Nitrite "jumpstart"?

D

Dan the Fish

AC Members
Sep 22, 2005
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Hi all,
I have had a 10g tank for about a month now with 1 long finned danio in it to cyle the tank. I have had 0 nitrites the whole time and i am getting worried, it seems that the ammonia may be spiking and I hope that means the cycle is begining. I've heard stuff about "jumpstarting" the cycle with products and other tank sources, can you all give me some sort of feedback on what if anything I should do other than coninue to be patient?

:hi:
 
You could get some filter material or gravel from an established tank provided that the tank is healthy. Basically what you are doing here is transporting the good bacteria to your new tank. Bio Spira is also good to use as it contains live bacteria cultures. The only drawback is that it seems to be hard to find and a little expensive. The other so called biological starters like Cycle, Stress Zyme and others, seem to do very little if anything to start or jump start the cycle.
 
What are your ammonia and nitrate readings?
 
With just the one fish, things will go pretty slowly. So, you can just continue to be patient or find some biospira. If you decide to just be patient, the cycle shouldn't be too hard on the fish, and so it won't be a bad thing. Just don't let the ammonia get any higher than what it is now (or the nitrites once they start showing up).
 
Yes, BioSpira is safe for the fishes. If you are plannning to use BioSpira, get more danios or fishes of your choice, a single danio isn't going to keep much of the bacteria in BioSpira alive for long.
 
It may speed up the process a little because the increased fishload will amount to a more stable amount of ammonia to the water, but the cycling process will still take anywhere between 3-6 weeks.
 
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