Fish in Cycling

[fishlover7]

Hi guys! I unfortunately am in the situation of a fish in cycle. I have been using seachem stability and stress coat and doing 10-15% water changes daily. Things were going great until my ammonia hit 0 and my nitrite spiked to 2ppm. I believe its 2 but its hard to tell between 2 and 5. It has leveled off for about two weeks and I cannot get it to go down. I added in regular conditioner to lock the nitrites and ammonia (stress coat is a water conditioner as well, I don't want anyone thinking I just skipped conditioning my water). I hadn't done that yet because my local fish store said not to since it'll pause the tanks cycle. I lost a fish last night and I thought it was ick but now I am thinking it was stress ick and it was just to much for the fish (he was moved to a hospital tank and passed overnight). I made a mistake in the beginning by not cycling and I am trying so hard to make up for it but I feel so discourged with the loss of a fish and the nitrites not moving no matter what.

My second tanks nitrites dropped from 2ppm to 0.25 ppm overnight and are now between 0.25 and 0. So that one is fine but my other one won't move. I did a 30% change today and yesterday as well.

I hope for helpful advice baring in mind I am aware I made a dumb mistake and am trying very very hard to correct it. Aquarium salt was also added last night. Any thoughts would be wonderful, and please be kind. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and help me out.

 

[Colin_T]

Small water changes don't do anything to dilute water quality problems. If you have an ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or any type of water quality issue, do a big (75-90%) water change.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you do a 25% water change, you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change, you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change, you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

--------------------

Post pictures of the fish so we can see what the problem is.
White spot is caused by an external protozoan parasite. It gets introduced into aquariums on fish and via contaminated water, plants or ornaments and infects fish. It appears as small white dots on the body and fins and looks like someone has sprinkled salt on the fish. You can treat it with heat (30C for 2 weeks). But post pictures first so we can ID whatever it is.

 

[Essjay]

You can use salt to mitigate the effects of nitrite while waiting for the nitrite eaters to grow, but it does involve some calculations. If you want to give it a go you'll find how to use salt in the second part of this link (the first part is about ammonia)

Rescuing A Fish In Cycle Gone Wild - Part Il

Part II SO YOU STILL WANT TO KEEP CYCLING WITH FISH? If you are determined to ignore the above advice in Part I and still think you want to proceed with a fish in cycle, then you need to be aware of the information presented below. SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT AMMONIA Ammonia in water exists...

www.fishforums.net

 

[fishlover7]

Small water changes don't do anything to dilute water quality problems. If you have an ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or any type of water quality issue, do a big (75-90%) water change.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you do a 25% water change, you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change, you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change, you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

--------------------

Post pictures of the fish so we can see what the problem is.
White spot is caused by an external protozoan parasite. It gets introduced into aquariums on fish and via contaminated water, plants or ornaments and infects fish. It appears as small white dots on the body and fins and looks like someone has sprinkled salt on the fish. You can treat it with heat (30C for 2 weeks). But post pictures first so we can ID whatever it is.

The fish that seemed sick has passed sadly. Everyone else is looking okay, but I read that I should treat the whole tank but the only issue with that is having to medicate while doing large water changes. I feel like I am at such a loss and I just want to do everything correctly but it feels like I am just stuck.

 

[fishlover7]

You can use salt to mitigate the effects of nitrite while waiting for the nitrite eaters to grow, but it does involve some calculations. If you want to give it a go you'll find how to use salt in the second part of this link (the first part is about ammonia)

Rescuing A Fish In Cycle Gone Wild - Part Il

Part II SO YOU STILL WANT TO KEEP CYCLING WITH FISH? If you are determined to ignore the above advice in Part I and still think you want to proceed with a fish in cycle, then you need to be aware of the information presented below. SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT AMMONIA Ammonia in water exists...

www.fishforums.net

I had added aquarium salt using the direction of some articles online, I am a little afraid to add more but I have heard the benefits are amazing I just worry about calculating wrong.

 

[fishlover7]

Small water changes don't do anything to dilute water quality problems. If you have an ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or any type of water quality issue, do a big (75-90%) water change.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

If you do a 25% water change, you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change, you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change, you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

--------------------

Post pictures of the fish so we can see what the problem is.
White spot is caused by an external protozoan parasite. It gets introduced into aquariums on fish and via contaminated water, plants or ornaments and infects fish. It appears as small white dots on the body and fins and looks like someone has sprinkled salt on the fish. You can treat it with heat (30C for 2 weeks). But post pictures first so we can ID whatever it is.

I also worry about stressing the first further with all the water changes.

 

[Essjay]

Yes, water changes are stressful but not nearly as stressful as living in water with nitrite in it. Water changes are the lesser of two evils. If you don't want to calculate the amount of salt to use, water changes are the only way to keep the fish from harm. Water changes need to be done whenever nitrite tests for anything other than zero.
Nitrite attaches to the fish's blood cells and prevents the cells from taking up oxygen. Nitrite does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us.





Edit - just to add that once the tank is cycled and both ammonia and nitrite stay at zero, salt should not be added routinely to a fresh water tank despite what you may read on some sites. Ignore this if you already know it

 

[fishlover7]

Yes, water changes are stressful but not nearly as stressful as living in water with nitrite in it. Water changes are the lesser of two evils. If you don't want to calculate the amount of salt to use, water changes are the only way to keep the fish from harm. Water changes need to be done whenever nitrite tests for anything other than zero.
Nitrite attaches to the fish's blood cells and prevents the cells from taking up oxygen. Nitrite does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us

Yes I read that as well. I will do a larger one today. I can also calculate salt. Is doing both okay? I really appreciate your help!

 

[Essjay]

The idea behind using salt is that nitrite can be allowed to be above zero and grow the nitrite eaters faster. Without salt nitrite needs to be kept as low as possible and it takes longer to grow the nitrite eaters. So it's one or the other - add salt as per the directions in TwoTankAmin's method or do water changes.

The chloride half of salt (sodium chloride) blocks nitrite from attaching to the blood cells, but too much salt is not good for fish so we need to keep the amount of salt low enough for the fish but high enough to stop them being harmed by nitrite.

 

[fishlover7]

The idea behind using salt is that nitrite can be allowed to be above zero and grow the nitrite eaters faster. Without salt nitrite needs to be kept as low as possible and it takes longer to grow the nitrite eaters. So it's one or the other - add salt as per the directions in TwoTankAmin's method or do water changes.

The chloride half of salt (sodium chloride) blocks nitrite from attaching to the blood cells, but too much salt is not good for fish so we need to keep the amount of salt low enough for the fish but high enough to stop them being harmed by nitrite.

Is aquarium salt what I should be using? Which one do you find more beneficial? Should I hold off water changes while doing salt, and how often should I add it? Sorry for all the questions, I just want to get all my information correct

 

[Essjay]

Aquarium salt is the same as cooking/table salt, just more expensive as it's sold for aquarium use. However, cooking/table salt usually contains extra ingredients such as anti caking agents or iodide. TwoTankAmin says it's OK to use salt with those additives as the amount when added to a tank is tiny.

Whichever method you prefer. If you don't mind doing large daily - or almost daily - water changes, use that method. Or if you'd prefer not to have to commit to so many water changes and don't mind the necessary calculation, use the salt method. Both work, it's down to personal preference.

 

[fishlover7]

Aquarium salt is the same as cooking/table salt, just more expensive as it's sold for aquarium use. However, cooking/table salt usually contains extra ingredients such as anti caking agents or iodide. TwoTankAmin says it's OK to use salt with those additives as the amount when added to a tank is tiny.

Whichever method you prefer. If you don't mind doing large daily - or almost daily - water changes, use that method. Or if you'd prefer not to have to commit to so many water changes and don't mind the necessary calculation, use the salt method. Both work, it's down to personal preference.

I don't mind doing the water changes since I already have been doing them daily. Was your recommendation 50-75%? I believe that's what I read but I just want to make sure

 

[Essjay]

The water change should be as large as necessary. Yes I know that's not very helpful What I mean is, when you test it depends how high the reading is. The idea is the nitrite level should be at or almost zero after a water change. A 50% water change will lower the level by half. That's OK if the reading is under 1 ppm, but if it's higher than that the water change needs to be larger. For example, if it's 2 ppm, a 75% water change will get it down to 0.5 ppm and so on.

 

[fishlover7]

The water change should be as large as necessary. Yes I know that's not very helpful What I mean is, when you test it depends how high the reading is. The idea is the nitrite level should be at or almost zero after a water change. A 50% water change will lower the level by half. That's OK if the reading is under 1 ppm, but if it's higher than that the water change needs to be larger. For example, if it's 2 ppm, a 75% water change will get it down to 0.5 ppm and so on.

Awesome! I will test again shorty and do a larger change depending on the results. I have been testing once daily, should I increase that number?

 

[Essjay]

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.