Cycling With Fish, Am I Doing It Wrong?

[doraemon213]

Hi,
 
Unfortunately I falsely trusted the fish store staff and got fish in my new tank while cycle has not been established.
 
Now that it's done, I have to struggle with cycling while having 4 fish in the tank. It has been running for 3 weeks now, and after taking advice by nice forum people here I have been doing partial water changes according to ammonia level either everyday or every other day.
 
Because of the water changes, I have the ammonia level fluctuate between .25ppm to .5ppm everyday. The problem is, nitrite still remains 0 so far. So I wonder if I have setup anything incorrectly in the tank.
 
All I have got in the 10 gallon tank are 4 fish, gravels, 2 live plants, 1 filter (this), 1 heater and 1 light that I don't normally turn on (turning on doesn't seem to make much difference in the day). And I only put in the filter cartridge that comes with the filter, no sponges or anything (not sure if that means I don't have any "filter media"?)
 
pH: 7.6
ammonia: 0.25-0.5ppm
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
temperature: 82F (27.8C)
 
I use tap water with Seachem Prime and a little bit of aquarium salt. I have added API quick start twice in the past week with water changes.
 
Am I doing anything wrong?
 
Thanks!

 

[Arcticfox1977]

Hi.
I am also doing fish in cycling, due to an impatient 5 yr old.
Anyway, you need to do larger water changes to get rid of the ammonia. Do at least 50% WC. The fish in cycling is alot longer and more work due to WC's. I am just over 7 weeks running my tank with fish in and I still haven't seen nitrite or nitrate. It can take anywhere from 6 weeks up to 6 months to cycle.
I also use prime to dechlorinates my water. In the beginning I was doing 50% WC every day, sometimes twice a day to get my ammonia from 0.25 down to 0. Now I am going 2 days without a WC.
You need to remember ammonia burns your fish's gills. So any reading of ammonia you need to get this down to 0.

 

[Khanna]

Hmm... my first advice to you is that if there is any ammonia detectable, do a water change. Also, how are you testing the water?
The bacteria grows on the carbon cartridge itself. That's probably your problem.

 

[doraemon213]

I use the API master freshwater test kit to test the water. I thought fish could tolerate up to 0.25ppm ammonia? I have been doing water changes to bring it down to somewhere below 0.25, so usually I do about 50-60%.
 
 

Hmm... my first advice to you is that if there is any ammonia detectable, do a water change. Also, how are you testing the water?
The bacteria grows on the carbon cartridge itself. That's probably your problem.

 
When you say carbon cartridge, that's the cartridge that I put in the filter right? How is bacteria growing on it a problem?

 

[Khanna]

Yes, the grey cartridge. Sorry, I wasn't clear. I assumed the only thing you had in the filter was the black mesh thing I cannot remember the name of. Also, fish can tolerate that much ammonia, but it doesn't mean it's not harming them.

 

[BamBeckham]

Hi, I'm also doing a fish in cycling & and today I'm in 6 days for cycling. Myself still in early stage & all the reading still 0 except ammonia that I keep <0.25 & pH7.0-7.5. But that is the point, I need to WC my tank everyday & sometimes twice a day except last Saturday & Sunday which was I went to outstation. I use 70-75% WC every time I did the changes.
 
What I need to do is, Just be patient. & waiting how gonna be happen to your cycling first.

 

[techen]

The reason it takes so long to cycle with fish in it is due to the ammonia being removed so it does not feed the filter. Removing the ammonia is just going stall the cycle for quite a long time so don't expect a finished cycle anytime soon.

 

[BamBeckham]

The reason it takes so long to cycle with fish in it is due to the ammonia being removed so it does not feed the filter. Removing the ammonia is just going stall the cycle for quite a long time so don't expect a finished cycle anytime soon.

 
Yeah, thats like what I think. So maybe there is another way which is, we just continue doing fish in cycling at the different tank(temporary tank) & at the same time try to fishless cycling your main tank.

 

[Mamashack]

BamBeckham - that will still harm the fish as they are still being exposed to ammonia during the fish-in cycle in the temporary tank. The only way is to foster them to an established and mature tank until the "main" tank has been fishless cycled.
There's a saying on here and maybe it's trite, but it's true - surviving is not thriving and altho the fish may survive the ammonia levels during the cycle their life span will be greatly reduced and they may suffer many health problems during their shortened lives.

 

[BamBeckham]

BamBeckham - that will still harm the fish as they are still being exposed to ammonia during the fish-in cycle in the temporary tank. The only way is to foster them to an established and mature tank until the "main" tank has been fishless cycled.
There's a saying on here and maybe it's trite, but it's true - surviving is not thriving and altho the fish may survive the ammonia levels during the cycle their life span will be greatly reduced and they may suffer many health problems during their shortened lives.

 
Mamashack, Dont it is the same here even if I make a new cycling for the different tank at the same time & still continue with the current cycling. I mean, make 2 simultaneous cycling with fish and without fish.
 
We still do cycling for the tank with fish inside & make sure it is safe for fish & the other tank which is without fish, we let it run cycling naturally. Even now we need to do cycling with fish inside & make sure the tank in safe condition for the fish.
 
Then, after a tank has finished cycling, we will transfer the fish to that tank.

 

[daizeUK]

I have seen TwoTankAmin recommend this strategy for fish-in cycling so yes it is a good idea if you have two tanks.
 
You will do water changes on your fish-in tank to keep ammonia levels as close to zero as possible.  Meanwhile you add 2ppm ammonia to your fishless tank.  In theory the fishless tank should cycle much faster.  When the fishless cycle is finished, you can transfer your fish over and they will have spent much less time in an uncycled environment.
 
You can also have the temperature higher in your fishless tank (around 28 degrees Celsius) and this will help the bacteria breed faster.