Please Help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
T

TrevorM

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 23, 2008
23
0
0
Scranton, PA
Parameters
1.0ppm Ammonia
0ppm Nitrite
0ppm Nitrate

I have a 37 tall tank (Before i get the tank size lecture, my girlfriend has informed me a 55 gallon tank is what i will be receiving for christmas)
AquaClear 50 at 200gph and a AquaClear 110 at 500gph
I have a Lutino Oscar about 3 inches in size and a Pleco about 2 inches in size
I made the mistake of not doing the fishless cycle and now am in a bind.
I do regular water changes 25% every other day, I have been feeding with HBH Oscar Grow and using freeze dried krill as treats, and Hikari algae wafers. I condition water with API Stress Coat to strip chlorine and chloramine, Topfin Conditioning Salt. I have 2 thermometers Analog and Digital, the digi reads 81 and the analog reads 82. My tank has an aerator.

Now the problem my tank has been set up for roughly 2 months or more now, and i have yet to see a nitrite spike, Ive posted prior and thought the nitrification process was on its way but i was obviously wrong. All thats in it is some gravel, some rocks, and a few fabric plants ( I usually call them silk plants, they arent made of plastic, im sure you guys know what im talking about) all purchased from the pet store. I believe i have a serious problem and any help would be greatly appreciated. I had been using Stress Zyme and i have read its better to let the tank cycle on its own rather then using the store purchased nitrifiers. I bucket my water and use De-Chlor first, I have an API Freshwater Master Test Kit (Liquid Tests), I have not cleaned my filter media because my tank hasnt cycled.

What am i doing wrong? Please Help

-Trevor Mauger
 
TrevorM;2234763; said:
Parameters
1.0ppm Ammonia
0ppm Nitrite
0ppm Nitrate

I have a 37 tall tank (Before i get the tank size lecture, my girlfriend has informed me a 55 gallon tank is what i will be receiving for christmas)
AquaClear 50 at 200gph and a AquaClear 110 at 500gph
I have a Lutino Oscar about 3 inches in size and a Pleco about 2 inches in size
I made the mistake of not doing the fishless cycle and now am in a bind.
I do regular water changes 25% every other day, I have been feeding with HBH Oscar Grow and using freeze dried krill as treats, and Hikari algae wafers. I condition water with API Stress Coat to strip chlorine and chloramine, Topfin Conditioning Salt. I have 2 thermometers Analog and Digital, the digi reads 81 and the analog reads 82. My tank has an aerator.

Now the problem my tank has been set up for roughly 2 months or more now, and i have yet to see a nitrite spike, Ive posted prior and thought the nitrification process was on its way but i was obviously wrong. All thats in it is some gravel, some rocks, and a few fabric plants ( I usually call them silk plants, they arent made of plastic, im sure you guys know what im talking about) all purchased from the pet store. I believe i have a serious problem and any help would be greatly appreciated. I had been using Stress Zyme and i have read its better to let the tank cycle on its own rather then using the store purchased nitrifiers. I bucket my water and use De-Chlor first, I have an API Freshwater Master Test Kit (Liquid Tests), I have not cleaned my filter media because my tank hasnt cycled.

What am i doing wrong? Please Help

-Trevor Mauger
Click to expand...

dont worry about it, to be honest, the bioload may not be enough to cause much of a spike, which in that case that is a good thing, it could be that the bacteria (all water has a natural amount of bacteria irregardless of the amount of fish) was enough to take on the waste and there was no noticable spike because of it.

or, you note that the ammonia does have a bit in there, maybe the ammonia is just starting to spike, and the nitrite will be expected right after the ammonia.
 
I suspect the latter of Gage's post. You shouldn't have ammonia only, otherwise it probably hasn't cycled. I think the frequent water changes have kept the cycle at bay. Add another day or two between changes, but keep monitoring daily.
 
The ammonia has jumped quite high before up to like 6ppm i had test strips at the time and it said my water was fine my oscar started acting funky so i purchased a liquid test kit, and found it was high, despite my best efforts(with water changes got it to drop below 1ppm) an oscar died. Ive never seen a nitrite spike =( I just dont want to lose anymore fish.
 
Yah, I have learned that you can never trust the test strips, I have also never seen them say anything but low levels on all parameters which is why I dont trust them.
 
I don't know what to tell you except my first tank, which I set up without cycling, took over 3 months to cycle...and probably close to 3 months before ammonia was gone, then nitrite came and went quickly and it was over. I also did relatively frequent water changes during the cycle, so I don't know if that actually was what affected it, but my tank eventually cycled fine on its own. Just took forever.
 
With the water change and low bioload your tank should be ready. I think after 2 months is more than enough time.

I wouldn't think there's anything wrong cause in 2 months time if your tank was not cycled you would see signs in your fish that your tank is not cycled.

Just monitor and change the water every week or every other week.
 
Your ammonia should be at 0ppm. If you have any ammonia whatsoever, your tank is not cycled or has too little filtration for the bioload. What kind of biomedia are you using and how much? You might need to add more.
 
Even Tho you have small amount of fish.

Syphon the Gravel.
Do a 25% water change to keep the Amo at bay until the nitrites start coming in.
and add scrubbies to your Filter.

i have about 4 AC filters. 50 70 110 etc. What i did was i bought the little scrubbies and put a row of them in the filter.

So it goes like this from top to bottom.

White Cylinder Stones (comes with the filter)
Filter Floss
White Sponge (comes with the Filter)
Scrubbies.

In my AC 70 i have about 6 Scrubbies in it.

More Surface area for bacteria Growth.

Hope it works out.

Try not to feed as much BTW.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom