friend needs help

[black angel]

ok, this may be long but please bear with me.

my friend has recently bought a 30 gallon juwel tank for her two goldfish.
she is now having problems with the cycle. the tank has been running since the 28th of march and she transferred the fish over on the 29th. she has been running old gravel through the filter.
the ammonia is now nearly negligible at .25 the nitrite is now at 0.7. the ph is 8.4,
her biggest problem is nitrate. the tap is at 10mg/l and her other tank is at 10 but her new tank is at 110.
she is doing 50% water changes each day and though it does dip it doesnt go below 50 and then climbs back up again. she is using a hagen liquid test kit for nitrate which is new.
there is no gravel in the tank apart from what is in the filter, a few river stones and some live plants in tealight holders which are brand new.

there is a nitrate sponge remover in the filter which obviously is brand new.

please can anyone offer any help as to why the nitrates are so high?? is it just a case of waiting to see what they read when her ammonia and nitrite get to 0?
she's worried that the toxicity of the high levels may hurt her fish in the long run.

thanks

 

[Tolak]

Goldfish are very messy, produce a lot of ammonia, which will eventually end up as nitrates. The nitrates may drop some once the tank is cycled, but you will always be doing a lot of water changes to keep them low due to the goldfish being such large waste producers.

Tolak

 

[black angel]

thanks tolak, she knows this as they were in a 12 gallon before and the nitrates were 10 then. she has two other goldies in a 20 gallon which are having no problems with the nitrates.
so, do you think it may be because of the cycling that the nitrate levels are way high?
thanks

 

[Tolak]

If the goldfish, which I hope are rather small, were in a 12 gallon with no water problems, it is probably the cycling. Keep up on water changes.


Tolak

 

[GSD]

i cycled with goldies and mollies
i was new
the goldies lived and went to a friends pond
the mollies died RIP