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a question about fish-in cycling.

3K views 11 replies 3 participants last post by  jeaninel 
#1 ·
hi everyone , i just joined acouple weeks ago and got some very helpful advice . thank you. i have a 45gl tank and started w 7 glowstick tetras 10 days ago. they all seem to be doing well. i check the water twice a day ,and the highest amm level was between 1+2 ppm.i replace about 15gl every other day. i have not yet detected any nitrite or nintrate, so my questions are 1 how much amm is considered a spike? 2 how long should it take to register the nitrates and nitrite ,3 am i changing water too frequently during cycle? thank you in advance for any help or suggestions! P.S. IM not much of a computer or typing person,so forgive me if my responses are slow.:-?
 
#4 ·
You have to be patient and wait for people to respond. Everybody isn't logged on the forum 24/7, there are time zone differences and the people who might have an answer might not see your posts.

And being impatient might annoy the people who might otherwise have an answer for you......
 
#3 ·
As to how long it takes, it will vary from tank to tank depending on how big it is, how many fish, what sort of fish, how much food you are adding, things like that.

In my 2 small tanks that I have data for, the 35-litre showed nitrites after 24 days and I got the 75-litre on about 19 March and recorded nitrites around 13 April. That doesn't really help you much, because they are different sizes to yours and I had different fish in, but if it is in any way indicative of what to expect then you might have a couple of weeks to wait before seeing your nitrites.

As for changing the water. I am no fish expert but this is my opinion. Ammonia and nitrites are what are harmful to fish. The number one priority is to keep the fish in the best conditions you can, which means keeping those chemicals as low as you can. Getting them low means frequent water changes. I changed my water every day (once I did it twice when I couldn't tell the colour very well and thought nitrites might have been high). My fish survived.

I did a lot of reading. One forum post or article was an analysis by a guy as to whether frequent water changes lengthen the time taken to cycle and he concluded from his mathematics that it didn't. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have bookmarked it. In any case, even if doing daily water changes lengthened the time my tanks took to cycle (which is what you mostly see being said on forums), I don't care. I only cared about my fish.

I don't know how much ammonia is considered a spike but I never got a reading over 0.1.
 
#6 ·
1 how much amm is considered a spike? 1-2 ppm is quite high and would be considered a spike. I would try to keep the ammonia level down to about .25 or less during cycling. You may need to do daily water changes for awhile to accomplish this.

2 how long should it take to register the nitrates and nitrite Tanker touched on this subject. It does vary but generally I think around the 3-4 week mark you may see the ammonia drop and nitrites start to rise.

3 am i changing water too frequently during cycle? No, you are not changing the water too frequently. You have to do frequent water changes for the health of your fish during cycling.

Be patient and hang in there. Cycling is the hardest part of starting an aquarium. You are doing a great job by checking the water twice daily. Remember, don't add anymore fish until your tank is cycled and stable. Then add fish slowly.
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/characins/question-about-fish-cycling-57688/#ixzz18Wieu4Bf
 
#11 ·
i thought every other day water changes were okay, would more frequent changes be necessary? my last amm # was between 0 +.25[ sometimes hard to say]?
I did a water change every day - if I had a reading, I changed the water (and until the tank has cycled, you'll have a reading). At 0.25, every other day may be ok not to kill your fish overnight, but when it increases to 0.5 or higher (I said 0.1 before, I must have meant 1.0....) I'd definitely increase the water changes to daily (or more, if you get higher readings). The way I looked at it was that the lower I kept it by water changes, the less risk of it spiking to a level that would kill the fish. I figured "start low + increase" would always be lower than "start higher + increase". It's your decision how you want to approach it.

You'll know that the tank has cycled when you get 0 for ammonia and nitrite and a reading for nitrates.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the kind comment.:)

Tanker pretty much covered your question I think. But yeah, you'll see ammonia rise, then fall to 0, then nitrites will rise, then fall to 0, then you'll get a reading for nitrates. When your readings stay at 0 for ammonia and nitrites and you have some reading for nitrates then your tank has finished cycling. The complete cycling process could take anywhere from around 4-8 weeks. Once your tank is cycled weekly water changes (generally around 20-50% depending upon your fish load) to keep nitrates under 20ppm are recommended.

Good luck and feel free to ask anymore questions.
 
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