Newbie And I Am Struggling :-( Fish Are Dying

[arobinson1984]

Its now just a case of keeping your ammonia levels down by doing water changes.

The next stage of the cycle is the nitrITE spike, the nitrITE levels in your tank will start to increase and this too is poisonous to your fish so you just do exactly the same, water changes to keep the levels of both the ammonia and nitrITE down below 0.25ppm, ideally at 0. This spike may be due to start soon as you already had a small nitrITE reading of 0.25ppm in your original results.

The last stage of the cycle is when the nitrATES start to rise and the ammonia and nitrITE should both drop to 0.

NitrATES are relatively safe to fish compared to the ammonia and nitrITE and you just keep the nitrATE levels down by doing a weekly water change. Ideally its best to keep the nitrATEs below 40ppm but that depends on the reading coming from your tap water because depending on the area you live in, your tap water may already contain 40ppm of nitrATE already.

Sorry for the capitals, just pointing out the difference between nitrITE and nitrATE, ### the person who named the bacteria in the first place, they could have given one a different name to save any confusion

Andy

 

[Shantih]

Hooray Ammonia is now at 0.25 and Nitrite is at 0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I shall check them again in the morning and see how i am shaping up,

Many thanks for all your help i cant thank you enough and i shall post my results in the morning

 

[Shantih]

My ammonia is now at 0.50 and my nitrate is now at 0.25 - Should i do another 50% water change now then?

 

[mark1979]

My ammonia is now at 0.50 and my nitrate is now at 0.25 - Should i do another 50% water change now then?

hey,what is your nitRITE reading?

as your ammonia is 0.50 another water change is needed!!

50% should do it.

i still reckon to re-homing the plecs

 

[arobinson1984]

Yes as mark says do another water change, roughly 50/60%

The second reading you put, was that nitrATE or nitrITE, I'm guessing you spelt it wrong and you mean nitrITE because the nitrATE test doesnt give a reading of 0.25ppm, it goes up in 10's.

I also still think you should re-home the plecs unfortuanately. Even if you manage to get the cycle finished with them in there, if you filter is the standard filter supplied with the tank, I think it may struggle with the amount of waste created by 2 plecs, especially as they start to grow and create even more waste.

Glad to see things are starting to look good for you. What you need to do is just keep up the water changes to keep both the levels of ammonia & nitrITE down below 0.25ppm. Eventually these should both drop to zero and stay at zero, this may take 2-4 weeks to get to this stage but its worth it in the end.

I'm not sure if you have read any articles on fishless cycling?? Its basically doing a cycle the same as you are but without any fish, using household ammonia to simulate the fish waste that the cycle needs to perform. It might be a good idea to remember this for the future if you ever decide to set up any more tank, its a lot less work.

Andy

 

[Shantih]

Oops sorry yes i meant nitrite not nitrate

My query with the plecs is that i want to upgrade to a larger tank so would they be ok to wait for a while till i got another tank? Obviously in a larger tank they would be happier and the alcove i am looking at is just over 5 foot so would a tank of this size suffice for 2 plecs?

I shall keep doing 50% water changes then until i get my levels down to 0, once they are then my nitrate should start increasing then? and the nitrate is the one that the fish can cope with i believe, then its just standard cleaning them out general maintenance from there on?

How long would you suggest waiting for till i get some more fish, i want 6 guppys will this be ok in this tank? Should i add them all at once or should i get 2 or 3 at a time?

Thats waaayyyy too many questions i know lol but i have really got into this now haha i cant believe how addictice they are xxx

 

[mark1979]

Oops sorry yes i meant nitrite not nitrate

My query with the plecs is that i want to upgrade to a larger tank so would they be ok to wait for a while till i got another tank? Obviously in a larger tank they would be happier and the alcove i am looking at is just over 5 foot so would a tank of this size suffice for 2 plecs?

I shall keep doing 50% water changes then until i get my levels down to 0, once they are then my nitrate should start increasing then? and the nitrate is the one that the fish can cope with i believe, then its just standard cleaning them out general maintenance from there on?

How long would you suggest waiting for till i get some more fish, i want 6 guppys will this be ok in this tank? Should i add them all at once or should i get 2 or 3 at a time?

Thats waaayyyy too many questions i know lol but i have really got into this now haha i cant believe how addictice they are xxx

you DONT want to add any fish for a while yet. you realy need your ammonia and nitrite to stay at 0 for a week on there own before you even think of adding more fish

when you are at a stage to add some,do so a couple at a time,not all at once.

i would still lose the plecs from the small tank you have.

why dont you get the bigger tank now and fishless cycle it so you can transfer all the fish over to it, when its cycled?

just to recap,what size tank and what fish do you have in there?

 

[Shantih]

Lol dont worry i will be doing a fishless cycle in my new tank when i get it

I have 3 mollies 2 tetras and 2 plecs

The next fish i want is guppies........

and its a 48litre tank

I will be getting a bigger tank and getting the new tank ready to transfer everything b4 moving anything next time though!!!!

 

[mark1979]

whats your stats now?

 

[arobinson1984]

Keep doing your water changes to keep the levels down below 0.25ppm.

Its not just a case of when you get them down that the nitrate will start to increase, it may take a week or 2 for the bacteria to colonize so you will have to keep doing water changes until this happens.

Just a quick basic guide for you.

1. You fish produce ammonia through their gills and by the means of waste, you need to do water changes to keep this below 0.25ppm which you are now doing.
2. A bacteria is produced and grows on your filter pads that break down the ammonia into nitrites, this is roughly the stage where you are at now, it normally happens after 1-3 weeks after fish are added.
3. After another 2-3 weeks another form of bacteria grows on your filter pads that then breaks down the nitrites into nitrates which are much less harmful and at this stage both the ammonia and nitrite should both be zero. A properly cycled tank should never have any ammonia or nitrite present.

The only exception to the no ammonia statement is when you add more fish. Once you filter is cycled it has enough good bacteria to deal with the amount of waste being produced by the current fish in the tank, therefore if you add more fish then there is more waste being produced so you may get a small ammonia spike. After adding fish you should test your water for ammonia levels and if they are high then do water change as you are doing now to keep it below 0.25ppm. When new fish are added it would normally take the filter around a week to adjust to the new levels of fish waste being produced. This is why it is advised that you only add small amounts of fish at a time to give the filter chance to adjust.

What I've wrote above is only a very basic idea, I could have gone into alot more detail regarding the bacteria names etc etc but I didnt want to confuse you

Hope this helps a little.

Andy

 

[Shantih]

Hiya all,

sorry for not replying sooner things have been a little hectic round here, good news though all fish are still with me and look / act a lot happier, i am keeping on top of it as best i can but i shall have more time tuesday to do all the tests etc again, thankyou all for your help without you they would of certainly died xxxx