Fish-In Cycle Question

[PEneoark]

Yes, I decided to cycle my tank with a few fish in it. I don't want to catch heat for doing a fish-in cycle. When I started, I had no idea that you can cycle without fish.

Basically, I started my tank a little over a month ago. Used stress zyme once in the beginning. My ammonia reached 2 ppm at its highest. I have no changed the water in a couple of weeks because the ammonia was coming down on its own. My nitrites never exceeded 0.50 ppm. I now have no ammonia, no nitrite, and 5-10 ppm of nitrate.

Shouldn't my nitrite have exceeded 0.50? I'm almost baffled here.

 

[sinistral]

I think we need more information in order to answer. How big is the tank, how many and what kinds of fish, any plants in the tank, etc?

 

[PEneoark]

2 danios, 1 dalmation molly, and 1 red platy. Its a 29 gallon tank with no live plants.

 

[sinistral]

Hmmm, that's a pretty large volume for four small fish. Along with the usual other culprits (inaccurate nitrite test, testing at non-daily intervals, other additions to the tank from an existing aquarium with hitchhiker bacteria, etc) I'd suspect a lower nitrite peak because of the small bioload.

Have you tested your tap water for nitrates, out of curiosity (it's good practice to do so).

If you're thinking of adding more fish at this point, you could do so, but with fish-in cycles you have to add them gradually (very important, you may already be aware).

 

[PEneoark]

My tap water contains no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate.

Oh yeah, I also have a clown pleco. I forget about him because I don't see him very often. I was thinking of adding a couple more fish this coming weekend.

I am running an AC 30 with bigger bio media bag, and a Penguin 200 with 2 filters. I wanted to culture 2 filters so I can use one for seeding an upcoming 55 gallon fishless cycle.

 

[Lolly123]

To be honest, if you had fish in your tank and your ammonia reached 2ppm I am surprised that they did not show visible signs of poisoning, they may well have suffered damage to the mucus membranes, gills etc. Now I cant see your fish or your tank and wouldnt assume that your fish have suffered through what I mentioned above. But when you are doing a fish in cycle, it is extremely important that you do water change on a constant basis and keep levels below 0.25, the reason why you cant just leave it to come down on its own is because you have fish in your tank and it will affect them.

 

[PEneoark]

Yes, the whole thing was a poor choice on my part, and felt bad about it. My next will be a fishless cycle.

 

[Lolly123]

Yes, the whole thing was a poor choice on my part, and felt bad about it. My next will be a fishless cycle.

We all make mistakes, so don't beat yourself up too much about it, really I just dont want to see anyone lose fish, because its not a very nice experience, especially when something could have been done. Fish-in cycles can be done, they're not my first choice, but they can be done, it's just a tiresome task sometimes because you have to remain vigilant when it comes to your cycle and you can end up doing a lot of water changes to keep the levels 'safe' enough.

Anyway, as long as you keep a close eye on your levels, test regularly, water change every week and dont overfeed you should be fine. Go slowly with the stocking and choose fish that will be happy with your tank setup and size

 

[Skins]

Yes, the whole thing was a poor choice on my part, and felt bad about it. My next will be a fishless cycle.

We all make mistakes, so don't beat yourself up too much about it, really I just dont want to see anyone lose fish, because its not a very nice experience, especially when something could have been done. Fish-in cycles can be done, they're not my first choice, but they can be done, it's just a tiresome task sometimes because you have to remain vigilant when it comes to your cycle and you can end up doing a lot of water changes to keep the levels 'safe' enough.

Anyway, as long as you keep a close eye on your levels, test regularly, water change every week and dont overfeed you should be fine. Go slowly with the stocking and choose fish that will be happy with your tank setup and size

+1, nice one lolly123

Keith.

 

[Lolly123]

Yes, the whole thing was a poor choice on my part, and felt bad about it. My next will be a fishless cycle.

We all make mistakes, so don't beat yourself up too much about it, really I just dont want to see anyone lose fish, because its not a very nice experience, especially when something could have been done. Fish-in cycles can be done, they're not my first choice, but they can be done, it's just a tiresome task sometimes because you have to remain vigilant when it comes to your cycle and you can end up doing a lot of water changes to keep the levels 'safe' enough.

Anyway, as long as you keep a close eye on your levels, test regularly, water change every week and dont overfeed you should be fine. Go slowly with the stocking and choose fish that will be happy with your tank setup and size

+1, nice one lolly123

Keith.

TY keith

 

[weezebegs]

Yes, the whole thing was a poor choice on my part, and felt bad about it. My next will be a fishless cycle.

We all make mistakes, so don't beat yourself up too much about it, really I just dont want to see anyone lose fish, because its not a very nice experience, especially when something could have been done. Fish-in cycles can be done, they're not my first choice, but they can be done, it's just a tiresome task sometimes because you have to remain vigilant when it comes to your cycle and you can end up doing a lot of water changes to keep the levels 'safe' enough.

Anyway, as long as you keep a close eye on your levels, test regularly, water change every week and dont overfeed you should be fine. Go slowly with the stocking and choose fish that will be happy with your tank setup and size

+1, nice one lolly123

Keith.

TY keith

I too have just completed a fish in cycle after bad advice from LFS, and got great help and support on here.

It took me about 6 weeks to cycle and my Ammonia never went over .5 and I managed to keep it at .25 with daily waterchanges .

It is hard work and can be done, on the down side I did loose 2 of my original Danio's.

They saying goes "inhindsight"....but hey we try our best

 

[PEneoark]

I guess you will all be proud of this one.......

I said above that I threw an extra filter into my Penguin, in hopes of culturing it for my new 55 gallon's fishless cycle.

Seeing my 29 just finished it's cycle, I decided to throw the extra filter in my emperor in the 55 for a fishless cycle

I dosed up to 5 ppm of ammonia Sunday. After 24 hours of having in the seeded filter, ammonia has dropped from 5 ppm to 2ppm, and nitrite is at 0.5 ppm. The fishless cycle on my 55 is going great already

My tap water is all zeros.

 

[Geoff-]

To be honest, if you had fish in your tank and your ammonia reached 2ppm I am surprised that they did not show visible signs of poisoning

depends on pH, if your water is acidic then you have mostly ammonium which is largely harmless. if your water is alkaline you have mostly ammonia which is very toxic. around pH7 you will have a mixture of the two types.

either have acidic water or very hardy fish!