No ammonia/nitrite spike when cycling my freshwater reservoir...?
Hi,
I have just started a 10 gallon freshwater tank, standard setup next to a hanging power filter (mechanical and activated carbon filtration), no live plants and an airstone. The fish are: 2 zebra danios, 1 albino corydoras. The tank have been running for 8 days now and ammonium and nitrite have be undetectable with daily testing. I own read that cycling takes 4-6 weeks. Can I still expect an ammonium or nitrite spike? How do I know when my tank is done cycling? I am planning on going out to get a nitrate check kit to see if those levels are rising, will that serve me? Thanks.
generally this is too early; verbs to test , you will see increase in algae growth when a spike is present
Yeah, get the nitrate test kit. Once you own 0ppm Ammo and Nitrites, and some Nitrates, you are cycled.
If you got nitrates, lucky you!
Answers: You have done things right by only adding a few small fish to start next to. This means that the ammonia level rises very slowly and give the cycle time to start before the levels become dangerous. It may denote your tank takes longer to cycle, but your fish are safe.
Get the nitrate interview, when you see the nitrate level rise then you have a working cycle. If you receive to 3 weeks and the levels are still fine, put in a couple more fish.
You are correct, you should allow going on for 6 weeks to build up the fish numbers and cycle.
Ian
hi ya
im at the same stage as you although i enjoy only upgraded my fish tank so i have simply put my old fish tank water surrounded by a new tank and used the old gravel and put the filter medium in the new filter along with the investigational media.
i would buy a test kit that have ammonia, nitrate and nitrite tests as these are the most harmful to your fish ( well apart from nitrate but its good to have the test utensils as large ammounts kill fish) i would get the interview kit regardless as its not visible unless you have a cloudy cistern which is a bacteria bloom which mine had. (check the expirery date on the tests your using as mine be 1 month out of date and it sed my tank was fine and when i bought a contemporary one just to be sure it was worse so whether it is out of date get a new exam kit)
i would test the water every day and whether there is some ammonia or nitrite then do a water conveyance and clean the filter media (sponges etc) in the wet that you are taking out and when you replace the water with fresh don't forget to add the sea dechlorinator that removes the harmful chemicals in the water.
I would also reccomend getting a bottle of nutrafin cycle which help grow the benificial bacteria you need to help receive rid of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
as long as you monitor the water quality and do water change when needed and add the nutrafin cycle and dechlorinator when ever you do a water change you shouldn't lose a fish also i wouldn't bring anymore fish for about a month to let the tank settle down
i would also put within some live plants as this produces natural oxygen as nitrite affects the fish's gills restricting their breathing.
hope this helps
