Fish in Cycling

[fishlover7]

Unless the level gets horribly high, once a day is enough. If the level does get horribly high you may need to do more than one water change a day and testing twice a day.


Feeding the fish less and once every two or three days also helps. Less food means the fish excrete less ammonia so there's less ammonia to be turned into nitrite. Once nitrite stays at zero, feeding can be increased slowly - though most fishkeepers do overfeed their fish. They need a lot less food than you'd think as, unlike us, they don't use food to keep warm. They get their warmth from the water.

Yes I fed only once a day, and with my tank with high nitrites I feed every other day. My beta likes to think I starve him when I give him 5 pellets a day lol! My cory tank does well with one sinking pellet and it is gone within minutes. I'll moving feedings for the corys (high nitrite tank) to once every two days now.

 

[Bamf Comics]

Aquarium salt was also added last night. Any thoughts would be wonderful, and please be kind.

All you need is sodium chloride which you can pick up for substantially less than the sodium chloride in AP's little box of "aquarium salt."
Stress Coat is another product I will never touch again from AP. I directly watched it kill a gorgeous discus that swam thru the cloud as it was dispersing in the water. Discus immediately keels over face first in the sand right in front of my eyes. I also watched my mom kill a fantail goldfish when she added it to a tank she was already using Start Right by Jungle and that one from Tetra on. 3 different dechlorinators going into the same tank but mothers know best.

As for fish in cycling, I just finished up doing exactly that with 38 tanks. Nitrite can be almost impossible to keep down even with daily water changes and the duration can last for months in extreme cases to get across the finish line. Stock up on plain table type salt.

This store that sold you the fish, should have something they can sell cheaply or just give to you to speed up the cycling. It could be anything from an old filter cartridge/floss to a handful of gravel out of an established tank. Lots of options out there that do not have to break the bank and could knock weeks off the race to the finish line. If you can get some hornwort, it's about the easiest plant to drop in a tank and get growth from, no potting or rooting needed. I've got 3 tubs and a tank now in 24 hour lighting mode to keep it growing and reproducing rapidly. Plant growth reduces the qty of bacteria needed to handle the waste being produced. There are other hardy plant options as well but hornwort really is simple, plop and drop, leave the lights on. Just make sure your salt isn't too heavily dosed. It only takes a tiny amount to combat nitrite. Hikari's rep tried to convince me that the amount in their conditioner by itself was enough but I like a little more until the tank is established although this time I ran most tanks without salt if no ick was physically seen. It can work both ways and plants in general can bring in a new level of enjoyment along with a few snails.

Also, I discovered recently, the Family Dollar store right down the street from me has plain unscented ammonia in stock for about a buck. I wish I'd known that a few months ago. I'm not a fan of feeding empty tanks to keep the bacteria bed alive and growing so this sounds like a good long term investment. It should be cleaner than the fish food and cheaper with more controllable results.