Fish In Cycle of a New Tank 55 gallon Aqueon bundle kit

All being said I think periodic small water changes daily then huge water change in some period of time .

Today’s test. I last did a 20% water change two days ago. I did a water change right after this of 20% and added Prime and stability. What do you guys think?

Nitrite is still too high, it needs to be zero. You need to chnage a lot more than 20%; you need to do enough to get it down to zero, then another water change next day if it's gone up again. Having nitrite in the water mught not kill fish instantly but it damages them so they won't live a s long as they should.

If necessary to keep nitrite under control, you can remove almost all the water just leaving enough so the fish can swim upright. As long as dechlorinator is added to the new water and it's been warmed to the same temperature as the tank water, the fish will be OK.

Riddle me this....

If the bacteria convert ammonia to nitrite, then another bacteria converts nitrite to.nitrate......removing the food that these bacteria need is going to do what? Certainly won't allow for proliferation. Life thrives where it's food is.

Are the fish showing signs of being ill? Your tank was hit pretty hard with fish. You lost a good amount. How are the remaining fish behaving? This activity is as important as these levels.

Do not.pour an entire bottle of BB in the tank at once. There is no need. Spread it out over time. You can add the recommended amount daily for 7 days. There is more than just water in these bottles, and you may do more harm than good pouring an entire bottle in there.

As long as your fish are swimming and not floating, monitor your levels. It is ok to let them rise slightly. This stuff needs to be in there in order for the BB to proliferate. When levels rise too high, do a water change. You will never get to zero without changing out all the water. Up to 75% water change can be done if need be, but too much can cause a kill off event. Large water changes have potential to sway conditions unfavorably for the fish.

Do a test of your tap water with the API kit. See what those levels are coming out of there.

Go to the fish store and buy some fully aqautic.plants, and stuff them in the substrate. They will also help balance out the tank.

Overall, you have a tank that, while fish in cycles are possible, you got the ultimate challenge. 32 fish is a.wee bit much. It can be done tho. The weakest have already left. Just monitor the fish, as well as those numbers. The fish will let you know. Look for signs like red gills and bent spines. Fins tearing also. Keep your feeding to a minimum. Every 3 days maybe until this thing resolves. This will cut down on water maint as well. Less.crap decomposing. The fish will be fine. I feed most of mine every 2 days or so. Just enough for them all to get a taste, then they have to search for it.

You'll get this.

Fish-in cycling is a balancing act between keeping the fish safe and allowing the bacteria to grow. Even a trace of ammonia or nitrite is more than the current bacteria can deal with so they will multiply to make more of them, albeit slowly.

The choice comes down to keeping the levels low so the fish are not harmed but bacterial growth is slow; or letting the levels get high so bacterial growth is faster but the fish run the risk of being harmed.

On this forum we tend to advocate the keeping the fish safe, if slower, option but it is a decision only the individual fish keeper can make.

Another thing I want to mention, as someone who is currently in the tail-end of a fish-in cycle as well, is using products like seachem prime and seachem stability or tetra safe start plus can really help alleviate some of the issues you run into with fish in cycling.

seachem prime detoxifies without removing the ammonia and nitrite, making things safe for your fish for 24-48h. This doesn't mean that you can do any fewer water changes (I'm personally doing 50% each time), but it does reduce fish mortality. Read the directions on the bottle for using it to detoxify correctly, and dose accordingly.

bacterial starter products like seachem stability and tetra safe start contain the beneficial bacteria that you are currently trying to grow in your tank, and can help speed up the cycle and reduce the highest potential amount that you may see of ammonia/nitrites. Neither product can be overdosed, so I would be very generous in dosing.

Today I would normally do a 20% water change as I did my last one on Wednesday. But my numbers look low. Should I still be doing the changes or waiting till the ammonia and nitrite rise

If you are using a product like prime or similar, I would wait. I don't know what the right choice is if you are not detoxifying the ammonia, however.

The ammonia and nitrite reading look to be zero in the photo. If they look zero in real life, you don't need a water chnage now - but check again tomorrow. As a fish-in cycle nears the end, the reading go up more and more slowly and there will be days when the readings are so low they look like zero. But they could creep up slowly again so the water should still be tested daily. The tank is cycled when the levels have stayed at zero for 7 consecutive days.
But it will only be cycled for the number of fish in the tank now. Adding a small number of new fish in several batches, testing for several days after each addition, is the safest way. Adding too many fish in one batch will overwhelm the bcatrei and you'll get readings for ammonia and/or nitrite again.
Slow is the way to go.

Essjay said:

The ammonia and nitrite reading look to be zero in the photo. If they look zero in real life, you don't need a water chnage now - but check again tomorrow. As a fish-in cycle nears the end, the reading go up more and more slowly and there will be days when the readings are so low they look like zero. But they could creep up slowly again so the water should still be tested daily. The tank is cycled when the levels have stayed at zero for 7 consecutive days.
But it will only be cycled for the number of fish in the tank now. Adding a small number of new fish in several batches, testing for several days after each addition, is the safest way. Adding too many fish in one batch will overwhelm the bcatrei and you'll get readings for ammonia and/or nitrite again.
Slow is the way to go.

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Essjay said:

The ammonia and nitrite reading look to be zero in the photo. If they look zero in real life, you don't need a water chnage now - but check again tomorrow. As a fish-in cycle nears the end, the reading go up more and more slowly and there will be days when the readings are so low they look like zero. But they could creep up slowly again so the water should still be tested daily. The tank is cycled when the levels have stayed at zero for 7 consecutive days.
But it will only be cycled for the number of fish in the tank now. Adding a small number of new fish in several batches, testing for several days after each addition, is the safest way. Adding too many fish in one batch will overwhelm the bcatrei and you'll get readings for ammonia and/or nitrite again.
Slow is the way to go

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Okay so after today’s test the numbers seem to have stayed the same now. It’s been a month since it was started and I Havnt lost a fish in over 3 weeks. But I’m still not seeeing any nitrate? Should I be seeing some of that? I would love to add another 3-4 fish for the kids but want to do it right.

bkny27 said:

But I’m still not seeeing any nitrate?

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Can I check with you how you are doing the nitrate test?
The instructions say to shake bottle #2 and then the test tube before starting the 5 minutes wait. This is because one of the reagents in the bottle settles on the bottom and the shaking is to mix it back into the liquid. Most people suggest shaking the bottle even longer than the instructions say. The most common cause of an inaccurate nitrate is not doing the shaking.

Essjay said:

Can I check with you how you are doing the nitrate test?
The instructions say to shake bottle #2 and then the test tube before starting the 5 minutes wait. This is because one of the reagents in the bottle settles on the bottom and the shaking is to mix it back into the liquid. Most people suggest shaking the bottle even longer than the instructions say. The most common cause of an inaccurate nitrate is not doing the shaking.

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I will follow the instructions to the best of my ability tonight and see if this helps. Thank you

This was right before a water change. Ammonia was not at zero but nitrite was. To me the nitrates look to be darker yellow so maybe that’s progress. I’m getting false readings now on the PH tho. Is that due to the prime and the stability I’m adding?

What is your pH doing?

With pH, it is a good idea to test your tap water - both a freshly run sample, and a glass of water that's been allowed to stand overnight. They may be different.
When water is soft and acidic, water providers sometimes add something to raise the pH to stop their pipes corroding. When water is hard and alkaline, they sometimes add something to stop limescale building up in the pipes. Both of these alter the pH but they gas off in around 24 hours, so the pH changes when water is allowed to stand.

Essjay said:

What is your pH doing?

With pH, it is a good idea to test your tap water - both a freshly run sample, and a glass of water that's been allowed to stand overnight. They may be different.
When water is soft and acidic, water providers sometimes add something to raise the pH to stop their pipes corroding. When water is hard and alkaline, they sometimes add something to stop limescale building up in the pipes. Both of these alter the pH but they gas off in around 24 hours, so the pH changes when water is allowed to stand.

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It’s normally a light blue so around 6.6-6.8 and it’s testing as yellow 6.0 right now which I know is a False reading. Multiple times tested with the same results. Testing 6.6-6.8 out of the tap.