Fishless Cycle

[HummingBird]

Maybe you're nitrite test kit has expired? Or has been swapped with your nitrate? heh.

[heyandrea_]

Hmm should be okay, I have a test kit that has everything in it. So if the others are working then the nitrite one should be working too. Maybe the levels arent high enough yet to read.

[jn]

How big is your tank for the record? and what sort of filter do you have?

Any plants? Gravel?

You know goldfish are the one of the heaviest water polluters. It could be if your tank was really small then really you should only have had 1 goldfish in there and even then when a tank is cycling I think sometimes you may have to expect to do daily water changes (if not twice a day if the levels are drastically high!) Sure this is stressful for a fish but not as bad as the ammonia/nitrite buildup. Keep in mind you may need to know how to cycle with fish at some point. For example if you needed to setup a hospital/quarantine tank on the spur of the moment and didn't have another filter.

I'm a beginner myself but I've had several 'cycling' experiences from having to take the odd goldfish or 3 out of a pond and hold them in a plastic bins for the odd week or 2!

I learned the hard way of course and lost my first ones due to not having a clue!!

Good on you for learning something new though.

[heyandrea_]

Yeah my tank is quite small, 5gal, i should of started larger.. but i'll look into a larger one in the long term and try again with the fish maybe.

Heaps to learn! Didnt really know what I was getting myself into, but have learnt so much in the last couple of months!

[heyandrea_]

My tank has an undergravel filter, with gravel and a couple of artificial plants, nothing flash!

[heyandrea_]

Ammonia risen to 8.0

Nitrite between 0 and 0.25 (hard to say because my test kit jumps from 0 to 0.25)

Nitrate 5.0

[heyandrea_]

Ammonia 8.0

Nitrite 0.25

Nitrate 5.0

[heyandrea_]

On 15/6/07

Ammonia still 8.0

Nitrite 0.25

Nitrate 5.0

Today still the same, so have taken the prawn out because nothing is happening.

[Nicolette]

Have you done a partial water change yet? Are you supposed to with fishless cycling?

[markoshark]

Ammonia is still fairly high.

[heyandrea_]

I dont think you're suppose to do a water change until you add the fish. My tank is small so I think i've over done it on the ammonia.

[alanmin4304]

How many fish are your results equivalent to?

[heyandrea_]

Test results are still the same today

Ammo 8.0

Nitrite 0.25

Nitrate 5.0

Im not really sure if this method is working for me. My ammonia levels are too high, so im not sure whether i should do a water change to get them lower, or whether that will upset the bacteria growth, I'm kind of lost now!

[heyandrea_]

This tank is driving me insane! But I want to perserve because if I master this tank I can get a bigger one and use this one as a hospital tank or something.

Can anyone offer some advice. Should I just clean out the tank and start again, and add one small fish, do weekly water changes and maybe get some ammo lock? Would that be a better way to go. Or should I leave my tank as is, and hope the ammonia levels will drop by themselves? I dont think the bacteria level in my tank can cope with all the ammonia.

[Alan]

Do a 60% water change, DON'T touch you filtration and carry on.

[alanmin4304]

Cycling is a living system and there are many types of bacteria all carrying out different functions in the cycle. The reason I don't use a fishless cycle is because there is no way that you can relate what you are getting to the fish you are going to add. To add fish now will probably kill them. Any rotting fish or prawn will produce ammonia but it has no relationship to what the fish will produce so in my view is meaningless, and probably causes the fish more stress than adding fish slowly and allowing the tank to adjust to the real world.

[heyandrea_]

So if I carry on with what I'm doing, and do a water change, I wont have to add anymore prawns? Will the tank cycle itself now by adding nothing else??

[alanmin4304]

I have no idea but someone who has done it will be able to advise.

[Caryl]

Do not add Ammolock or other chemicals either as it stuffs up your test readings (and slow the cycle).

[SpidersWeb]

Its producing nitrite, and nitrate, so its cycling, just not finished. Everyone has their own point of view, but personally I'd do partial water changes (<40%) until the ammonia is down to about 0.5 at the absolute worst, nirite 0.25 or lower, and add a few danios (cheap, and hardy fish), continue with weekly partial water changes and soon enough you'll have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, then you can slowly add other fish.

You can later give the danios away, feed them to other fish, or keep them. My local fish store has them for $3 ea but not all stores are that good with pricing. I dont recommend using neons, they dont seem to like it very much.

Remember the rules:

- Dont touch the filter unless its clogging up

- Rinse filter with old tank water when you have to

- Make sure water has surface movement 24 hours (for oxygen)

I've also added large fish loads to fresh tanks, but this did require almost daily 50% changes for almost a week to keep the nitrite low while the bacteria built up. Good on you for doing the tests. I recently lost a lot of fish due to being careless about nitrite and ammonia when setting up a new tank.

[heyandrea_]

I changed my water 2 days ago, did about a 60% water change. Tested water yesterday and ammonia at 2.0! Still quite high. So I did another 60% water change. Just tested ammonia and its at 0.50. Should I change the water again so it gets down to 0.25?

My tank is really small, 5 gal or 23 litres. Should I add one small fish to start with to ease the pressure of the ammonia build up?

The prawn thing didnt work for me because I think my tank was too small and the amount of ammonia that the prawn produced couldnt cope in my tank.