Think My Smaller Tank Is Cycled

[flipnshi]

Tested my 29 gallon tank today and read out is A-0, ite-0, ate 10. Since I have started with too many fish, making newbie mistakes many have died for this. My 55 gallon has spiked and now reads, a-2, ite- 5, ate-10. My father had bought neons cause he had them when he was younger thing. Many of them have passed as well. My 29 houses my 4 tiger barbs currently. Thinking bout moving 2 chinese algae eaters and the pleco over from the 55 to ease the ammonia output in the bigger tank. Currently going to water change both and change the filter cartidges. My 55 gallon has some mollies, swordtails, rainbow sharks and zebra danios. The danios are still all accounted for in full. Very hardy fish. When everything is said and done I will probably be investing in a nice lil school of them, months from now when fully, fully cycled. Using API liquid tests also sorry so long.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

With ammonia reading of 2ppm and nitrite of 5ppm in your 55 gallon, your fish would either be dead or showing many signs indicating that all is not well. Those readings don't seem realistic. Your ammonia and nitrite levels should never exceed 0.25 with fish in.

 

[CezzaXV]

DON'T CHANGE YOUR FILTER CARTRIDGES! That's where your bacteria live, why would you throw them away?

With ammonia reading of 2ppm and nitrite of 5ppm in your 55 gallon, your fish would either be dead or showing many signs indicating that all is not well. Those readings don't seem realistic. Your ammonia and nitrite levels should never exceed 0.25 with fish in.

Should never is not the same as can never. Ammonia levels can build up quite quickly in an uncycled tank, but the fishkeeper's job is to prevent the ammonia from going above 0.25ppm.


I get the impression from this post that you don't really know what you're doing, you've just heard that you need to cycle a tank but don't really know how. I'd recommend doing some reading

 

[flipnshi]

Have a bio wheel for bacteria. carbon filters for water quality and yes I really am new at this. Hence the reason Ive joined a fish forum, to read up on how to properly care for fish and their environments. Problem was I jumped into it too quickly and did "beginners" mistakes. Choices; either scrap the fish or live it my decisions and try and make what little life they have left tolerable. So I begin the daily tests, feeding every other day, water changes and added air stones and bubble strips to increase the oxygen levels due to the temp up. Any added suggestions would be helpful, fish alive in high ammonia tank because its not fully cycled.

Slowly daily dying tho.

 

[CezzaXV]

Have a look here, there is a lot of info which will be useful to you here. Especially the section on fish-in cycling. The short version of fish-in cycling is that you need to test the water every day and do a massive water change whenever there is detectable ammonia or nitrite. You never want to allow your either to go above 0.25ppm and even that's too much, 2ppm is WAY too much and will be damaging your fish.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

The thing is that you can't tell the bacteria where to live. They will be growing in the carbon cartridges as well as in the biowheel. Carbon is mostly used to remove medications from the water and it's not really needed in the general running of the tank to maintain quality, as that's what water changes are for. That's not to say you need to remove the carbon filters, quite the opposite in fact - leave them there because helpful bacteria will be growing on there.

Beginners' mistakes are fine, we've all made them. The main thing is making sure you understand why they were mistakes and not making them again in the future.

 

[flipnshi]

Thanks testing again today. I did the water changes for both tanks about 4 hours ago. My 55 is where Im having the most trouble, its def a cycling and added way too much fish at once thing, only 15 days old. I know the bio load is waaayyyy too much for it, but dont have any other tanks, just the two to disperse the load. My 29 seems to be fully cycled though. Ill edit my post with the test results and go from there.

Here's my latest test just done, I dont wanna add any chemicals (ammonia lock)to slow the cyle or anything and my water is well water, No ammonia, no nitrite or nitrates. 7.6 ph. Keeping both tanks at 79 F.
29 Gallon: A-.25 55 Gallon: A-.50
Ite-0 Ite-2
Ate-5 Ate-10

 

[CezzaXV]

Both tanks need a big water change, the second tank especially.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

DON'T CHANGE YOUR FILTER CARTRIDGES! That's where your bacteria live, why would you throw them away?

With ammonia reading of 2ppm and nitrite of 5ppm in your 55 gallon, your fish would either be dead or showing many signs indicating that all is not well. Those readings don't seem realistic. Your ammonia and nitrite levels should never exceed 0.25 with fish in.

Should never is not the same as can never. Ammonia levels can build up quite quickly in an uncycled tank, but the fishkeeper's job is to prevent the ammonia from going above 0.25ppm.


I get the impression from this post that you don't really know what you're doing, you've just heard that you need to cycle a tank but don't really know how. I'd recommend doing some reading

Cezza were those comments directed at me or the original poster?

 

[flipnshi]

Gonna leave the fish in their original tanks and do a 50ish percent water change on the 55 gallon. The ammonia has seemed to go down... .50. Sorry my filter is the marine land Penguin 350. That would mean I can retest in an hour or so, instead of in the morning. Is this adequate for a 55 gallon or should I add my come with tank package filter on the other side of the tank? Cant over filter water? It wont restart any cycling process I have started will it? Removed some deco and gonna do a heavy gravel clean as well. Sorry to be so blunt earlier just new to this and didnt realize how much was actually involved with it. Just want the fish to stop dying. Feel bad for them, poor ownership on my part.

 

[HayzH]

the only way to keep fish alive is clean water. So daily or Multi waterchanges are needed to keep your water as clean as possible.
Bigger ones the the better.
Say you have 0.50 ammonia? a 50% change will bring it down to 0.25. Which is STILL classed as toxic to fish, so another 50%+ would be needed straight away to bring it down again (so 2x waterchanges of 50%)

OR

1x 90% waterchange would bring it imediatly into "safer" levels.
with overstocking you may well need to do 90% twice a day.

Dont touch filter/cartridges/wheels/media at all.

So in essence....

keep testing every morning...if ANY ammonia or Nitrites...90% w/c..check water in the evening....if any Ammonia or Nitrites do another big waterchange.

As your fish have been subjected to Ammonia and Nitrites already you probably with have to accept you may lose some more. But Giving them fresh, clean water to swim in will definatly make them feel alot happier.

Good Luck xxx

 

[HayzH]

the only way to keep fish alive is clean water. So daily or Multi waterchanges are needed to keep your water as clean as possible.
Bigger ones the the better.
Say you have 0.50 ammonia? a 50% change will bring it down to 0.25. Which is STILL classed as toxic to fish, so another 50%+ would be needed straight away to bring it down again (so 2x waterchanges of 50%)

OR

1x 90% waterchange would bring it imediatly into "safer" levels.
with overstocking you may well need to do 90% twice a day.

Dont touch filter/cartridges/wheels/media at all.

So in essence....

keep testing every morning...if ANY ammonia or Nitrites...90% w/c..check water in the evening....if any Ammonia or Nitrites do another big waterchange.

As your fish have been subjected to Ammonia and Nitrites already you probably with have to accept you may lose some more. But Giving them fresh, clean water to swim in will definatly make them feel alot happier.

Good Luck xxx

 

[flipnshi]

Did a 50 to 75 percent water change last night. Will edit post with test results. All fish survived the night. No dead bodies in the morning. Feels like Im doing something right now. Clearly Im not out of the woods yet tho. Ordered another marineland 350 penguin filter and a tetra 100 gallon bubbler last night. Currently have a 10-30 gallon bubbler for both tanks. Didnt really think about the workload being too much for both. Bubble strips not fully bubbling in 55 gallon. Air stones in 29 seem to be fine.