Hello, thanks for all your help so far, can I get something from a pet shop to get the nitrites down? If I'm in a fish cycle how often do I do a water change now, the last one was sunday, from the looks of things I haven't cycled my tank and I'm still unsure what it means, Ive used facebook to add pictures If I've done it right!
Tank cycling is a long process that involves slowly growing bacteria to live in your filter. These bacteria process the natural waste produced by the fish and eventually (when you have enough bacteria of the correct species) will convert all the toxic waste into a relatively harmless substance.
There are two ways to do this - a fishless cycle and a fish-in cycle.
A fishless cycle involves the owner mannually adding waste to a fishless tank and building the bacteria
before the fish are added, so that they will always have clean water. There is a very good link
here.
A fish-in cycle uses the waste the fish produce to grow the bacteria.
Here is a link.
Now, with a cycle the owner doesn't have to do much. The bacteria will naturally grow and it isn't something horrible and technical to be scared og. However, what you do need to be aware of is that in an un-cycled, cycling or unhealthy tank, there are not enough bacteria and so the fish get subjected to the toxic chemicals in their waste. It is the responsibility of the owner to test the water using a
good quality test kit and ensure that there are no detectable levels of the waste products in the tank by doing
large water changes. The bacteria will eventually take care of the tank but until then, you are responsible for keeping the fish in a poison free environment.
When I have cycled a tank with fish, I tested the water
twice a day to make sure no waste had built up and did
75% water changes every time the waste was high enough to show on the test.
The waste chemicals you need to test for are
ammonia and
nitrite.
Nitrate is the harmless end product. At low levels it is safe for fish and we just keep it in check with weekly or fortnightly water changes in the typical fish tank. Some tanks require more water changes and some can be maintained with less. For a beginner, I would recommend 25% a week
once your tank is cycled. It is also good to have a test for pH and hardness, as these affect which fish you can keep and may affect how the bacteria grow. They will also indicate a real problem in the tank as they should be stable and if you notice the pH or hardness changing, that means there is a problem in the tank.
Now, you already have test kits. However, I did not see you post a result for ammonia and you posted a lot of other results which makes me think you have a strip test kit, with the results all on one stick? These are very inaccurate and also often give very poor advice as to which results are bad and what you should do about them. We always recommend getting a liquid master test kit,
especially with a delicate species like cardinal tetras. It is very important to get accurate results from the tank as even very low levels of ammonia and nitrite do permanent damage to the fish.
What I advise is this:
Go out and get a liquid master test kit. I use the API one but Sera, Nutrafin and Salifert sell good test kits. Salifert are supposed to be really excellent but only sell the tests as indivduals, not a master kit. Make sure you have at least got liquid tests for ammonia and nitrite, even if you keep the strips for pH, nitrate and hardness.
Until you get a test kit, start doing 75% water changes every day. Once you have your kit, test the water 12 hours after your last water change and post the results here. If you see nitrite or ammonia at anything above 0 (even 0.25) do a large water change.
When you change the water, make sure you add a 2x dose of water conditioner. Use a good quality water conditioner like Seachem Prime or Stress Coat +. These water conditioners are much more effective at removing all the nasties from the water and Stress Coat even adds Aloe Vera to the water and helps replace the slime coat on the fish, which is a natural barrier to disease and gets depleated when the fish are stressed. Cheaper water conditioners often only remove chlorine and you need one that removes chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals.
Make sure you turn the filter and heater off and leave to cool for 15 minutes.
To remove the water, use a syphon or gravel cleaner. This allows you to carefully remove the water in a controlled way while also cleaning the gravel. This is essential as lots of fish poo and uneaten food fester in the gravel and make the water more toxic. Be careful of the fish
Have some new water prepared. You can use a mix of hot and cold water to get it to a similar temperature to the tank. Add the water conditioner, mix it in and then use a clean jug with no detergent residues to gently add the water back into the tank. It's best to have a bucket and jug specifically for the fish!
Using this method will put minimal stress on the fish and help keep their environment toxin free.
Here is a link to our
Resource Centre. This covers all the foundation material that is essential for fishkeeping.
I did fish in cycling and it worked for me... I did kick off with some hardy fish 'tho. I did 50% water changes every day for a couple of weeks and tested twice a day. After that I changed water every time I saw a 'spike' - maybe I got lucky?
