Ok, I've Been Cycling With Fish For 3 Weeks

[jamespond]

i've been cycling with 2 Danios in my 35 litre tank for roughly 3 weeks now. Fish seem ok and happy and i've been checking the water daily with a 10% water change every other day.

yesterday (before my 10% water change) my results were:

Ammonia 0.25 (i think..it was very light green in the tube!)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0


Where am i in the whole cycle thing now?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's hard to tell from one set of results, need a progression cos that could either be right at the start of cycling, or the end of the ammonia spike.

sure you don't have the exact readings but if you can give us a rough idea what the levels have been like over the last few weeks we can then help out.

 

[jamespond]

it's hard to tell from one set of results, need a progression cos that could either be right at the start of cycling, or the end of the ammonia spike.

sure you don't have the exact readings but if you can give us a rough idea what the levels have been like over the last few weeks we can then help out.

i''ve had small ammonia readings for the last week and a half and thats it. its never gone above .25. But i've NEVER got any nitrite or nitrate readings...

 

[Irf]

Personally I would have expected at least some nitrite and nitrate readings by now if your cycle was complete.

If I remember correctly, there should be a nitrite spike followed by an increase in nitrate. It's possible that if this has not happened then you are at the beginning of your cycle - perhaps someone else could advise?

Are you sure there is absolutely zero nitrate in the water? Most people's tap water has some..... or are you not using tap water?

Irf.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i think there's so little bio-load from just 2 danio's it's gonna take quite a while to build up a decent level of bacteria. when you do a cycle with fish you actually need to do it with a reasonable number of fish to get enough ammonia produced to kick start things properly.

 

[jamespond]

i think there's so little bio-load from just 2 danio's it's gonna take quite a while to build up a decent level of bacteria. when you do a cycle with fish you actually need to do it with a reasonable number of fish to get enough ammonia produced to kick start things properly.

what do you think i should add?


i'm using tap water Irf...but i've not had any real reading.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i think there's so little bio-load from just 2 danio's it's gonna take quite a while to build up a decent level of bacteria. when you do a cycle with fish you actually need to do it with a reasonable number of fish to get enough ammonia produced to kick start things properly.

what do you think i should add?

well that's gonna depend on what fish you want in there, if you give me your proposed stocking list i'll work from that and tell you what i think you should add now.

 

[Irf]

Miss Wiggle is right - you do actually need a reasonable number of fish in there to start with, but they need to be reasonably tough to withstand the cycling process.

Have you tested your tap water to see what base readings you get?

Irf.

 

[jamespond]

i haven't actually done a base reading...i'll do one tonight and see what i get.


I also haven't got a stocking list!

i know i don't want too many fish. Roughly i want

a few Neons (3-4)
a betta (1 obviously)
Rummy nose Tetras (2-3)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Miss Wiggle is right - you do actually need a reasonable number of fish in there to start with, but they need to be reasonably tough to withstand the cycling process.

Have you tested your tap water to see what base readings you get?

Irf.

absolutely

if your danio's don't feature in your eventual stocking then what are you planning on doing with them once your tank is cycled?

your gonna have to give the stocking a bit more thought than that really.

both sorts of tetra's need to be kept in a group of 6+..... get 3 of each and they'll all be un happy

your tanks roughly 10g, so you can have about 10" of fish.

so one group of 6 small fish and one slightly larger fish (such as a betta) should be fine. i'm going to assume you know about the various issues surrounding betta's in community tanks, if you don't then let me know and i'll post some links. don't want to preach if you've made an informed choice already!

 

[jamespond]

Miss Wiggle is right - you do actually need a reasonable number of fish in there to start with, but they need to be reasonably tough to withstand the cycling process.

Have you tested your tap water to see what base readings you get?

Irf.

absolutely

if your danio's don't feature in your eventual stocking then what are you planning on doing with them once your tank is cycled?

your gonna have to give the stocking a bit more thought than that really.

both sorts of tetra's need to be kept in a group of 6+..... get 3 of each and they'll all be un happy

your tanks roughly 10g, so you can have about 10" of fish.

so one group of 6 small fish and one slightly larger fish (such as a betta) should be fine. i'm going to assume you know about the various issues surrounding betta's in community tanks, if you don't then let me know and i'll post some links. don't want to preach if you've made an informed choice already!

i've had fish before (several years ago in a 200 litre) and kept Betta's (1 male, 1 female). They were fine with everything else in the tank and i had a wide range of tetra's Angel fish and many others. Obviously this tank is small, so that's why i'm not going to go with a male and female. I want to keep my Danios...i wouldn't have bought them just to cycle, otherwise (as you rightly pointed out) what would i do with them after?

how about 6 Rummy nose Tetras, my 2 Danios and 1 betta? I know it would be a little over stocked, but I do really want a Betta as the centre peice of the tank

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok i wasn't sure if you'd bought the danio's just to cycle or intended on keeping them.

although to be quite honest they're not suitable for a 10g tank, they're very active and like a lot of swimming room, need at least a 20g IMO. Also they need to be kept in groups of 5/6.

If it was my tank I would take the danio's back to the fish shop, do a fishless cycle then stock with your rummy noses and betta. (actually i'd get the betta his own tank.... but if you've considered your options that's up to you!)

if you really wanna keep the danio's then i'd up the group to 6 of them, then don't get any other middle/top swimming fish (as this is gonna detract from the room they have) and maybe get 4 cories ..... although i'd still have it in the back of my mind that i may need to upgrade the tank if the danio's show signs of distress from being in a small tank.

 

[jamespond]

The Danio's seem quite happy to be honest. they do their little dashes around the top (sometime chasing each other), but most of the time they are in my rocks, or in the plants or hiding in my pirate ship!

The reason i got a small tank, is simply i don't want the hasstle that comes with the large ones. They take a lot of work (if you want to do it properly) and i simply don't have the time or will power to look after a huge stock. Seeing my tank is up and running, albeit with a low bio load, would adding the Betta now make the filter move up a level?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

The Danio's seem quite happy to be honest. they do their little dashes around the top (sometime chasing each other), but most of the time they are in my rocks, or in the plants or hiding in my pirate ship!

The reason i got a small tank, is simply i don't want the hasstle that comes with the large ones. They take a lot of work (if you want to do it properly) and i simply don't have the time or will power to look after a huge stock. Seeing my tank is up and running, albeit with a low bio load, would adding the Betta now make the filter move up a level?

the danio's shouldn't be hiding, that's them saying they're not happy this will be a combination of them having not enough friends and the ammonia level in the water.

actually thats a bit of a myth to be completely honest, a smaller body of water is much more sensitive that a large one. the smaller your tank the smaller the margin for error. in a big tank if you miss a water change you'll probably be ok, little tank's are unforgiving and you must be extra diligent when it comes to maintenance.

no, your tank isn't cycling at all cos there's not enough ammonia being produced. adding another slightly larger fish will mean it will probably start to cycle straight away, this is a bad idea with a betta, they aren't terribly hardy and they're long fins are terribly prone to fin rot which can come on in a cycling tank.

the best thing you can do is to add 2 more danio's, a group of 4 would be happier than 2 and they're one of the hardiest fish you can get so least likely to be damaged by the cycle.

however i would still stick with my original suggestion of re-homing the danio's and fishless cycling the tank

 

[jamespond]

They only really hide at night, much of the time during the day they're swimming around at the top or picking at my balls of moss.

ok, I'll add 2 more Danios over the weekend to up the cycle...would they not get on with 2 other smaller type of fish?