Exactly How Long Does Cycling Take?

G

goldentiff

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Feb 3, 2006
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I have a 55 gallon, which after a week of being fishless, I had my lfs check the water quality and it was perfect. I added a common pleco (aprox 7-8 inches) and left it there for 3 days alone. Then I added 2 male convicts and 4 blue gouramis. All was fine. Afterward I added 6 african cichlids and some snails (4 black and 1 apple).
A month later all was still fine, then I had a bacterial bloom. I did a 50% wc, and thats when all went crazy.

All the levels are fine (at 0%) except for for nitrites. Its off the wall at 5. I have tried doing 10% wc daily, Cycle, Bio-spira (2x). Its been over a month now and still the nitrite just will not go down.

What can I do or is this normal?


P.S. I have lost 4 of the cichlids.

HELP
 
sounds like your cycle has never really finished and your water changes aren't big enough

10% will make almost no dent in the nitrite level

do a 60 % water change once a day until you get the nitrites down to .25ppm and them monitor closely and do huge water changes when necissary- it could take another month it depends on a lot of suttle little variables

good luck! -Kyle
 
I was only doing 10% because that is what the kid at the lfs said. He said I messed up by doing 50% change, that I had removed all the good bacteria.
He recommended Bio-Spira. He said that cycles a fish tank pretty much overnight. He also said I should NEVER change more then 30% of water.

OK, I now know NOT to trust him. But I still don't understand...will the water changes kill the good bacteria or not?
 
Yah its a common misconception. The bacteria are not freeswimming. They will live on porous surfaces. Doing water changes won't hurt your bacteria.
 
You can't do big water changes for a day or two after adding the BioSpira, but once it is established then changing water [with dechlorinated water] will not affect your bacteria. The bacteria that convert the nitrite to ammonia can be the slowest step in the cycling process. Just keep doing about 50% water changes to get the nitrite down and wait. It took many weeks for me, but I was doing it fishless so the only problem was impatience.
 
Ok, I just added the 2nd Bio-Spire yesterday, so I should wait until at least Saturday before doing any more wc.

Got it.

How about cleaning the gravel. I tried buying the gravel vacuum, 2x it broke and it didn't do a very good job. Now when I clean the tank (not just w/c) I syphon out about 25% of gravel and then put it back in. Is this bad? and if yes then how do I clean the bottom of the tank?
 
Sorry I didn't say it before but THANKS so much for all your responses. Its been so very helpful.
 
broken how?

you should vacume the gravel every time you do a water change

there's no reason you should be sucking gravel out of the tank i wonder if you got a faulty one or something

try controling the water flow by bending the hose and releasing or tightening depending on how fast you want the water to come out
 
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