Fish in cycling

[fishlover7]

Hi everyone! So I have been doing a fish-in cycle in both my tanks. I know its not the best, but I was mislead by various stores and it went down hill. Moral of the story I did my research and began the very long process. I have been doing 10-75% changes on my tanks daily depending on the readings I get with my test kit. I have been using the API master kit. For a while I was having a lot of trouble, my nitrites in a tank weren't moving from 2ppm. I finally got them to drop, and both tanks last night reached 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and one had 5 ppm of nitrates and the other a little under 5 but not quite zero. Today I had a spike in both tanks, both had a little under 0.25ppm ammonia and one had 0.25 nitrites while the other had 0.50 nitrites. I did a 40% on the one with 0.50 nitrites and a 20% on the one with 0.25 nitrites. In my larger tank with the 0.50 nitrites I had a piece on zuccini in for 48 hours for my otos. I read that was okay but I am wondering if it cause the spike. In my research I was told that when you get nitrate readings you are done with cycling so I am feeling a little discouraged. Any advice would help, thank you.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I wrote 3 articles on cycling for this forum. The 1st articles is for doing a fishless cycle in a tank with no live plants. The second two articles deal with fish in cycles gone wild.

I will never help folks to start a cycle with fish, I do help with fixing it when it goes wrong because then I am working to help the fish and to prevent the fish keeper from making things worse or not fixing them in time. Here are the two links. For you, the second one is what you most need to read.

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/

 

[Colin_T]

don't leave uneaten food in the water for more than 30 minutes.

 

[fishlover7]

I wrote 3 articles on cycling for this forum. The 1st articles is for doing a fishless cycle in a tank with no live plants. The second two articles deal with fish in cycles gone wild.

I will never help folks to start a cycle with fish, I do help with fixing it when it goes wrong because then I am working to help the fish and to prevent the fish keeper from making things worse or not fixing them in time. Here are the two links. For you, the second one is what you most need to read.

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/

I will read that article. Thank you very much.

 

[fishlover7]

don't leave uneaten food in the water for more than 30 minutes.

Awesome I will adjust that. I just get worried about the otos not having enough time to eat or to realize the food is there. Thank you for that informantion.