Please help-- in head over heels at this point

This is so frustrating!

I due to various emergency and just simply not being home for a day and half, I went two days without another 50 percent change for my water- ammonia spiked back to 4 AGAIN. I did a 75 percent water change

ammonia is at .5
nitrates somewhere between 5-10
nitrite is still 0
high ph is somewhere between 7.8 and 8.0

Fish are still doing well. I dont understand what I am doing wrong? Gravel substrate goodies from the filter on an established tank, keeping up with consistent water changes until yesterday. >:(
 
Confusionus say: Only bad thing happen fast in aquarium! (or something like that ;) )

Relax, you're not doing anything wrong. You have likely gotten some bacteria from the gravel and filter squeezings - witness the rise of nitrites. The only way to get nitrites is if there are some bacteria in there converting the ammonia. So, you have the start of colony 1.

The lact of nitrates indicates that colony 2, which converts nitrites to nitrates, is not quite there yet. I can't remember if you have any plants in the tank, but they will suck up some nitrates as well.

So, you have the beginnings of your biofilter. The best and only thing you can do at this point is water change, water change, water change. Eventually your ammonia will drop to zero, as will the nitrites once both colonies are large enough to handle the bioload in the tank.

As for the "happy" fish, higher levels of ammonia and/or nitrites won't kill them immediately, but it will do damage and they may be stricken relatively quickly once their resistance fails. Best advice - change the water as often as you can, 50% a day until your ammonia and nitrites are consistently zero.

Hang in there!
 
Thanks Michegan man

Its been a frustrating week. I am doing a 50 percent water change right now, its becoming my morning routine before work now. Do you mean NitrAtes or NitrItes? I thought Nitrites were bad in the tank?

ammonia is still between .25 and .5
nitrates .5
nitrites 0
high ph 7.-8 on the water I tested before my water change.

What a ride huh?
 
rockhoe14er said:
you are right nitrites are bad and Nitrates don't mean much. But it seems like your going in the right direction. Keep up those water changes until your ammonia and your nitrites read 0. It shouldn't take much longer.
Click to expand...

What he said - I misread your post and thought you had nitrites but no nitrates. I now see that I had it reversed. The rest of the advice still holds, though, keep up on the water changes until ammonia and nitrites are consistently zero.
 
You can ignore ph entirely. Fish won't care about it, apart from the aforementioned ammonia toxicity thing. Fish do care about general hardness. Mollies and guppies love liquid rock, most tetras like very soft water. Moving fish abruptly from very hard water to very soft water can kill them.

You can also ignore nitrate, as it is not toxic at levels below around 40ppm, although testing it will let you know if you have any nitrite->nitrate bacteria yet.

If you're stuck with the fish you have, and don't have an established tank to put them in, you should continue daily 50% water changes until your ammonia and nitrite read zero. You should also make sure your water conditioner (which you should be using every day for the 50% WC) detoxifies both ammonia and nitrite. Also, you should be feeding very minimally.

Next time, wait to add fish, get some seachem stability or dr. tim's one and only bacteria-in-a-bottle, add it to the tank with 3-5 drops per 10 gallons of 10% ammonia from ACE hardware (or other ammonia that has no surfactant or detergent in it.) Then you should be good to fully stock as soon as ammonia/nitrite tests zero (the stability will make it fast).
 
I read through the whole thread, so I guess I will add my 2 cents ;). It sounds like your cycle is coming along nicely. Like everyone has said before ph is whatever, ammo is BAD and nitrites are worse. Don't get too frustrated with the cycle moving along. My first tank took almost 3 months to get completely stable. you are doing the right thing by trying to do it right. Water changes are indeed your best friend right now. You want to keep your ammo below .25 at all times during the cycle (which it sounds like you have under control) and nitrites as low as possible. I don't know if you saw the sticky thread here at AC about freshwater cycling a tank, but here is the link if you didn't : http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?84598-Freshwater-cycling . Good luck with the tank cycle and try to be patient. It happens eventually I promise. Until then just water change, water change, water change. :)
 
Well this is interesting.
My mechanical issues with my car got worse so I was again away from home for a few days with only my neighbor to feed and check on my fish while I was stranded out of city.

We have had some losses in our tank. the first being my calico fantail goldie whom we had concerns for since day one and abroughly losing his top jaw. He had had issues with float and bloat and died suddenly along with my smallest balloon molly about a ten days ago during an ammonia spike. And in a freak happening apparently my male balloon had a dumb moment and got sucked into my filter. Gross indeed. Grosser that what didn't get sucked in was cleaned and polished off by my thriving colony of ghost shrimp. I came home to fish bones. :/ my daughters response ? Circle of life. wowie.

More suprising. My tank cycled on its own without water changes. I have only one fish who seems a bit stressed. A black molly who is isolating her self. This it the molly who birthed and ate her own babies for ten days when we first got her.

My daughter replaced her departed fish with two male blue gauramis and somehow I ended up with what I think is a bala or silver tipped shark?

What a ride. To be safe I am doing a thirty percent change tonight and retesting in the morning to make sure all my numbers are still stable. How often do you all normally change water when your colonys balance out? Weekly or as it dissapates?
 
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