pepsi057

Hi, I have been cycling my 10 gal tank for 3 weeks now, with only 1 zebra danio. I have not seen any trace of any nitrate or nitrite, but my ammonia has risen to .5 so I change 10% of the water. Im wondering how long it usually takes to cycle a tank this size? I have a ph of 6.3 and have the heater set to 82 degrees, also I use store bought water because my well water is way to hard. I have not used any chemicals in the tank at all. Should I Be doing any thing differently? When should I start to see a rise in the nitrites?



Thanks,
Travis

Shawnie

Hi Travis..welcome to fishlore

If you can get some prime water conditioner, that will lock the ammonia for 24 hours and not make it harmful...you MUST do daily water changes up to 50% to keep the ammonia down for your fishie...and how long depends on each tank...can be weeks days or even months...can you get your hands on some seeded filter media from someone elses tank? goodluck and post pics when you can!

jdhef

I think I read somewhere that with a ph less than 7 you get ammonium NH4 instead of ammonia NH3 (I may have the NH3 and NH4 reversed). Anyway, Ammonium is supposed to not be toxic to fish. You may want to research that a little on your own to make sure that I'm correct on that, but I'm pretty sure I am.

I cycled with Danio's, because I didn't know about fishless cycling. I also didn't know I was supposed to do partial water changes (I have a ph of 7.8 so I definitely had ammonia in my tank). I have a 36 gallon tank and used 4 small danio's. It took about 3 weeks for nitrites to appear. So while fish per gallon is about the same as my case, the water changes will slow cycling down some. So I think that you are about on the right pace.

BTW, I do know for sure that when nitrites appear, you need to do daily partial water changes no matter what your ph is.