have i cycled yet?

[sbundy]

i have a 69 gallon tank. i let the water sit for 2 weeks using the cycle product with no fish inside. after 2 weeks i added 6 fish(2 at a time) 2 honey gouramis, 2 red rainbows and 2 red torpedo barbs. 1 week later 1 fish died. i proceeded to do 2x 20% water changes in the third week. so ive had fish in there for 2 weeks now, still using my cycle product with weekly dosage, and i tested my water yesterday and this r results

amonia 0
nitrites 0-0.3
ph 7
nitrates about 20

have i cycled yet? it seems odd to me. ive only had fish in there for 2 weeks. im thinking of adding 2 new fish on saturday, is that ok? please give me specific info! thanks

 

[tomm10]

You're not cycled.

When you are consistently showing zero for both ammonia AND nitrites you will be cycled. Even once you get a zero reading on both, I would wait a week and continue to test. After that, if your readings are still zero, add a couple fish at a time.

Remember, every time you add a fish the bacteria colony in the tank is forced to grow to consume and convert the waste that fish creates. A fish a week is a pretty good pace provided your readings still come in at zero. If you add too many fish at once, you tax the colony too much and will end up with another spike in ammonia and nitrites.

I have never read anything to suggest Cycle is anything more than snake oil so I doubt it is doing much for your tank. My guess would be that the large volume of water compared to the fairly small number/size of fish in it is what is keeping ammonia and nitrites low. Did ammonia ever show?

 

[anonapersona]

question

First is there carbon or ammonia absorbing media in your filter? This may be absorbing ammonia. Do you have live plants? They will take in ammonia also. If not, then it looks like the filter is processing all the ammonia the fish create. Yes, probably OK to add a few more fish. I hope you will get away from the "Noah's Ark" thing and add more than 2 of each sort, fish generally prefer to be among large groups of like fishes.

 

[sbundy]

no ive never seen amonia. i have carbon in my filter.i have no live plants. am i on the right track? are you saying i should add more of the same species of fish or different species?

 

[tomm10]

I'm saying add no more fish at all until you show no ammonia and not nitrite consistently for at least a week. Given that you've never detected ammonia, I would bump that up to two weeks at least.

When its time to add fish, I'm saying you should add them slowly keeping in mind that each fish causes a stress on the bacteria colony that needs time to catch up. Whether you add fish of the same species or different is up to your preference and the requirements of that species.

 

[sbundy]

ok, sorry for all maybe stupid question but here is another. my amonia and nitrites level are pretty much at 0 right now with fish being in there for only 2 weeks. i have never tested for amonia but my nitrites were at one point at around 0.8, and ive seen the nitrites go down to pretty much 0 in the last 3-4 days. are they going to go back up? i just wanna try to understand
thanks

 

[tomm10]

No stupid questions, just a lack of knowledge. Easy enough to cure.

Okay, first, read the Cycle thread that's stickied in the Freshwater Newbie Forum (this one). It will give you a much better picture of what's going on.

Super simplified and in a tiny nutshell, what happens is this. Fish produce waste that is ammonia, bacteria (naturally present in very small numbers) eat that ammonia and produce nitrites as waste. More bacteria eat the nitrites and produce nitrates as a biproduct. Ammonia and nitrites are both very toxic to fish in very small concentrations. Nitrates are toxic too but at much higher concentrations.

Those bacteria, although present, are no where near numerous enough to handle any real load of fish. They need time to reproduce in the numbers necessary to handle the load of ammonia. Once the ammonia bacteria are there in enough numbers, the bacteria that eats nitrites can begin reproducing since they have food.

This is why, generally you see a spike of ammonia but no nitrites. Then, you begin to see nitrites rise as ammonia goes down. Eventually (usually after 4-8 weeks), ammonia goes away and nitrites dissappear leaving you with only nitrates.

So, if you see ANY nitrites or ammonia, its because the bacteria colonies in your tank are not large enough to handle the waste produced by the fish already in it, let alone the waste from more fish.

That's the real condensed version, I urge you to read more about cycling and there's plenty of threads and articles here.