Yeah, I've read about it... That's what I'm asking... What am I missing as far as cycling goes? I'm basically waiting out the 4 week cycle at this point, but is there anything I can do to keep my fish alive? I mean, the ammonia and nitrite levels are zero... So how does one make the little friendly bacteria grow?
New tank, dead tetra... Suggestions?
- Thread starter lanoit
- Start date
lanoit said:
Aaah, okay. You'll need to test daily for ammonia and nitrites. The presence of any should trigger a water change of up to 50% depending on how high the levels are. Once ammonia shows up you'll likely be doing water changes every day.
If I've got my math right you have only 4 testras in a 45 gallon tank, right? If so, that's apretty light fish load (even for and uncycled tank) so you probably won't see dramatically high levels of ammonia and nitrites. They may even take a while to show up, but they will.
No--adding more fish just means they are exposed to higher levels. Being patient, and not adding any more fish until ammonia and nitrites hit 0, then adding a few more, testing and doing water changes as needed, ect--the tank will cycle with each addition of fish, but as long as you go slow and do water changes, the impact on the fish will be minimized.
