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New tank fish in cycle. A few issues...

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Rob78

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Hi all.
Currently trying to do a fish in cycle on a new 200 litre tank and a few things are confusing me.
Will try to give as much information as I can so bear with me.
Tank dimensions are 100x40x50 cm.
Fluval U4 filter.
Mostly real plants and a couple of chunks of Mopani wood plus the ornaments for the kids.
I'm on day 15 since water in. Day 3 introduced 6 Cardinal Tetras and on day 6, 6 Endler/Guppies, 2 male 4 female.
Have done 2 20% water changes on days 7 and 14.
Have been using liquid test for PH, AM and NO. Results are...PH between 7-7.5 dropped from 8.5, AM 0 get this result on every test, and NO 0.25, also the same on every test.
Used test strips for Nitrate currently at 25 and KH at 120 ish.
Lost 1 female Guppy on day 13 and another female on day 14. They were getting nippy on previous day in both cases.
Tetras doing well except for one who, beyond their first day in the tank, has always been on its own and has stopped feeding over last 3 days. Fish have all come from the same well established local shop.
Have been daily dosing with Seachem Prime and Stability.
Questions are. Has my cycle actually started as I am consistently read no Ammonia and Nitrites always at 0.25 and what could be killing the Guppies?

Be gentle as this is my 1st tank In case it's not obvious and thanks in advance!
 

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Sounds like you could be in the second phase of the cycle with 0 ammonia and 0.25 nitrites.

You need to do bigger water changes than 20% and more often when doing fish in cycles.

Test everyday and do a 50% water change everytime Nitrites are above zero.

Once nitrites have levelled off at 0 you can then do 50% water changes once a week which will keep nitrates down.

Adding some floating plants would also be beneficial🙂
 
AquaBarb said:
Sounds like you could be in the second phase of the cycle with 0 ammonia and 0.25 nitrites.

You need to do bigger water changes than 20% and more often when doing fish in cycles.

Test everyday and do a 50% water change everytime Nitrites are above zero.

Once nitrites have levelled off at 0 you can then do 50% water changes once a week which will keep nitrates down.

Adding some floating plants would also be beneficial🙂
Click to expand...
Gotcha. Any idea what could be killing the female Guppies?
 
Get a bottle of Tetra's Safe Start. This is the only such product (along with Dr. Tim's One and Only but it adds ammonia, not meant for fish) that contains the true nitrifying bacteria. Stability ill not do anything, it may "seem" to, but that is just luck, it does not have the correct bacteria.

Live plants, especially floating, will really help. And water changes must be 60-70% of the tank so long as ammonia or nitrite is above zero.
 
Not sure on the guppies, but with regards no ammonia, it might be because of the live plants and this is a godsend because I doubt the cardinals would take too kindly to being used for a cycle and having excess ammonia and nitrite to deal with! The guppies could also get compromised immune systems from excess ammonia and nitrite as they can be weak fish anyway.

Guppies can die easily.

Nitrite at 0.25 would not have killed those 2 guppies though.

Your tank looks lovely. Really good that you've gone for live plants.

Do you have a test kit for GH (general hardness)
 
Rob78 said:
Hi all.
Currently trying to do a fish in cycle on a new 200 litre tank and a few things are confusing me.
Will try to give as much information as I can so bear with me.
Tank dimensions are 100x40x50 cm.
Fluval U4 filter.
Mostly real plants and a couple of chunks of Mopani wood plus the ornaments for the kids.
I'm on day 15 since water in. Day 3 introduced 6 Cardinal Tetras and on day 6, 6 Endler/Guppies, 2 male 4 female.
Have done 2 20% water changes on days 7 and 14.
Have been using liquid test for PH, AM and NO. Results are...PH between 7-7.5 dropped from 8.5, AM 0 get this result on every test, and NO 0.25, also the same on every test.
Used test strips for Nitrate currently at 25 and KH at 120 ish.
Lost 1 female Guppy on day 13 and another female on day 14. They were getting nippy on previous day in both cases.
Tetras doing well except for one who, beyond their first day in the tank, has always been on its own and has stopped feeding over last 3 days. Fish have all come from the same well established local shop.
Have been daily dosing with Seachem Prime and Stability.
Questions are. Has my cycle actually started as I am consistently read no Ammonia and Nitrites always at 0.25 and what could be killing the Guppies?

Be gentle as this is my 1st tank In case it's not obvious and thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Hello. I've always cycled a tank with fish. Most recently, I cycled a 50 gallon with a dozen larger Tetras. I set up the tank and filled it with treated tap water and added API's "Quick Start". I just change half the water every week and dose the bacteria starter. That was back in June and the fish are doing great! I just make sure I feed them a little variety, but only every other day.

If you want to cycle a much smaller tank, then chose a small fish and add half as many. Always dose the bacteria starter when you change the water. You should change half the water twice a week. Remember to keep the food to a minimum. A slightly hungry fish is a healthier fish.

10 Tanks (Now 11)
 
Obsessed with fish said:
Do you have photos of the guppies? Were the guppies showing unusual symptoms or behaviour before the deaths?
Click to expand...
These are ones I have left. The ones that died were getting a bit nippy with the others the day before. Hard to get clear pics as they seem more active today.
 

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AlexT said:
Not sure on the guppies, but with regards no ammonia, it might be because of the live plants and this is a godsend because I doubt the cardinals would take too kindly to being used for a cycle and having excess ammonia and nitrite to deal with! The guppies could also get compromised immune systems from excess ammonia and nitrite as they can be weak fish anyway.

Guppies can die easily.

Nitrite at 0.25 would not have killed those 2 guppies though.

Your tank looks lovely. Really good that you've gone for live plants.

Do you have a test kit for GH (general hardness)
Click to expand...
Gh looks to be 200ppm
 
Essjay said:
One & Only does not contain ammonia - ammonia that has to be added separately when fishless cycling ;)
Click to expand...

I understood that Dr. Tim's One and Only includes adding ammonia as part of the cycling process. Is this not the case? Tetra Safe Start does not require the addition of ammonia, it is meant for tanks with fish. Want to clarify this.
 
Last edited:
Byron said:
I understood that Dr. Tim'sOne and Only includes adding ammonia. Is this not the case? Tetra Safe Start does not require the addition of ammonia, it is meant for tanks with fish. Want to clarify this.
Click to expand...
Yes, there is Dr Tim's All in One (the dormant bacteria) and the instructions is to add pure ammonia on top of this. Dr Tim's does his own ammonia (not called all in one) which makes things easier in terms of dosing instruction, but you could use any pure ammonia of course. I used Dr Tims once and Safe Start twice and Dr Tims was better for me in speeding up a fishless cycle.

The All in One bottle is just the dormant bacteria on it's own.
 
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