Evelyn1919

hi everone!

my tank is still with .25 to .50 with the ammonia levels and i've been doing about 30% water changes everyday for almost a week now. i guess it is once again going through the nitrogen cycle and that's fine as long as the rest of my fish are fine. i took the CAE's to my LFS yesterday and cleaned the tank.

i just wanted to know how long after the ammonia is 0 for days do you know that the cycle is finished? does it have to be 0 ammonia for a couple of days/weeks?

thanks for your answers.

Shawnie

Hi evevlyn..it took me over a month to cycle...ammonia at 0 , nitrite at 0, and nitrates at 10-20 is a cycled tank...keep up the water changes, as frustratiing as they are, and if you can, get some bio-spira? it will cycle you within 24hours...what are you testing with because I dont see a nitrite or nitrate reading...goodluck and patience is something hard to learn with fish ....

Faye Rod

Hi Evelyn - The bad news is that your cycle is just beginning.....the good news will be when you start to see nitrite readings and the ammonia readings go to 0. The best news happened four weeks later for me.....when the nitrates took over and nitrites went to 0. It took a llllllllooooooonnnnnnggggggg time! And it's a lot of work but the fish made it through with daily - sometimes twice daily - 25% water changes.

This might be different for you since you have an older tank - if you have access to someone elses filter media or Bio Spira (which I think you used before) it can speed up the process. I decided to go slow and do the work required to make sure the aquarium had done it's thing completely.

-Faye

Evelyn1919

wow so my tank is at the begining of the cycle once again
i thought maybe it was ending already!!!
well about two weeks ago my reading were:
ammonia: 8.0
nitrite: can't remember. i have my notebook at home but i remember the test tube water being pretty purple
nitrate: 10.0
pH: 6.4

i'm using the liquid test kit which i have since i started the tank.
i thought my ammonia was so so high before and finally down and i had the spike of nitrite that my cycle was almost done.

my readings as of yesterday were:
ammonia: .25-.50
nitrite:0
nitrate: 5.0
pH:6.4

Shawnie

it almost sounds like it started a mini cycle..which is not as bad as totally beginning, but still not good...its frustrating im sure and wish we could help more...daily changes is the best ...goodluck again hun

Evelyn1919

thanks for all the advise.

i'll keep doing the water changer. i really don't mind doing them.

susitna-flower

Evelyn, your post yesterday said you "took the CAE's to your LFS, Yesterday, and you CLEANED the tank".....

What did you clean?....How much cleaning did you do? I guess that is a better way to put it.

The reason I ask is that vigorous cleaning, or filter media cleaning/changing, will put your tank in a mini cycle. You still have to watch the water tests, and do water changes.

Water changes and gravel vacuuming don't cause problems.

Evelyn1919

by cleaning i meant water change and gravel vacuuming. i did a 30% water change and vaccumed all the gravel in the tank. there was a lot of junk in the corners of the tank so to me that seemed a lot of cleaning LOL.

i never mess around with the filter media only when i have to change the carbon stuff.

oh n i've been testing the water everyday and doing 25%-30% water changes everyday because that's what someone advised last week. ammonia has been .25-.50 for pretty much a week now.

Halibut

Its the vacuuming that did you in I bet. Unless I misunderstand you still hadnt completed your cycle, since Ive learned a large part of the bacteria is in the gravel you may have started a mini cycle(or set your current cycle back some) as suggested above.

When gravel vac is required or scheduled I would siggest only doing half then the other half the next time so you dont disturb to much of the bacteria were trying to grow.

Evelyn1919

oh so i shouldn't be doing the vacuuming everytime i do water change?
i have been doing it every single time i do the water change cuz i heard that a lot of the uneated food/waste stays there.

so how often should i do it?

Halibut

Once a month vacuum half of your tank. Dont vac until your cycle is completed, just do the water changes, since the bacteria does not live in the water that will be ok.

I have not vacuumed my gravel and it is set up for 1 month tomorrow, instead of a gravel vac I'll do the just regularly scheduled water change but will wait to vacuum until I'm sure my reading are stable. My ammonia has been at 0 for a couple weeks now even after 48 hrs of no water change but nitrite has been an issue so I have doing changes almost everyday. Now my nitrite was really high but the water changes helped and yesterday I measured at just above .5 and today its closer to .25 so the bacteria is establishing itself in my new tank.