cycling my tank

[Andra]

Hello, I hope someone can help me, we have a 55gal tank we are cycling with danios, our ammonia level is 0, but our nitrate is 5 and off chart, and our ph is 7.8. We have been cycling for three weeks now. The fish seem fine, but we are leary of the high levels on our test kits. Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Also, when changing water, should we add start right in the water we put in or can it be put directly into tank? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Tyler718]

When doing a fishy cycle, only enough beneficial bacteria will grow to support the amount of ammonia put out by the fish. The cycle goes ammonia to nitrItes to nitrAtes.

So if the fish are putting out a certain amount of ammonia, only a certain amount of bacteria will grow to support that amount. This will turn the ammonia to nitrItes. Only a certain amount of bacteria will grow that will support the elemination of the nitrItes. This will turn the nitrItes into nitrAtes. Which can be eliminated by water changes.

So I suggest that you do water changes and added a FEW (2-3)more fish to the aquarium. This will procuce more ammonia that is needed to increase the bio load needed to increase the amount of bacteria needed to keep more fish.

I hope this helps some.

 

[carpguy]

I'm not really sure what you mean by your "Nitrates are 5 and off chart"? 5ppm is low for NitrAtes, high for NitrItes. If your talking about NitrItes and you're concerned about your levels you can lower them using water changes -- water changes will not slow down your cycle.

A lot of the folks in here are advocates of fishless cycling. If you're going to do this again you might want to look into it.

I'd guess at 3 weeks you're past the ammonia spike, into the nitrite spike, and doing ok. When the nitrites level off you'll have both bacterial colonies established. At that point you can start to add more fish, a few at a time to let the bacteria catch up. The established colonies adapt quickly, but if you overwhelm them you can mini-cycle.

I'm not sure what Start is, but I'm gonna guess its a Cycle-type tank starter thing. The conventional wisdom in these parts is that none of them actually do much of anything except cost money. I waterchange with buckets and add my dechlorinator to the bucket; others, especially the Python-folk, add to the tank. I'd imagine you could go either way with the start as well, although if you've got buckets why not add it there?

And BTW, welcome to AqC .

 

[Richer]

I'm gonna go against what Tyler has said. Do not add more fish to your tank. You will br increasing the amount of ammonia being introduced to your tank and thus increasing the amount of nitrites being produced from the ammonia consuming bacteria. This will not increase the rate at which the nitrite consuming bacteria are multiplying in your tank... it will only cause a more stressful situation for your fish.
Fishy cycling tends to take a bit longer than fishless cycling... it is not uncommon for a cycle to last for a couple of months. Do several water changes a week to keep nitrite levels as low as you can. This will not slow down your cycle. Keeping nitrites as low as you can via water changes will only help your fish feel more comfortable.

Of course, I am assuming you are referring to nitrITE rather than nitrATE. Nitrites are much more harmful in any concentration, high or low. You want these to be at zero. Nitrates are not harmful (in most freshwater setups) in the low concentrations. Nitrates only get harmful when they reach the 100+ppm levels.

HTH
-Richer

 

[Andra]

Thank You

Thank you for your help, will do water changes and see what happens, am new to this and trying to do it right. Sorry if I sound naive, just learning. This is a wonderful board, very helpful, thanks once again will let you know how it goes.

 

[Tyler718]

Richer is correct. I made a mistake. When I saw nitrAtes is what through me off. It was a long day. That was my bust. Sorry about that.

 

[Andra]

Nitrites

It was Nitrites and am going to run another test today, will let you know, no problem I did not know difference in NitIte or NitrAte so this info is helpful. Thanks again.