I have been doing water changes every day (about 25%) and keeping a close eye on ammonia and nitrites. The ammonia was pretty high about a week ago, between .5 and 1, now it is between 0 and .25, but its just staying there, not falling down to 0. Also now the nitrites are off the chart. Am i doing something wrong? Is this just the second part of the cycle, where nitrites spike? And if so shouldn't ammonia be at 0?
problems with my fishy cycle.
- Thread starter jujubee
- Start date
In a fishy cycle, Nitrites can ( and usually will) rise while there is still ammonia present, basically you are probably in the second stage of the cycle, in that you have bacteria eating the ammonia, evidently it still need to multiply to handle all that is being produced though. I would also reccomend taking some water to the LFS and see if their results are the same as yours. this is the easy way to verify your test kit for accuracy. either way, the ammonia that is consummed turns in to nitrite and there is nothing there to consume the nitrite yet so it builds. Keep doing the water changes, do more if needed to get the nitrite way down. One of the big Drawbacks of a fishy cycle is that it takes a lot of work and usually a lot of time to do one without harming fish. You have to keep the levels low to protect your fish, but the low levels will often slow the process. be patient. It will work out, and your fish will aprreciate the water changes. I've had fishy cycles estabilish in two weeks, and I've had them take almost 2 months.
I think the jury's out on whether reducing concentrations of ammonia/nitrite slows the cycle. As long as there is food in excess of what the existing bacterial colony can consume, they will multiply. Usually, time is the limiting factor, not the amount of food. (If food in great excess could speed a cycle, fishless cycles conducted at concentrations of 4-6 ppm ammonia should proceed very quickly, and they generally don't...)
But daveedka, is right, the fish require that you change water, even if (as seems unlikely) it slows the cycle. Nitrites are particularly hard on fish, so be sure to change sufficient water to keep them in the .5 or lower range.
Good luck,
Jim
But daveedka, is right, the fish require that you change water, even if (as seems unlikely) it slows the cycle. Nitrites are particularly hard on fish, so be sure to change sufficient water to keep them in the .5 or lower range.
Good luck,
Jim
I was surmising here that more food would create faster multiplication once the bacteria was estabilished, I don't have any factual proof and in retrospec probably shouldn't have worded things the way I did. My primary intention was to let jujubee know that things may take a while, I have only done one fishless cycle and it went quite rapidly in comparison to my careful fishy cylce's I did in the old days. Sorry if I caused anyone confusion. thanks for your additional comments JSchmidt
Dave
Ok, so I did several water changes today. One really big one (about 50-60%) and the nitrites are still high(not as high as before, but still very high). Is there something I am doing wrong? Should I just keep doing water changes?
feed less
You may be feeding too much. Feed an amount approximately equal to a fish eyeball, per fish, daily. Less is better than more. Fish can go a week with no food with no real problem.
You may be feeding too much. Feed an amount approximately equal to a fish eyeball, per fish, daily. Less is better than more. Fish can go a week with no food with no real problem.
I really don't feed them all that much. But I will try and give them a little less. Would it help if i cleaned the gravel? Cause I am thinking there could be food sitting in the gravel from in the past. Also, I just did a water change (about 60-70%) and then I tested for nitrites right after that and they still tested high (like around 2). This is really worrying me. I would think that after changing the water it should read lower than that, since its fresh new water being put in the tank.
high levels
Nitrite can get really high, even with water changes. If it was 2 after a water change, what was it before? You may have to do back to back water changes to get it lowered, but just for a short time at the peak, all this will change in a few days.
Nitrite can get really high, even with water changes. If it was 2 after a water change, what was it before? You may have to do back to back water changes to get it lowered, but just for a short time at the peak, all this will change in a few days.
thanks everyone for all the helpful information. I was starting to get really discouraged with this whole process. Hopefully in a few days the nitrites will come down. I bought a test kit for nitrAtes today and I got a reading of 10ppm, so I guess this means that the nitrifying bacteria (i think thats right) are starting to form. Hopefully this means that my cycle is almost over. Thanks again for all of the help.