patient. thanks for the help
 
well... Tomorrow will be 2 months since i have put fish in my tank and there is still no sign of nitrite. Does that seem right? I guess im just starting to get a little impatient, someone let me know whats up and reasure me everything is right
 
Cycling with a light fish load can take several months as you are finding out. That being said at least you know enough to test for nitrates and nitrites. About the best way to speed up the process would be to seed your aquarium from an established one. That is if you know someone who has an established aquarium getting an old filter cartridge or sponge and fitting that into your filter should get your aquarium to cycle much faster.
 
A couple posts above rbishop said i can use Bio-Spira.... but do i have enough of a load to use this or will it kill all my ammonia and starve the bacteria causing my cycle to start over. I mean i guess i should be more patient but i would like to get a few more fish in there
 
What are you're CURRENT water paramaters(ammonia,NitrItes,NitrAtes)? Do you clean your filter? If you do I'd stop. What kind of filter do you have and what kind of media do you have in it? How many fish do you have in there?
 
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