Question about cycling my tank

[ricey0809]

ok its been almost 2 weeks or so now into my cycling and im kinda starting to get confused...

my ammonia is high like 2.0 or alittle bit more (cause i over feed alittle bit) my nitRITE is at zero (which is what i dont get) and my nitRATE is at 5.0 or alittle bit over.

i am still pretty new at this but isnt amminoa surpose to spike up THEN drop down as nitRITE start to built? then after all is done the nitRITE will drop and nitRATE will take over from here on out.

why is it that my nitRATE building before my nitRITE?

i thought it was ammoia ---> nitRITE --->nitRATE?

i have a 10 gal
one firemouth as a starter fish
a AC 50 filter
i have been over feeding a bit last week and start to grow those tiny white worms and my ammoina is at around 2.0+ right now.

also what is the nitrate level surpsoe to be in a well cycled tank?

 

[Militis]

I don't know if will help you but meh
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fishless.php

I don't know much else i did'nt even do my cycle properly and it worked out i just put in a bottle of bacteria and tommorrow(2 weeks all up) my water will be ready well my LFS said so but yer i just got lucky.

 

[Mystix212]

Your firemouth is sitting in a lethal quanitity of ammonia. Although too late now, a fishless cycle would of been much better. How much do you exactly feed? A firemouth wont last too long in a 10G so I assume its a small one. One that size shouldnt give off too much waste but its the actual cycling process that is probably spiking the water.

 

[Ianab]

One small fish in a small tank - very easy to overfeed.

After 2 weeks the tank will be partly cyled, but if you have overfed you will have dumped more ammonia in than the new filter can handle.

The nitrate level should be something higher than your tap water, and it will slowly rise over time untill you do a water change. Remember ammonia is constantly being produced by your fish (or decaying fish food ), the filter converts this to Nitrate. So the Nitrate level goes up with time untill you change some of the water and bring it down again. Something between 5 and 30 is normal.

What to do now...

Syphon out any old food thats in the tank, along with some of the water (20-30%) and top up with clean water. Do this every day untill the ammonia level drops below 0.5 and hopefully your fish will survive. Yes it will slow down the cycle, but your fish should live.

And STOP overfeeding

It's prefectly possible to cycle with fish, if you dont rush things, and dont dump in too much food.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Danyal]

simple, your bio-filter is established enough to process the nitrites but too much ammonia is being add. there are two kinds of bacteria, ammonia processing ones that produce nitrites and nitrite processing ones that produce nitrates(well, the is a third that converts nitrates to sulfate gas but those are anerobic and aren't found in most tanks) you've got enough of #2 to keep your nitrites down but not enough of #1 to keep up with the ammonia or its also possible that your nitrates are building up from evaporation(only h20 evaporates leaving behind organics, salt, nitrates etc to condense)

 

[guppy]

To salvage this you will need to add active BB to your filter, use either a couple tbsp of sludge from a healthy filter added directly to you filter's media, or a product like biospira. make sure you do not over feed.

 

[ricey0809]

hmm.. someone said the normal nitrate levels in a cycled tank is around 5-30? well could it be that my tank is cycled already but just have too much ammonia cause i was over feeding like a week ago?

or is it not possiable to have ammonia in a well cycled tank which means my tanks is only half way cycled and not fully yet?

 

[Ianab]

but just have too much ammonia cause i was over feeding like a week ago

Yes thats possible - if too much food was dropped in the tank it will be decaying now and making more ammonia than your partly cycled filter can handle. That is the main danger from overfeeding.

Same advice, do a partial water change - or several. And give the gravel a good clean with the syphon while you are doing it, get rid of any stray food rotting in there.

Even in an established tank overfeeding can cause an ammonia spike - it's even worse if the tank is new and the filter is barely working.

Cheers

Ian

 

[pdbrady]

simple, your bio-filter is established enough to process the nitrites but too much ammonia is being add. there are two kinds of bacteria, ammonia processing ones that produce nitrites and nitrite processing ones that produce nitrates(well, the is a third that converts nitrates to sulfate gas but those are anerobic and aren't found in most tanks) you've got enough of #2 to keep your nitrites down but not enough of #1 to keep up with the ammonia or its also possible that your nitrates are building up from evaporation(only h20 evaporates leaving behind organics, salt, nitrates etc to condense)

Bingo. You cannot over feed a newly established tank. You are seeing the obvious reasons why. One small fish of that size needs the SMALLEST amount of food.

 

[ricey0809]

ekks i see, but i mean wont amminoa be processed by nitrite?
but then again my nitrite is always at 0 for some reason...

and the reason i over fed was because i thought more ammonia would mean more nitrite which would mean a bigger pool of BB turning everything in nitrate. so when i do decide to take my starter fish out and throw in like 6 small fish it can handle the bio load. hehe am i completey wrong here? im a newbie =\