Holy nitrite spike batman!!!!
- Thread starter pikwik
- Start date
when I first set up the tank I used feeder goldfish to cycle it...this is what I was told to do. Now I have also heard that thats not a good thing to do. Anyway, I bought 10 feeders and only 1 survived the cycle. I know this sound very cruel, but again I'm somewhat of a rookie to this and thats what i was told to do. So the cycle completed and all my readings were in the good range, so I moved the goldfish into a gold fish tank in my kids room and bought some rams and a pleco for the 70g tank. ALL was well so a few days later I added 3 Neon Tetras. Everthing was fine for another few days and then all of the sudden a few days ago my nitrites and nitrates got very high. pH has always been 7.4 to 7.8 or so. I cant seem to get it any lower no matter what I do. I have alot of white gravel and shells mixed in with the rest of the gravel. I was told this is why the pH stays so high. I must have some pretty tough fish!!!
My take is that your tank was cycled for the 1 surviving goldfish and when you replaced it with more fish, the tank is going through another cycle because of the increased ammonia.
Don't worry about the PH but try and keep the ammonia and nitrites down to 0.
Don't worry about the PH but try and keep the ammonia and nitrites down to 0.
Is my tank going to go through another cycle everytime I add more fish??? My goal is to have a whole lot more fish in the tank. I'm going to stick with fish that don't get much bigger than 3 to 5 inches or so. I am thinking of having a school of 10 - 15 Neons alone, a few more Rams and possibly some Krebenzas. I don't want to do this until the water is in good shape again, but would hate to have to go through a cycle everytime I add fish. 
Yes, your tank will go through another cycle when you add fish so the trick is to add more fishes slowly so the impact is barely noticeable. Add a couple at a time once a week. Since your tank is seeded already, it shouldn't take too long for the bacteria to catch up to the ammonia level but keep an eye out and test your water daily.
