My 'fish In' Cycle Log

[jay2k6ie]

Hi guys and might I say what a great forum you have here!

Im doing a 64G planted freshwater tank.. Ive had the tank running for two weeks and I added 6 pearl danios three days ago for the cycle (they are loving their new home)

Ive been checking the water daily and doing daily water changes, my current parameters are as follows:

TAP WATER:

Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0-0.25ppm (would be more towards the 0 end)
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm

Ph: 7.5
Ammonia: 0 - 0.25ppm
Nitrite: 0 - 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm

(I did a 30% water change after I got these results..)

Is it possible im having my Nitrate spike already? What do you guys recommend im really not sure what to do next?

Cheers!

 

[Colin_T]

Don’t bother testing for nitrates until the cycle has finished. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and you get a false reading. Just test for ammonia and nitrite.
Just keep the feeding down and do regular water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels low.

 

[OldMan47]

You are doing a fish-in cycle. For that type of cycle, you maintain ammonia and nitrites less than 0.25 ppm by doing water changes. Your biological load is fairly light for a tank that size so you may not need to do daily water changes to keep up. For detailed information on a fish-in cycle, see the link in my signature.

 

[jay2k6ie]

Is my tap water ok?

 

[OldMan47]

Your tap water looks fine. Be sure to treat it for chlorine and roughly match temperature before adding it to your tank.

 

[jumblepod]

Best thing you can do is do water changes to keep that nitrite down and keep a look out for any stress signs the fish many be showing. Make sure you test the water everyday base the size of the water change on the results. Remember you want small traces of nitrites to make the bacteria grow. Also because you arnt doing a fishless cycle make sure you add fish slowly

 

[rhostog]

Many people have traces of ammonia in their tapwater - once your filter is mature, it will process it very quickly and it shouldn't be a problem. It's good that you know it's there, as you'll be able to understand what's going on when you get trace ammonia readings in future. As your tank is planted, the nitrate readings may not tell you much anyway, so you're best ignoring them for the moment.

I'd agree, keep doing water changes whenever your nitrite or ammonia readings get above 0.25mg/L - your fish will continuously produce ammonia so don't worry that you're starving the bacteria, and your fish will be happier and healthier if you keep their exposure to a minimum, even if this means the cycle takes a few days longer to complete. Don't be tempted to add any more fish until you're absolutely certain your ammonia and nitrite readings remain stable at zero for a couple of weeks, and then just a few at a time - a lot of people seem to make the mistake of adding too many fish too soon.

Good luck!

 

[jay2k6ie]

Todays Results:

PH: 7.5
Nitrite: 1.0ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm
Didnt take a nitrate reading...

I have a 60g tank should I do nother 30% water change?

 

[ChrisXL]

Can never do too many water changes.

 

[OldMan47]

At 1 ppm you should really do 2 50% water changes to get the nitrites back down. First one would get it to 0.5 ppm and the second would move that to 0.25 ppm. Be sure to leave an hour between if you can just to let the water in the tank mix before doing the second change.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, totally agree with OM47's last post. You are now seeing that the goal of getting ammonia and nitrite readings as close to zero ppm as possible is tricky to figure out. But, nevertheless, the goal remains: You must figure out a pattern of water change frequency and percentages that keeps both close to zero and only ever -maxes- at 0.25ppm, ideally.

One of the mistakes, I think, that any fish-in cycler commonly makes is thinking that the smaller percentages (like 20%, 30%) pertain to them necessarily and are somehow very important. The exposure of fish to ammonia and/or nitrite above 0.25ppm is much worse than the milder worries that small percentage water changes are trying to solve. Smaller percentage change recommendations mostly are part of tank maintainence -after- you have an operational biofilter and can worry about the subtleties of lower trace elements and hardness balance and things like that. Now for some people there may be concerns about the incoming tap water that require smaller percentage water changes, but in your case the tap water has good enough parameters that you shouldn't have that concern, so don't be hesitant to do the 50%-twice type changes that OM47 describes.

Doing a Fish-In cycle in a large tank can be hard work because a lot of water needs to get moved over a pretty long time. On the other hand, you have such a small stocking in the large tank that once you figure out the pattern and settle into it, it won't be nearly as bad as if you had a lot of fish in there. It usually takes about a month and by the time the filter is truly doing the work for you, you'll know it. Two full days with no water changes and pure zero readings morning and night will be a good sign that you are there and can just verify it for the rest of a week.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jay2k6ie]

Yes, totally agree with OM47's last post. You are now seeing that the goal of getting ammonia and nitrite readings as close to zero ppm as possible is tricky to figure out. But, nevertheless, the goal remains: You must figure out a pattern of water change frequency and percentages that keeps both close to zero and only ever -maxes- at 0.25ppm, ideally.

One of the mistakes, I think, that any fish-in cycler commonly makes is thinking that the smaller percentages (like 20%, 30%) pertain to them necessarily and are somehow very important. The exposure of fish to ammonia and/or nitrite above 0.25ppm is much worse than the milder worries that small percentage water changes are trying to solve. Smaller percentage change recommendations mostly are part of tank maintainence -after- you have an operational biofilter and can worry about the subtleties of lower trace elements and hardness balance and things like that. Now for some people there may be concerns about the incoming tap water that require smaller percentage water changes, but in your case the tap water has good enough parameters that you shouldn't have that concern, so don't be hesitant to do the 50%-twice type changes that OM47 describes.

Doing a Fish-In cycle in a large tank can be hard work because a lot of water needs to get moved over a pretty long time. On the other hand, you have such a small stocking in the large tank that once you figure out the pattern and settle into it, it won't be nearly as bad as if you had a lot of fish in there. It usually takes about a month and by the time the filter is truly doing the work for you, you'll know it. Two full days with no water changes and pure zero readings morning and night will be a good sign that you are there and can just verify it for the rest of a week.

~~waterdrop~~

Great advice thanks waterdrop.. I was worried doing such large changes too frequesntly would make the bacteria breeding process quite difficult. I may have an oportunity to get some mature 'floss' from an experienced fresh water fish keeper so hopefully that will speed up the process and cause the fish as little stress as possible...

 

[waterdrop]

No, you need not have worried in your mind about the bacteria. The bacteria will keep doubling and increasing their colonies regardless of any readings you might see when your liquid test shows you a "snapshot" of the water readings. There is a steady small flow going on from the fish to the A-Bacs and then from the A-Bacs to the N-Bacs and then from the N-Bacs to the nitrate(NO3) level and then passing on to the plants if they are there. This can all be happening in surprising levels, despite even zero readings, which of course is what's going on once the filter is cycled and lots of stuff is being processed very rapidly.

While its true that we recommend avoiding water changes to *fishless* cyclers, especially in the early stages, that advice can just confuse *fish-in* cyclers because on a practical level their goals are forced to be quite different. In a sense, one of the few positive things for the *fish-in* cycler is that the fish provide a (hopefully) small but very steady stream of ammonia to the tank and this actually tends to feed the A-Bacs in a more consistent manner, aiding in their smooth development.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jay2k6ie]

Todays Results after 50% water change:

Ammonia 0 -0.15ppm
Nitrite 0 - 0.25ppm
Ph 7.6
Didnt test nitrate...

 

[OldMan47]

It looks like the 50% was just barely enough to return you to a safe level. You look to be in for some 50% daily changes for a while going forward.