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My water stats are still rubbish

If the fish are behaving normally, I wouldn't worry about water changes. If they look distressed, gasping at the surface, or behaving in other abnormal ways, I would do a water change, add a little ammo-lock, & drop the water level a little or add an air stone to increase aeration.

Learn to judge if there is a problem or not by your fish's behavior. If they are behaving suspiciously, then do water tests. Constantly testing the water will make you crazy. I have tanks that I haven't tested the water in over a year. The behavior of the fish give me no reason to waste my time doing water tests.

Tolak
 
It's really strange that your tank isn't cycling, especially if you have seeded with a filter from an established tank. Once the tank is cycled, your ammonia and nitrite should always be 0. Nitrates will vary depending on the load in the tank put should be kept below 60 with regular water changes. If you do water changes weekly, your nitrates should never get close to that number unless you have a very heavy fish load.
 
Oooooooh thanx...yes i am begining to feel a little crazy lol, i feel like a chemisty teacher every day, getting out my test tubes lol

I will leave it a couple of days, and see what happens...

I dont want my fish to suffer though, so i will keep a close eye on them...

Surely ammonia and Nitrite should be 0, and mine are both 0.5, so this is why i tend to worry a little, the ph and nitrate i am not worrying about...but its just the others ;)

Thanx for your compliement on my pic :D

Claire x
 
If the Cycle or dechlorinator you are using mentions "detoxifying" ammonia then you would still get a reading for ammonia even though what is in the tank is non-toxic and harmless (most likely ammonium). That still wouldn't explain the nitrite reading though. At least you know the tank is trying to cycle since you do have nitrite present. If ammonia wasn't being processed you wouldn't have nitrite.
 
Yes i agree with the last person who said about judging the fish by their behaviour. If they are eating and seem happy, don't worry about doing anything, if things start changing again then take a reading and ascertain whether the ammonia is still high. If it is, water changes and using Ammo-Lock are the only things that will help.

It does sound like a lot of fish in a tank that is having problems, so really go steady on the food. Considering fish can live at least two weeks, maybe three, without food, there really isn't a proplem with cutting right down at the moment. Ammonia is caused by rotting matter of one sort or another, be it uneaten food, poo, dead fish etc, it needs to be removed from the tank and i would continue vacuuming the gravel at least twice a week, maybe more if the fish start looking ill.

GOOD LUCK!
 
Just one more thought: I'm surprised that the word "overstocked" hasn't been mentioned yet :). I don't know the whole story of your tank, but if you are consistently getting low levels of ammonia and nitrites, it's likely that your bioload is outstripping your filtration. I'd wager that nitrates are on the low side because of your daily water changes. A pH downward drift (pH lower than your tapwater pH) suggests that the metabolic processes in your tank are producing excess acids. This generally doesn't happen unless you have an old tank or you're overstocked.

Anyways, I hate to suggest this, but I suspect your solution is to have less fish in a 90L tank... You have "only" 20 fish, but some fish that would produce more waste than an average tetra (clown loaches, angels, mollies-- even small ones). I might rehome some of the fish until things are more under control from a water parameter standpoint. HTH~
 
sinistral said:
Just one more thought: I'm surprised that the word "overstocked" hasn't been mentioned yet :). I don't know the whole story of your tank, but if you are consistently getting low levels of ammonia and nitrites, it's likely that your bioload is outstripping your filtration. I'd wager that nitrates are on the low side because of your daily water changes. A pH downward drift (pH lower than your tapwater pH) suggests that the metabolic processes in your tank are producing excess acids. This generally doesn't happen unless you have an old tank or you're overstocked.

Anyways, I hate to suggest this, but I suspect your solution is to have less fish in a 90L tank... You have "only" 20 fish, but some fish that would produce more waste than an average tetra (clown loaches, angels, mollies-- even small ones). I might rehome some of the fish until things are more under control from a water parameter standpoint. HTH~
[snapback]911301[/snapback]​
Click to expand...
It's actually been mentioned many many times in all her previous posts.....
But yes, I 100% agree with you on your observations.

A "normal" tank takes around 3-4 weeks to cycle. An overstocked tank can take twice as long....

Adding chemicals other than dechlorinator will lengthen the process even more :/
 
bloozoo2 said:
sinistral said:
Just one more thought:  I'm surprised that the word "overstocked" hasn't been mentioned yet :).  I don't know the whole story of your tank, but <snip>
Click to expand...
It's actually been mentioned many many times in all her previous posts.....
But yes, I 100% agree with you on your observations.
Click to expand...

I knew this story looked familiar :).

Sounds like there may be some collective weariness about reminding the OP about overstocking...

clairel said:
The only thing i worry about is, if i dont check for a few days, and something bad happens, isnt prevention better than the cure?
Click to expand...

Absolutely! Which is why reducing the overstocking in your tank will prevent your water chemistry from going out of whack. It's also a much more straightforward solution than having to monitor your situation every day.
 
Well hopefully, i will be getting a new Juwel 180 Tank set up soon, i have to buy it first, i now someone that is selling one, its a year old, with filter and heater, do i still need to do a cycle for 2 weeks before adding fish?

C x
 
Nice tank if you can get it ! If the filter is still running a stocked tank by the time you get it (not just running an empty tank without fish) and you can get the tank up and running in a few hours of getting the tank, you will probably only experience a mini cycle for a couple of days.
It just depends how quickly you can set it up.

It's frustrating when things don't seem to get right, but with time it will :)
 
I think it's just a hell of a lot of fish in a small tank for cycling? I remember having to do 20-40% every 2-3days when I set mine up (fish cycling), still having problems, and I only had some danios and mollies in it and it's twice that size...I also had a mini cycle every time I added more fish until I'd got about half my current stock in there. In the end I lost the danios and the first batch of neons learning the important 'stock slow' lesson...

I think you'll just have to be patient and hope for the best, if the fish seem ok then as someone else mentioned try cutting back on changes and seeing how you go :dunno:

aj xx
 
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