So, fish were introduced 9/14/05. Fish have been doing well...6 Bueno Aires Tetras...they eat like animals, chase each other nicely; overall, they're thriving. But it is now 14 days later, and not even a speck of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Should I just hang in and wait longer??? It seems this is the slowest cycle I've had in any of my tanks.
S-l-o-w cycle?
- Thread starter dr_drmd
- Start date
Could be your test kits are not playing nicely so maybe take a sample to your LFS for a second opinion. The fish are producing waste and I'd expect at least ammonia to register. If you have some ammonia laying around you could do a little experiment. Take a sample of tapwater, test it and see what result you get. Take another sample, add ammonia test again. Of course, that won't work for nitrite/nitrate. Actually now that I think about it, if you have some KNO3 or other source of nitrate, you could test against that also.
Hope that's not too confusing I'm starting to confuse myself
Hope that's not too confusing I'm starting to confuse myself
Unless you have a 5 gallon tank, trying to cycle an standard aquarium with small tetras is like taking the Olson Twins to an all you can eat buffet. Just not a whole lot of metabolic activity going on. 
Trust me, the nitrogen cycle is establishing itself, but just on an order to small to pick up with your test kit. If after a month you still aren't picking up ammonia or nitrite, you can safely assume you have 'cycled'. At least at a bacteria load equal to your low bio load.
My method of cycling fresh water tanks is more radical. I use fish like zebra danios or tinfoil barbs that are pretty hardy, and eat like pigs. They put ammonia levels off the charts in short order, but the entire cycle is finished in less that 21 days in my experience.
Trust me, the nitrogen cycle is establishing itself, but just on an order to small to pick up with your test kit. If after a month you still aren't picking up ammonia or nitrite, you can safely assume you have 'cycled'. At least at a bacteria load equal to your low bio load.
My method of cycling fresh water tanks is more radical. I use fish like zebra danios or tinfoil barbs that are pretty hardy, and eat like pigs. They put ammonia levels off the charts in short order, but the entire cycle is finished in less that 21 days in my experience.
Hmmm, thanks Blasterman...that's sort of what I was thinking ,actually. Soon after putting them in, I was thinking they're probably not making enough of a "mess" in the tank to cause a spike in the ammonia. I was also wondering the same thing about the second thing you said-->that maybe my bacterial colony will be kinda weak cycling with these fish, since it will only be growing enough to handle their mess. Do you think adding any fish at this point is a bad move??
Please don't accept too much of this as good information, It is best that you do not see a spike, and the cycle will estabilish in about the same time with or without a visible ammonia spike. After 30 days test for nitrate, it is the end result and will build up to readable levels unless you have a lot of healthy plants in the tank.
Elevated levels of ammonia do not speed up the cycle, they only create a larger estabilished colony of bacteria in the end. Fishless cycles at 5 ppm of ammonia will take about the same time as a fishy cycle with one danio in a 55 gallon tank.
You did not mention tank size, but I suspect that The low fish load is keeping the numbers from getting out of control. This is a good thing and really the best easiest way to do a fishy cycle. You do not want ammonia above 0.5 ppm with fish in the tank, so if you add more fish you end up needing to do constant water changes in order to keep levels low. Let things play out as they are, and count your blessings that you don't have to do twice daily water changes to protect your fish.
The concept of throwing a handful of fish into a tank and permanently burning their gills to save yourself a little work just isn't accepted as a good practice anymore. Responsible fish keepers as a rule never did like to do this to their fish, and now that better methods are being used widely, it is far less acceptable to waste fish on a cycle. Ammonia causes permanent gill damage, nitrite interferes with the fish ability to process and deliver oxygen to it's cells. in most cases fish that suffer through highlevels of either are weakend, and often succumbe to disease or die long before their time. You are on the right track with what you are doing now, stick to it and wait it out.
Dave
Thanks, Dave. I appreciate the input. One final question...do you think by using too few fish, my bacterial colony will be small, and later when I stock the tank more it will not handle the load as well as would a larger colony?? The tank, by the way, is a 30gal with an Eheim 2215. It's my first time using one; I used to stick with HOB filters, and actually it seems I had clearer water with those.
I would definately just wait it out. If you add anymore fish (enough to make the ammonia really spike) you are just setting yourself up for alot of work...Think daily water changes of 50% or more to keep the fish alive and healthy. Personally, I would rather just be patient than screw around with all those water changes, who has the time?!?! Once the tank cycles, you should be able to add a 3-5 fish a week with no problems. But even then, it wouldn't hurt (assuming you are not using a quarantine tank) to wait at least 2 weeks in between batches of fish to make sure you have not introduced any kind of disease with the new additions, and to give yourself some time to observe the set up and make sure it is working out