Where Are My Nitrites

[Ossah]

Hi All,

I last posted over a month ago. I had been given a small common goldfish in a tiny bowl and was going about re-housing him in a bigger 64litre tank.
Although the tank is not big enough for him in the long run I have plans to get a bigger tank or find him a home in one of the many local fish ponds around me.

Because he was in a bowl I was forced to do a fish-in cycle as soon as my new tank arrived.

It has been well over 30 days since I started. I have added 1 more small pearlscale goldfish to keep the other guy company. When I say small he is really small. An inch long is all he is.

Both fish are in great condition and seem to be in great spirits. Today I have finally added a light to the tank. (the one that came with it was broken and it took till now to get a replacement.)

Anyway, the problem I am having is that I am detected 0ppm Nitrites even after 33 days.
I am using the API test kit to measure. I am also using the Seachem Ammonia Alert to keep an eye on toxic ammonia.
When ammonia levels get to around 0.05ppm on the Ammonia Alert I usually do a 10 - 20litre water change.
Usually I leave the water stand for 24hours but if it is a 20litre change I use de-chlorinator.

I am also using a little Seachem Prime to sort out toxic Ammonia occaisonally.

The temperature in the tank is roughly 20 - 23 degree Celcius all the time.
After a small water change, Ammonia levels are usually around 0.25ppm on the API test kit and 0.02ppm on the Ammonia Alert.
These levels usually go up to 0.5ppm on the API test kit and >0.05ppm on the Ammonia Alert after 2 - 3 days.

I am doing small 10% water changes every 2 days-ish. And 20% every week or so.

I haven't been testing for Nitrates much as I don't even have Nitrites. But there is about 10ppm Nitrates in our water naturally.
pH is a constant 8.0. The water is very hard and limescale can be seen to build up on the glass and on ornaments after a week or two.
I am cleaning this ever 2 weeks or so.

There have been 2 incidents of disease. First one of my goldfish got a little fin rot on his anal fin due to being in the small bowl but that is cleared up now using
Interpet Anti-Fungal medicine.
The second was whitespot. The new goldfish developed it after 2 days in his new tank. I think he actually brought it in from the pet shop. (won't be buying there again)
I treated with Interpet Anti-White spot and had the heat turned up to 25 Degrees for a day or two. That cured that.

Can anyone think of any reason there is no Nitrites yet?
The aquarium hasn't been getting a lot of direct sunlight but has been getting plenty of ambient light and direct sunlight during the morning for an hour or two.
Could the lack of the aquarium light be the culprit?

Thanks for your help.

 

[waterdrop]

When you say API test kit do you mean their paper test strips or their master test kit with bottles of liquids and test tubes? WD

 

[Ossah]

Sorry for the confusion. It's the master test kit. The liquid test kit with the test tubes.

thanks for your reply.

 

[waterdrop]

All I can say is that its possible for nitrite to go by in little spikes during fish-in cycling that you just happen not to detect because of the timing of your tests and because things keep getting diluted by the large water changes.

You don't mention the filter. There are a few types of filters that members have found either simply not working very well (probably ways for the water the "cheat" and get by the media without being filtered) or simply not having enough media volume to be very effective. You might want to describe the make/model and possible your media choices for the filter.

The other possibility is that the actual cycling is just slow. We see many cycles that finally come in between days 70 and 80, although statistically these are on the slower side of the overall range of cycling times we see.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Ossah]

Thanks for your reply. My tank is a Juwel Rekord 600 and I am using the Bioflow filter material that came with the tank.
Is it possible that I am changing the water a little too much? Should I wait until there is 0.2ppm or more showing on the Ammonia Alert?

 

[waterdrop]

No, if the .2 on the ammonia alert is generally coinciding with 0.25ppm on the API liquid ammonia test result then you want to have changed water before that point. Fish-In cycling is not a pleasant thing! If you're doing it properly its difficult to "see" the cycle progressing. You just have to trust that as long as you are still getting traces of one thing or the other, its not over.

The test of when a fish-in cycle is over is when you can go two days with no water changes and you still get zero ppm test results both days for both ammonia and nitrite(NO2). If you get a two-day win like that then you should watch it the rest of the week (better part of a weeks time) and after that you are ok to think about small fish additions (2 or 3 fish at a time with a 2 weeks between) and also begin easing up on the rate of testing.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Ossah]

Actually the readings aren't exact due to the fact I am using Seachem Prime.

For instance my last test results for today where as follows:

Ammonia: API test kit: 0.5ppm, Ammonia Alert: <0.05ppm

There is a big difference when using the Prime to detox the ammonia.
As it stands I have never let toxic ammonia reach 0.2ppm. I always change water when it is just over 0.05ppm.

 

[waterdrop]

The effect of Prime on the toxicity of the ammonia lasts about 24 hours. It is indeed the best conditioner to be using in any sort of Fish-In cycling situation but of course it is still not as effective as water changes. The shift Prime will make in the ammonia to put it more in its ammonium state lowers the toxicity but does not make it a completely pleasent experience for the fish.

~~waterdrop~~