Extreme Frustration...please Help!

[ara35]

i am extremely frustrated by the way my fish hobby has started. i have a 15 gallon tank that i've been "cycling" or so i thought for a month. i have had rosy red minnows in the tank the entire time and only two have died, one the first day i got them.. the other shortly after. i have done many water changes and testing. my ammonia was at zero for about 3 days straight, nitrites were staying rather low and nitrates were beginning to appear. the temp has been at 78-80 degrees the whole time. after recieving those readings, i thought i would get a snail just to help clean up some algae that was appearing. about a week after i left for 3 days for the thanksgiving holiday. all my fish were alive but the snail died. (sucked up the filter, next time i will cover with a sponge). anyway, when i got back it was up to 1.0ppm ammonia, .5 nitrites and no nitrates. after doing a water change, the ammonia was back to .75 the next day. i did another water change, and the ammonia is still at .25. these water changes were 50 percent. and hopefully i can get the help i need so that i dont end this hobby that i so badly want to pursue (waited 2 years to get this tank). heres my questions:

1. if my ammonia was up to 1.0 ppm, why were all my fish alive, swimming well, looking good?
2. is high ammonia only dangerous to the fish, would it cause a cycle to restart?
3. do i have to start all over again with the cycle? i am still getting nitrites, but have i been set back?

please do not say anything about fishless cycling because i dont believe that would have changed anything because no fish died during this whole process. only because they were in bad shape to start... what is going on? please help me! i really want a fish tank to be a success!!!!

 

[marcan]

Hello !

It can takes several weeks (and months !) to cycle a tank.

1. High ammonia doesn't mean your fish will die instantly. In the long run, high ammonia hurts fish. They may look good today and next week but who knows how long they will survive.

2. High ammonia won't cause a cycle to restart but it can slow the cycle process. 1ppm is bad for fish but I don't consider 1ppm as "high ammonia" for the cycling process.

3. Just keep doing regular water change and hopefully someday ammonia and nitrite will disapear from your test reading.

From my understanding, your ammonia and nitrite are going up and down. That means you have some bacterias in your filter. You are probably doing it right...

Which test kit are you using ?

Don't give up!

Good luck

 

[dthoffsett]

Marcan pretty much said it all, the reason you saw an ammonia spike was most likely from the snail decomposing. You just have to be patient, my first cycle took 3 months, that's a little long, but eventually you'll get there.

 

[Bauchingera]

i am extremely frustrated by the way my fish hobby has started. i have a 15 gallon tank that i've been "cycling" or so i thought for a month. i have had rosy red minnows in the tank the entire time and only two have died, one the first day i got them.. the other shortly after. i have done many water changes and testing. my ammonia was at zero for about 3 days straight, nitrites were staying rather low and nitrates were beginning to appear. the temp has been at 78-80 degrees the whole time. after recieving those readings, i thought i would get a snail just to help clean up some algae that was appearing. about a week after i left for 3 days for the thanksgiving holiday. all my fish were alive but the snail died. (sucked up the filter, next time i will cover with a sponge). anyway, when i got back it was up to 1.0ppm ammonia, .5 nitrites and no nitrates. after doing a water change, the ammonia was back to .75 the next day. i did another water change, and the ammonia is still at .25. these water changes were 50 percent. and hopefully i can get the help i need so that i dont end this hobby that i so badly want to pursue (waited 2 years to get this tank). heres my questions:

1. if my ammonia was up to 1.0 ppm, why were all my fish alive, swimming well, looking good?
2. is high ammonia only dangerous to the fish, would it cause a cycle to restart?
3. do i have to start all over again with the cycle? i am still getting nitrites, but have i been set back?

please do not say anything about fishless cycling because i dont believe that would have changed anything because no fish died during this whole process. only because they were in bad shape to start... what is going on? please help me! i really want a fish tank to be a success!!!!

Um, well i put my fish in the day i got my tank, but i got this stuff called cycle, and it kills chlorine, amonia, etc. my fish were fine....they really didnt seem to care, it could be because the fish are sick, when you got them, this happened to my angels...i went through 6....from the same shop, they were fine and then they randomly stopped eating...and swam funny, then died. i thnk it was parasites from the shop....im not getting anymore angels....no. They are annoying....i recommend and prefer bala sharks and albino rainbow sharks, i have 2 balas and 1 albino and NO they are not agressive, dont listen to what people say...they are missunderstood and they are very pretty and balas are also endangered....and bsides i find it cruel to animals just to keep one shark by itself....mine love each other and follow and play with each other all day....so dont say their agressive cos day rnt!!