All of the ties that bind...

[nitroglyc]

Oh, and another thing that was told was to let it sit for 3-4 weeks without a water change, and retest the parameters again.

[signde]

Sept 1, 2010 12:40:44 GMT -6 nitroglyc said:

Sponge Filter

Has the sponge filter been on there since day one? If you have cleaned it you haven't used chlorinated water right?

[bunnie1978]

It looks fine to me, but your nitrates are high for a fish only tank....I would get your nitrates down, or at least not let them get any higher.

Just what I would do with an african tank and those readings.

[nitroglyc]

Sig, no the sponge filter was a recent addition. I let it sit in there with the power filter w/ bio-wheel for a few days.

Sept 1, 2010 15:19:13 GMT -6 bunnie1978 said:

It looks fine to me, but your nitrates are high for a fish only tank....I would get your nitrates down, or at least not let them get any higher.

Just what I would do with an african tank and those readings.

Well that sounds encouraging. I think I will let it sit for a week or two, check everything out if ammonia is in check, and nitrites are in check, then I will start servicing the tank again... go from there and see what happens... and just add water to compensate for evaporation. Many thanks.

[jon carman]

If you have high ammonia right now, you had better start changing water fast, or these fish will die. You are just in the beginning of the nitrate cycle.

If these fish die, leave the last dead fish in the tank and keep checking water. When the test reads 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, do a water change and then you can add more fish.



These fish may be tough enough to make it, but I doubt it. But in a couple more weeks your tank will be cycled.

[nitroglyc]

That is what I will do... thanks all... after that should I stick to the weekly water changes, Monthly, or just monitor the nitrates and do a water change accordingly... again this is where I get most of my conflicting information.

[jon carman]

I do weekly, but at least do every other week. Right now if you want to save your fish, you need to do 10-20% a day until the ammonia and nitrites are gone. If these are your starter fish and you want to tough it out, wait a couple weeks and get water tested. If ammonia and nitrite are gone then do a water change. In my later suggestion, you will get spikes and fish could get sick.

[bunnie1978]

Jon, if his nitrates are at 20-40, the cycle is complete... The ammonia spike has got to be from something else, unless he damaged the biological filtration with too much cleaning all at once.

[signde]

Might be in a mini cycle if you swapped out filters.

[jon carman]

I don't know, from what he said, he just put a filter in so I don't know how the cycle could be complete. Either way, an ammonia spike is a bad thing.

[nitroglyc]

I had the bio-wheel in there for a month. I had 6 serpae tetras in there, lost only one. Aug 11th, I added two adult pink convicts, male and female (breeding pair). I moved the serpaes back to the 29gallon, and left the convicts. I then sent my wife to Tina to get get some cichlids, red zebras, and Kenyi. I am wondering if it has something to do with the limestone I put in to raise the pH from about 6.8 7.0 to (as of my last test strip) 7.5 7.8

[nitroglyc]

Just retested my stats... Here are the new known stats...

nitrates: 40ppm
nitrites: 0ppm
Total Hardness: About 150
Chlorine: 0ppm
kh: between 80 and 120ppm
ph: About 8.0

I think that it has cycled now, but I don't have an ammonia test. I am going test that next week around Monday or Tues.

[bunnie1978]

If you have nitrates building up, then you are cycled. They are the last step in the process.

Now your job is to manage the nitrates, aesthetics, and protect your biological filtration so you don't upset the system too much.

I would do a big water change (like 50%) without suctioning gravel and cleaning filters twice this week to get those nitrates down. In this tank, I would recommend getting them LOW, then testing every few days to see how fast they are building up. If your nitrates are going up <2ppm every day, then you can get away with once a week smaller water changes, but if you're building up 5ppm a day you'll want to do more like 50% WC a week, maybe more.

That's just what I would do. Also, as your fish grow and eat more, and poop more, you'll have a faster build-up of nitrates over time. Keep testing, that's how you get to know your tank...also would be a good idea next time you go to the critter to take some water for them to test your nitrates. You test your water too at the same time with your test, as an easy accuracy check.

[bunnie1978]

By the way, I have testing supplies, I'm sure I have extra ammonia tests. You are welcome to it if you want to stop by.

[nitroglyc]

That would be awesome. I will check to see what I have going on and let you know.