Tank Cycling And Filter Cleaning?

[Kiara]

I have a 55g tank, it's currently cycling.

My ammonia is between 0 and .25
Nitrate 40
Nitrite 10.0
alkalinity 120
pH 7.8

So here are my questions...
How do I cycle the tank faster and get my Nitrite and Ammonia down?

And when do I need to clean the filters for the first time?
How do I clean them, I remember someone here saying I don't need to replace them, but I don't know what to do with them? Do I rinse them out in the sink, leave them alone...?

Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

About the only thing you can do to get your nitrites down would be to do a water change, or introduce filter media from an established tank. Otherwise, wait. Are there fish in this tank? If there are start doing daily large water changes to bring the nitrite level down right away, thats way too high for fish.

As for cleaning the filter... Rinse it out in TANK water only, NO tap . Rinsing in tap kills the beneficial bacteria that keeps your cycle going, not good. You really only have to clean the filter when it gets so bogged down that the flowrate starts dropping. What kind of filter do you have?

 

[Kiara]

Unfortunantly, I do have fish in there, but they honestly seem to be doing fine. I'm doing about 20% waterchanges daily. I have 2 angels, 2 plecs, 2 blue paradise gourami's and a rainbow shark in there. I know it's bad, but I didn't know any better at the time. They seem to be doing fine though. I'm hoping it stays that way.

I'm not compeletely sure what type of filter I have, I'll find the manual and post later. But it sits right outside the tank, and it has these little pads on the inside of them (there's two compartments) I know it's a TopFin though.

That's why I was wondering if I could lower it faster? Should I do more waterchanges, or just take out more water? Or just keep doing the same and hope for the best? Thanks again.

P.S. The fish have been there for almost a month, and the lvls have been this high for a week and 2 days.
Is the cycling process almost over

 

[SkiFletch]

yeah, your cycling process is probably almoast over. It took my nitrites 16 days to come down (just did today ).

As for the filter, is it shaped like a square box that hangs on the back, or is it more like a canister with tubes going into and out of the water that attaches to something?

try and up your volume of water changes... Go to 30 or 40%

Is 8ppm max on your nitrite test scale?

 

[Clairel]

Just do 25% water changes every day, and keep and eye on your ammonia, nitrite and nitrAte....

Dont rinse the filter pads/foams under the tap , you must squeeze them out every so often, in your tank water...ei...when you take some water out, rinse your foams in the bucket of water, get rid of any plants and poo etc, and put straight back in....

Good Luck

C x

 

[modernhamlet]

I have a 55g tank, it's currently cycling.

My ammonia is between 0 and .25
Nitrate 40
Nitrite 10.0
alkalinity 120
pH 7.8

So here are my questions...
How do I cycle the tank faster and get my Nitrite and Ammonia down?

And when do I need to clean the filters for the first time?
How do I clean them, I remember someone here saying I don't need to replace them, but I don't know what to do with them? Do I rinse them out in the sink, leave them alone...?

Thanks

I suspect your nitrite test kit is defective or you are testing incorrectly. Nitrite levels of 10 are fatal for just about any fish I can think of...

 

[Kiara]

They are the little test strips, so maybe I'm reading the colors wrong, but the color on the strip is dark pink, which is 10.0 on my compare chart maybe I'm reading it after too long? Not sure.

 

[Twobeards]

They are the little test strips, so maybe I'm reading the colors wrong, but the color on the strip is dark pink, which is 10.0 on my compare chart maybe I'm reading it after too long? Not sure.

Those test strips are in my opinion worthless I started out useing them and was losing fish but my test strips said my water parameters were great so I took a sample to my little fish shop and man was my water bad!! Super high nitrates above 160 but the test strips said I was at 40 so I purchased a master test kit that comes with vials and bottles of chemicals for testing now Im finally getting to where my water is much better but its taken me 9 days of 30% water changes to get back to normal. You would think a company like Jungle would not even offer the strips but I guess money is what they are after but Id be afraid of loseing my reputation on something so poor for fish keeping! I hope this helps and good luck!!!