CAN I ADD FISH?

[RD.]

Save yourself the trouble and pick up a bottle of tetras safestart plus. Its great product, you only need the one dose or two to get the cycled. The directions mention maintenance doses, just away to sell more product

I concur with jaws. Seachem Stability also works. Either option is IMO far better than adding live fish, but if you do, as already suggested only add a few small fish to start. No amount of free ammonia (NH3) is good for a fish. The higher your pH, the more toxic it becomes.

 

[Steve_C]

If the tank were "cycled" ammonia would be at 0, not .25.

I'd suggest he test his water straight out of the tap and see what the reading is.There is a chance his water might come out of the tap at .25 ammonia. If the city treats the local water supply with chloramine it will show on a test as .25 ammonia. Mine has been that way for years.

 

[jaws7777]

Op needs to have a small amount of fish when adding the safe start as a food source for the bb.

KelberiFishLover19 if you choose to go with safe start heres a quick run down. Shake the hell out of the bottle, when you think its enough shake it some more lol. Then dose. Make sure to not do any water changes for at least a week. Feed very lightly if any at all. In the event you have to dose again (depending on the bio load) dont dose for at least 48 hrs after adding a dechlorinator. You can use a few giant danios as a food source for the bb if there arent any fish that survived. Id also do a decent sized water change to bring ammonia down before dosing. Again wait 48 hrs if you use a dechlorinator.

Ive only used stability once. It didnt work but other have reported success with it.

 

[RD.]

Good point, Steve, but that .25 NH3 should dissipate once it hits his tank, if it is indeed cycled.

 

[RD.]

No need to add fish for bio-bacteria to work. Free ammonia in a bottle from the grocery store, a piece of market shrimp, etc, will all add ammonia to a tank.

 

[RD.]

BTW - when I used Seachem Stability years ago, I had to double dose, but at that rate it did the job.

 

[jaws7777]

Reason why id rather him do an in fish cycle is what ever bio load he starts out with will be his end result. Then proceeds to add fish slowly or swap out the danios entirely for similar sized fish. Dosing with the ammonia effective but a little more labor intensive also the chance the he doesnt match the ammonia added to the amount of bb hes dosing and causes it to crash. TTS has a thresh hold for the amount of ammonia... i dont remember it off the top of my head. Market shrimp is another good suggestion

 

[jaws7777]

True. With these products over dosing isnt a concern. Infact its somewhat recommended

 

[RD.]

Personally I have never agreed with using small fish from the LFS to cycle a tank. Just bad mo-jo all around, starting with potentially adding disease/pathogens, and sometimes ending with harming or worse killing the subjects used in the cycle. Far cleaner and far better sources of ammonia that can be used. See the OP's previous thread for more info on that.

Once parameters settle out, he can start building the bio colony, a few healthy juvenile fish (best from local breeders, or other trusted sources) at a time.

If the OP has chloramine treated water as Steve suggested as a possibility, the bio bacteria can be boosted over time by simply performing large water changes.

 

[Steve_C]

Good point, Steve, but that .25 NH3 should dissipate once it hits his tank, if it is indeed cycled.

Mine never seems to do so though, which always confused me a bit. I have heard that Prime can also give a false reading on tests, have you ever heard that / found that to be true? Because I just wonder if mine reads.25 out of the tap then the prime maybe gives the false reading of .25 after it actually converts?