My partner added fish before the cycle was finished!

L

liz519

AC Members
Nov 30, 2008
6
0
0
Philadelphia, MS
So here the nutshell...

I've raised goldfish for years. I have a 10 gallon aquarium and I was cycling the water to start my first freshwater tropical enviroment. I wanted to start small with just a couple of fish and move on from there once I felt more comfortable. Well I had been doing a fishless cycle but the levels weren't ready yet (the tap water here is horrible). My partner comes home yesterday and proudly displays her purchase of 4 mollies and a pleco. I don't want to kill them but help! I got some media from a local shop and now my nitrates are through the roof! Here's my levels:

Nitrate: >120
Nitrite: 0
Hardness PPm: 150 (hard)
Akaline: 80
Ph: 6.5

What is the best course of action?

LT
 
Glad you found us and are asking questions!

If you haven't...read this...

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

You are in a fishy cycle...ensure you have a good liquid test kit like the one made by API.

You will need to do water changes to keep parameters in check and the bacteria can be fully developed for your bio-load.

Whenever you get a reading of ammonia or nitrItes at .25 or greater, do a water change of about 30%.

Keep nitrAtes in the 20-40 range.

A 50% water change should lower those levels by 50%, provided your tap doesn't have any in it.

Test the tap water to see what you work with. The tap pH test should be done on a sample that has set out over night in a shallow dish.

If possible test the GH and KH of your tap. In most cases unless you are keeping certain fish or establishing some unique breeding conditions, the hardness will not be a problem.

If you do have high tap water nitrates, you can cut it with DI or RO water.
 
Last edited:
Your best bet would be to return the fish and finish the fishless cycle. If you are not willing to do that and don't want to kill your fish you will be doing multiple daily water changes to keep the levels RB mentioned in check.

What kind of pleco? Several types of plecos will never work in a 10gal and should probably be returned anyway.
 
id explain to your partner what ur doing why u need to return the fish. i would not put mollies in a 10 g as they grow to around 3.5 to 4 inches. wat kind of pleco is it? if its a common take it back asap as they grow very large and i woulndt recommend less than 100g's per common pleco...
 
It sounds like you tested with one of those paper strips, there's no ammonia reading either which is vastly more important than hardness and alkaline. (Those 2 aren't really important at all actually at this point). I'd run down to PetsMart/Petco and get an API liquid test tube kit. And while I was there I'd return the Plec (that gets to 18") and the Mollys. Mollys ideally need brackish water or super super hard water (300-400 ppm) to do well long term. a 10 gal is also too small for Mollys.
Just what you wanted to hear, right? :-)
 
Well my suggestion would be take the fish back and finish up the cycle! If you are not willing to up set your partner by doing this at least take back the Pl*co! They get HUGE and add far to much bio load on your tank! But the mollies should be returned also, as was stated before, a 10gal is just not large enough for them...as it is pretty much a guarantee that you are not going to just want a few mollies in there! If you are not going to return all of the fish at least make sure that you are doing a TON of water changes to even out the parameters, also have them checked at the store that you are going to....just to make sure that your tests are coming out correct!:)


Good luck...let us know if you have any more questions!
 
The best thing to do is really return the fish and buy and ammonia test kit, then proceed with your cycling plan. In my experience the test strips are fine, but the liquid kits are cheaper in the long term.

Test your tap water to get a base reading of what you're adding during water changes. I'd bet that you have Nitrate in the tap with a reading that high and no nitrite. Adding a water conditioner like Prime is great.

Good luck, let us know how it ends up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom