Cycling my fish tank with fish in them and need help (stuck on nitrite stage)

[Xife]

So I'm trying to cycle my 29 gallons with fish in them, I bought pretty hardy fish but think I got too many in there for it to cycle well. I currently have 5 guppies, 1 platy, and a spotted catfish. I recently moved them from my ten-gallon tank so it has some of the substrate from it (that ten-gallon tank was not cycled). I put the fish in the tank and used stability for 7 days. Ive been testing my waters and found after 7 days I tested the water and it shows that i seem to be stuck on the nitrite stage.

After 7 days
0.50ppm ammonia,
0.75ppm Nitrite
and looks like 0ppm Nitrate.


Then after that, I kept doing 50% water changes and I've been doing it for 3 days and what it shows is
0-0.25ppm ammonia
0.5ppm nitrite
and I think its 0ppm Nitrate but I feel like it got darker but not very much at all. (could be in my head)

I do not know if I should keep doing water changes to help the cycle keep going, I been looking up that most of the BB is on the surface and not the water but if I do not have a lot of Nitrite in the water the BB for nitrate will never grow? I do not have prime at the moment and don't know if I could get some right now could order some but could take a week. Should I keep doing water changes if I see nitrite or ammonia go past 0.5ppm? or?? I don't want my fish to die if i let the nitrite levels go up. what should i do??


Thank you for your time guys!!!

 

[FishkeeperLinz]

So I'm trying to cycle my 29 gallons with fish in them, I bought pretty hardy fish but think I got too many in there for it to cycle well. I currently have 5 guppies, 1 platy, and a spotted catfish. I recently moved them from my ten-gallon tank so it has some of the substrate from it (that ten-gallon tank was not cycled). I put the fish in the tank and used stability for 7 days. Ive been testing my waters and found after 7 days I tested the water and it shows that i seem to be stuck on the nitrite stage.

After 7 days
0.50ppm ammonia,
0.75ppm Nitrite
and looks like 0ppm Nitrate.


Then after that, I kept doing 50% water changes and I've been doing it for 3 days and what it shows is
0-0.25ppm ammonia
0.5ppm nitrite
and I think its 0ppm Nitrate but I feel like it got darker but not very much at all. (could be in my head)

I do not know if I should keep doing water changes to help the cycle keep going, I been looking up that most of the BB is on the surface and not the water but if I do not have a lot of Nitrite in the water the BB for nitrate will never grow? I do not have prime at the moment and don't know if I could get some right now could order some but could take a weekf. Should I keep doing water changes if I see nitrite or ammonia go past 0.5ppm? or?? I don't want my fish to die if i let the nitrite levels go up. what should i do??


Thank you for your time guys!!!

Hi. When doing a fish in tank cycle, the fish and the health and wellbeing must take priority over the bacteria. You MUST keep doing daily water changes, even if you did have Prime. This is why fish-in-tank cycles can sometimes take longer than fishless cycles.

 

[Byron]

I agree. Stability should help, so use it according to directions. If you were able to get to a store, Tetra's SafeStart is probably a better bacterial product, but use the Stability if you have it as it will provide some help.

Prime will help if you get some of that, but Prime's detoxification of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate is temporary, lasting around 24-36 hours, and if any of these remain in the tank they will revert back to the toxic form, so continue the daily water changes. Also, when testing for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate when using Prime, these will still show if they are in the water in the "safe" form so it can be misleading. Daily water changes with Prime should get you through this. And use the bacterial supplement, whichever you have.

 

[Xife]

Okay , thank you guys!!, I did a test today and saw it have 0.25ppm ammonia, and 0.5ppm nitrite, and 0ppm nitrate. these seem to be the readings I get everyday when I constantly do my daily 50 percent water change.

These are my questions now,
-Should I do a water change with these readings? or wait till tomorrow? (like are they safe in these readings)
-If so (regarding to the water tests i showed above) what percent of a water change should i do?
-Will the BB to convert nitrite to nitrate ever come about?


Thank you

 

[FishkeeperLinz]

Okay , thank you guys!!, I did a test today and saw it have 0.25ppm ammonia, and 0.5ppm nitrite, and 0ppm nitrate. these seem to be the readings I get everyday when I constantly do my daily 50 percent water change.

These are my questions now,
-Should I do a water change with these readings? or wait till tomorrow? (like are they safe in these readings)
-If so (regarding to the water tests i showed above) what percent of a water change should i do?
-Will the BB to convert nitrite to nitrate ever come about?


Thank you

Q1 is probably redundant now, but as long as there are reading for ammonia and nitrite, you need to be doing daily water changes to keep them down.

Q2: At 0.5 nitrite, I'd recommend a 30% water change.

Q3: Yes, but it'll take longer than a fishless cycle would.

In a fishless cycle, you have the freedom to whack up the temperature to 30°C, and, as long as you keep ammonia at or under 4ppm, there's no need to do daily water changes, thus speeding up the process. My 200ltr tank was cycled in 2 weeks by doing this.

With a fish-in-tank cycle, you're governed by the environmental and wellbeing needs of the fish, meaning you don't have the liberty of hiking the temps or leaving the filter to do its thing, which slows the process down. You'll get there, but it'll take longer.