Hi Everyone
I would appreciate any help you can give me. And apologise for the length of this thread. :help:
I am a self-confessed newbie, and thought after ALOT of painstaking research I'd have enough under my belt to get straight into fishes and be a fully fledged aquarist. I was wrong. It all started wrong from the beginning, and the cycling has suffered as a result.
I have a 240L Juwel Rio Tank, Eheim Pro II external filter, black and natural substrate, a selection of amazon sword plants, a rock cave, two 'mangrove'-effect statuettes, one daylight and one marine light, heater setup.
Me and my girlfriend researched loads into fishkeeping, reading everything we could get our little paws on, and were all ready to do a fishless cycle. ...until we went to the fish shop. We filled the tank with treated (de-chorinated) water and set up everything in the tank, and heat at 80 Farenheit. We left it like this for two weeks, adding small amounts of food to try start the cycle. (On hindsight we certainly didn't feed the tank with enough ammonia to start the cycle.)
Then we went to our local store. Explained what we had done, and what our setup was, and also enquired about buying some 'bactinetts' (live bacteria) to do a quick cycle and get some fish in the tank as soon as a couple of days later. They all seemed very helpful.
The guy we spoke to most though, said with the size of the tank, we didnt need bactinettes, we could just put the fish straight in! We were thrilled, (on hindsight again, we shouldn't have believed him but were caught up in the 'buy some fish! buy some fish!' bug) - and to hopefully feed the bacteria and kick start the cycle we got two bristlenose plecos and four keyhole cichlids (he said these were 'hardy' fish).
All the fish seemed to settle in fine, and the ammonia levels steadily rose (not too high) and then sank very quickly. Our nitrite levels seemed fairly stable. As a result, we thought (I know - idiots considering we'd read up on everything) the cycle might have already have been given the kickstart it needed, so decided to get some bactinettes to get the cycle over quickly. A week later, with nitrite and ammonia levels all seeming the same (no ammonia / little nitrites), we purchased two angelfish. Once again, the fish seemed perfectly happy.
A week later now, and it appears that our nitrite levels are in the red (nearly 3.0 concentration). and have been for a few days. The fish all seem happy. But i dont want them to get poisoned.
Last night we did a 40% water change to try and lower the nitrite levels. Will see tonight if it has gone down. But by doing this, have we just stopped the cycle altogether? And where are we exactly in the cycle?:huh:
As you can tell, VERY confused...and need to know what the best course of action is from now. Any help would be appreciated.:read:
I would appreciate any help you can give me. And apologise for the length of this thread. :help:
I am a self-confessed newbie, and thought after ALOT of painstaking research I'd have enough under my belt to get straight into fishes and be a fully fledged aquarist. I was wrong. It all started wrong from the beginning, and the cycling has suffered as a result.
I have a 240L Juwel Rio Tank, Eheim Pro II external filter, black and natural substrate, a selection of amazon sword plants, a rock cave, two 'mangrove'-effect statuettes, one daylight and one marine light, heater setup.
Me and my girlfriend researched loads into fishkeeping, reading everything we could get our little paws on, and were all ready to do a fishless cycle. ...until we went to the fish shop. We filled the tank with treated (de-chorinated) water and set up everything in the tank, and heat at 80 Farenheit. We left it like this for two weeks, adding small amounts of food to try start the cycle. (On hindsight we certainly didn't feed the tank with enough ammonia to start the cycle.)
Then we went to our local store. Explained what we had done, and what our setup was, and also enquired about buying some 'bactinetts' (live bacteria) to do a quick cycle and get some fish in the tank as soon as a couple of days later. They all seemed very helpful.
The guy we spoke to most though, said with the size of the tank, we didnt need bactinettes, we could just put the fish straight in! We were thrilled, (on hindsight again, we shouldn't have believed him but were caught up in the 'buy some fish! buy some fish!' bug) - and to hopefully feed the bacteria and kick start the cycle we got two bristlenose plecos and four keyhole cichlids (he said these were 'hardy' fish).
All the fish seemed to settle in fine, and the ammonia levels steadily rose (not too high) and then sank very quickly. Our nitrite levels seemed fairly stable. As a result, we thought (I know - idiots considering we'd read up on everything) the cycle might have already have been given the kickstart it needed, so decided to get some bactinettes to get the cycle over quickly. A week later, with nitrite and ammonia levels all seeming the same (no ammonia / little nitrites), we purchased two angelfish. Once again, the fish seemed perfectly happy.
A week later now, and it appears that our nitrite levels are in the red (nearly 3.0 concentration). and have been for a few days. The fish all seem happy. But i dont want them to get poisoned.
Last night we did a 40% water change to try and lower the nitrite levels. Will see tonight if it has gone down. But by doing this, have we just stopped the cycle altogether? And where are we exactly in the cycle?:huh:
As you can tell, VERY confused...and need to know what the best course of action is from now. Any help would be appreciated.:read:
