Water parameters? Cycling? I dont know what's going on here.

[jcarson]

Hey gang

I have a new tank, (2 months old) with fish (gradually added a few at a time).
55 gallon with 2 filstar xp canisters set up with sponges and lava rock. A penguin 200 and a large sponge filter rated for 100 gallon tanks.


Fish load is...
6 Yellow labs around 4"
6 Demasoni around 1"
2 Gouramis 3"
3 Mollies arond 2"
1 Danio
1 Pictus cat 2"

I feed randomly sometimes 3 times a day (very little per feeding)
Sometimes wont feed for a couple days.


Temp 80 Ph 7.5
Ammonia has read 0 for about 2 weeks steady.
Nitrite has read 2ppm for over a week
Nitrates fluctuate between 20-80pm depending on when I test relative to water changes.

I have been doing 40-50% water changes for about a week now trying to get nitrite levels down but it doesn't seem to be working.

So let me have it!
What have I done wrong? Or doing wrong?
Am I just dealing with a tank that isn't fully cycled?

 

[kno4te]

Almost cycled. Add some bacteria in a bottle. Keep the water changes going and would do it twice a week. It should eventually go to zero.

 

[duanes]

It's still cycling, and most new tanks usually take 2 months to complete a full cycle. (that's why you still see nitrite, and high nitrate often corresponds to the conversion )
But sometimes when you add fish before it is finished cycling, it messes with the timing of the process, and numbers tend to bounce around.
You have added lots of fish (IMO, its at full population capacity now) to an uncycled tank, and though to you, it seems gradual, (at this point in a cycle), I would have added to more than 3 or 4 in total for the first 2 months.
Water temps in the great rift lakes of Africa, usually hover in the mid 70s, and are very consistent. Not that this has anything to do with your issue, but since the majority of your fish (the cichlids) are rift lake species, which would be more comfortable, lower than 80'F, just an FYI.

 

[squint]

Is there a lot of gunk in your filters? Anything decaying that's exposed to flowing water is an ammonia source.

 

[Gourami Swami]

When cycling, every time you do a water change you are removing the food that the bacteria need to get to their capped (cycled) population level. SO it is a trade-off; do no water changes and tank cycles in usually 4-5 weeks, but possibility of fish death is high. Or do water changes to protect the fish, and extend your cycle to 8-12 weeks. Doing the constant water changes is prolonging your cycle greatly; with that said I would recommend it, since like Duanes said, this is actually a lot of fish added quickly, rather than the 3-4 max hardy fish recommended to be added during cycling.
So at this point, I would probably just keep doing what your doing, it just may take a while for the nitrites to hit zero, since the water changes will be needed to keep it at a non-lethal level.
I would also rethink stocking; Mbuna with gouramis is a bad idea. The gouramis' trailing fins eventually will get picked off, and they would much prefer to keep those fins

 

[RD.]

Some good advice here, some things need to be tweaked sooner than later. For now I would get some Seachem Stability, and double dose until the cycle is complete. https://www.seachem.com/stability.php

When cycling, every time you do a water change you are removing the food that the bacteria need to get to their capped (cycled) population level.

Not necessarily. If the OP has chloramine treated water, free ammonia is being added back to the system with each water change. I have actually used the free ammonia residual in chloramine treated tap water (via massive water changes) to grow large quantities of bio bacteria in holding tanks.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Some good advice here, some things need to be tweaked sooner than later. For now I would get some Seachem Stability, and double dose until the cycle is complete. https://www.seachem.com/stability.php



Not necessarily. If the OP has chloramine treated water, free ammonia is being added back to the system with each water change. I have actually used the free ammonia residual in chloramine treated tap water (via massive water changes) to grow large quantities of bio bacteria in holding tanks.

good point, it just makes more sense to me to advise somebody on what I know, than on what I don't. What I know: water changes reduce levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, everything else that builds up in water (generally speaking). What I don't know: whether their water is chloramine treated, if levels of ammonia from tap would be high enough to fuel their cycle, if they are doing large enough WC's for that level of ammonia to be added, if they are using prime (as I know it temporarily converts ammonia into another form- not sure if this would still fuel nitrifying bacteria production?).
EIther way really, at this point and with this many fish stocked, they should be doing the WC's to stop nitrites from reaching harmful levels.

 

[RD.]

EIther way really, at this point and with this many fish stocked, they should be doing the WC's to stop nitrites from reaching harmful levels.

Exactly, which is also why I supported adding Seachem Stability. I have used this product very successfully several yrs ago when medication knocked the bacteria back to near zero in a mature established tank, which sent the tank in to a cycle. A double dose of Stability should drop those nitrites almost as fast as a water change. Just follow directions, but double dose.

Unfortunately what seems to often be the case is that specifics are not always supplied in these discussions, which leads to assumptions being made. I wasn't questioning your advice GS, I was simply pointing out that in the case of chloramine one isn't removing "food", they are actually adding it. I'm quite certain that a lot of people reading this, or who may at a later date read this discussion, will like myself be on a chloramine treated system. It never hurts to have to much info at hand.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Exactly, which is also why I supported adding Seachem Stability. I have used this product very successfully several yrs ago when medication knocked the bacteria back to near zero in a mature established tank, which sent the tank in to a cycle. A double dose of Stability should drop those nitrites almost as fast as a water change. Just follow directions, but double dose.

Unfortunately what seems to often be the case is that specifics are not always supplied in these discussions, which leads to assumptions being made. I wasn't questioning your advice GS, I was simply pointing out that in the case of chloramine one isn't removing "food", they are actually adding it. I'm quite certain that a lot of people reading this, or who may at a later date read this discussion, will like myself be on a chloramine treated system. It never hurts to have to much info at hand.

Definitely agreed, I think your point brings an extra level of depth to the conversation and would be invaluable to people reading who are in similar situations. I have never used stability; only product I have used with success is Dr. Tim's one and only. But considering how much thought and analysis you've put into the fish food discussions I have read on this site; If you says it's good stuff, I'll believe it!

 

[Drstrangelove]

If I assume your August 15 post was for this tank, then if you started the tank on the first of August (2 weeks then, 6 weeks now), with very few small fish (as you stated), and didn't do water changes for most of the 6 weeks (implied by an 80 ppm nitrates), then added a lot more fish, it would probably look like that. Ammonia balancing is relatively fast, even doubling the fish biomass every few days, given proper conditions, but nitrites conversion will take longer, especially in the presence of ammonia.

A mini cycle more or less fits the posts, but that's a guess due to the vague nature of the info (when the water metrics were taken, the actual WC schedule, the pattern of when fish were added, exactly how much the fish were fed, etc.)