Need some help regarding my cycle and fish arriving tomorrow

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craqerjaq

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 23, 2021
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I'm in a bit of a predicament. I've had my 75 cycling for maybe 4-5 weeks now and I thought I was a bit further along in the process than it's seeming to be. My ammonia finally dropped maybe about a couple weeks ago and since then I've been watching nitrites sitting pretty high (2ppm maybe a tad higher), but my nitrates have been still pretty low maybe capping at around 10ppm. My window to buy the specific fish I was looking for presented itself and I couldn't pass it up because I'd be waiting months otherwise...and it'll arrive tomorrow.

What should I do? What can I do?
 
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What type of fish?
Do lots of water changes to help with parameters. Get a bottle of bacteria.
Low nitrates isn’t a bad thing, that’s a healthy range.
The nitrites are high but nothing that can’t be handled.
 
Deadeye said:
What type of fish?
Do lots of water changes to help with parameters. Get a bottle of bacteria.
Low nitrates isn’t a bad thing, that’s a healthy range.
The nitrites are a bit high but nothing that can’t be handled.
Click to expand...
baby oscar maybe about 3-4"

The nitrites are what worry me...would it be better to let that tank keep cycling and use a smaller tank as a temp holding area and just do frequent testing and water changes?
 
Personally I think that a large cycling tank is better than a smaller uncycled tank. Smaller has less room for diffusion and with an Oscar things can swing quickly. Oscars are also hardy so a fish in cycle is possible. Doing daily water changes until the nitrites get under control is safest.
How big is the tank?
Do you have any established tanks the Oscar can stay in?
 
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Deadeye said:
Personally I think that a large cycling tank is better than a smaller uncycled tank. Smaller has less room for diffusion and with an Oscar things can swing quickly. Oscars are also hardy so a fish in cycle is possible. Doing daily water changes until the nitrites get under control is safest.
How big is the tank?
Do you have any established tanks the Oscar can stay in?
Click to expand...
75 gallon. No other tanks running at the moment. I have an FX4 and a large sponge filter (FX4 running just over a month, sponge running maybe 6 weeks)
 
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In that case, continue on the course. Daily w/c until everything levels out and add dr Tim’s.
 
Deadeye said:
In that case, continue on the course. Daily w/c until everything levels out and add dr Tim’s.
Click to expand...
Dr. Tim's what exactly? Assuming the fish will be in the tank before I even have a chance to get anything like that in my hands. I don't want to ruin my cycle, so should I really be doing water changes while the cycle is finishing? Really at this point I just need to get the nitrites to a safe level before I'm going to put my fish in there.

Seeing as I have a day to figure this out now...I really need to know what to do as of right now and continuing through the next week or so. This is why I was thinking to maybe take that sponge filter and put it in a smaller tank with the fish for a few days and leave my main tank alone. I can't imagine the sponge filter doesn't have enough built up to handle a small fish for a few days and still be cautious of the water parameters and do a wc when needed.
 
Dr Tim’s bacteria. Helps with cycling tanks.
The small tank method would work, but I would still want to give it at least a few days to be seeded. Oscars grow like weeds.
In the big tank, things are progressing properly, the water changes will just keep the nitrites below lethal levels. No different than in the small tank, but here you don’t have to worry about the ammonia spike. Nitrates should be on their way down as is.
Water changes shouldn’t impact the cycle, it may slow it down, but it is better than risking a dead fish.
 
Deadeye said:
Dr Tim’s bacteria. Helps with cycling tanks.
The small tank method would work, but I would still want to give it at least a few days to be seeded. Oscars grow like weeds.
In the big tank, things are progressing properly, the water changes will just keep the nitrites below lethal levels. No different than in the small tank, but here you don’t have to worry about the ammonia spike. Nitrates should be on their way down as is.
Water changes shouldn’t impact the cycle, it may slow it down, but it is better than risking a dead fish.
Click to expand...
Exactly...and with the smaller tank I'd be bringing a filter that's been in the 75 running for nearly 6 weeks so that might already be seeded enough to handle it. Hoping so at least because I think I'm headed to Petco to get a 15-20G tonight lol
 
Deadeye said:
Dr Tim’s bacteria. Helps with cycling tanks.
The small tank method would work, but I would still want to give it at least a few days to be seeded. Oscars grow like weeds.
In the big tank, things are progressing properly, the water changes will just keep the nitrites below lethal levels. No different than in the small tank, but here you don’t have to worry about the ammonia spike. Nitrates should be on their way down as is.
Water changes shouldn’t impact the cycle, it may slow it down, but it is better than risking a dead fish.
Click to expand...
Dr Tim's Eco-Balance?

I have Stability on hand...?
 
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