help with cycling/ammonia

whitecloud34

It is day 6 after setting up a new 20 gallon aquarium. I used Nutrafin Cycle as directed, conditioned the water for chlorine/chloromine, made sure the pH was at 7.0, the heater is at 78. I added a couple of zebra danios and a gold gourami thinking they'd be strong enough but they died. turns out there's ammonia. I don't know how to cycle the tank without adding fish. Is this possible? I don't have access to a friend's tank so I can't add established tank material to get the cycle going and I don't want to add any more fish because I'm sure they will die. What do I do now, a water change and then try again? Or do I have to wait an entire month for the cycle to complete...but will it without fish? Please help!

leogtr

hi there!!! welcome to the forums!!!

well you've certainly come to the right place:) I recommend cycling the tank with frozen shrimp. Just add a 1 inch shrimp to your set up and let it run with everything and let that shrimp stay in there for a while. Monitor the aquarium parameters with a liquid master test kit, test strips are really inaccurate so dont use those! what kinda of fish do you want? make sure do research on your fish before purchasing just so you dont have any compadibility(sp) issues!heres a little link to start you off!


A Beginner's Guide to the Freshwater Aquarium Cycle

give us more information about your set-up. also! read as many of the fish profiles as you can so that you may be well-informed! look above this site and you'll see that there is a little fish profiles section which you can check out!and dont rely on store advise they are only there for the money. Here there are many expert fish keepers with years of experience so your going to get the help you need!



If you have any more questions just ask! anything at all that you might have in mind just ask! it could make a big difference to the health and well-being of your little fishies!

Blabomb

A Beginner's Guide to the Freshwater Aquarium Cycle
Here you are :)

PRichs87

leogtr hit the nail on the head, research research research. You can also google nitrogen cycle and there are plenty of good sources online.

whitecloud34

thank you all so much! I will check out those links... I would like a community tank. I had a tank in the past and I was into tiger barbs, rosy barbs and different tetras, an occasional Paradise Fish,gouramis, so I'd like to get back into them. Back then I didn't know anything about the cycling process. I just put in the water conditioner, adjusted the pH and put the fish, heater and filter in the same day and they were fine. Now it seems that I do everything I'm supposed to do and they all die! At least I know why,though. I just did a partial water change and I will test the ammonia again. thanks for the info.

Blabomb

Your welcome :)
But if you have not already put more fish in your tank I suggest you do a fishless cycle. It is faster than a fish-in cycle and it doesn't require your fish to suffer. You will also be able to fully stock your aquarium once you are done as opposed to 2 or 3 fish at a time with a fish-in cycle.
Good Luck!

lipadj46

Nutrafin cycle I believe uses land based bacteria and does not work, they end up dying and producing more ammonia. You can try to start over and do a 80% water change with a basic dechlorinator and then use tetra safe start (it uses water based bacteria). Or do daily 25% water changes with a double dose of prime until cycled.