Fish In Cycle

[davellew69]

hi all, well its been a month of my fish in cycle , and all is going well. I have a 51 L tank, the first week I ran the tank "fish-less", and done periodic bacteria top ups (sorry it was the bottled stuff), I then added two mollies for the first week, tested levels 3 times a week, cleaned the gravel, and done a 10 l water change every other day, I am up to two mollies, 2 guppies, 1 sword tail and two Buenas Aires tetras. I did have an ammonia spike on the second week, so I cut back the feeding, done my usual 10 l change, since then my ammonia levels have not gone over 0.6, and nitrate,( or is it Nitrite lol) levels have been low and constant.
The only problem has been two bullies in the tank, which have been nipping away.

 

[waterdrop]

At 0.6ppm ammonia, all the fish will be sustaining permanent gill damage. You've got the right idea but just need to figure out how to increase the frequency or percentage of your water changes such that your poison levels don't exceed 0.25 or 0.30 ppm before you can be home again to change water. At a month you should be nearing the end of your fish-in cycling period and hopefully the two species of bacteria will begin to kick in and help you! Good luck.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[davellew69]

sorry I forg

sorry I should have noted that this week the ammonia levels topped where between 01 and 0.3