Wolfman

Ok so I have had my 55 Gal about 4 weeks I have been letting it cycle. Well the wait was too much so last friday I went and placed an order with my LPS for 5 panda corys. Thinking that by now the tank should be ready to go. I was wrong. Here are my current readings Ammonia .5, PH 7.6, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 0 ppm. Can anyone tell me how far along I am in my cycle and the panda's will be in Friday so what should I do. Thanks for all the help Wolfman

Tumbleweed

It looks like it is still in the first stage of the cycle. Your ammonia will go up, then start to drop followed by an increase in your nitrite. That will drop off and your nitrate will increase. That will then go down and then your tank is cycled. It looks to me like you are still in the first stage of the cycling process. What have you been doing to help it cycle?

Wolfman

Well really all I have done is put a little food every few days I cleaned the gravel 2 days ago. Do you think my panda's are doomed if I bring them home friday. Thanks again

Tumbleweed

I don't think that they are doomed. Most fish are pretty resiliant. Worst case is you would just have to do 50% water changes daily or everyother day untill the numbers got better, with the fish in the tank.

Wolfman

ok thanks. well should I do anything until then to help the tank

not4you

You may want to consider calling your LFS and see if you can hold out getting the panda's until your tank is cycled, hopefully they would understand. Cory's aren't the hardiest of fish, in most cases they would be the first fish to show symptoms of poor water quality.

I'd to try to continue cycling your tank without fish. To speed up the cycle you try adding household ammonia (the clear kind that doesn't create suds when shaken) to bring you ammonia level up even higher (3-4 ppm). I've also heard lowering your water level some can help add more oxygen which will help the bacteria multiply.

You could also bring the temp in your tank to around 82 which should help as well.

Gunnie

Panda corys are very sensitive to less than perfect water conditions. If I was in your situation, I would try and find some bio spira locally, or if that's not possible, order it online. Bio spira is basically a cycle in a bottle. It actually contains the bacteria found in cycled tanks. Other products are bacteria accelerators, but not the actual bacteria. They will help hurry the cycle, but if you use bio spira, you won't have to worry about the cycle at all. Some folks experience a small rise in ammonia or nitrites after using bio spira, but it's nowhere near the spikes you see when doing a fishless cycle. I'm afraid your pandas won't do very well in your uncycled tank, even if you do 50% water changes everyday, and you will get tired of daily water changes very quickly. I've been in your shoes but, in my case, hubby decided to buy a 6 inch fish to put in a 29 gallon uncycled tank. After about a week, I was really sick of the water changes, but if I hadn't done them, my fish would not have survived. The bio spira will help you immensely in starting out on the right foot, and keep you from getting discouraged and possibly quitting the hobby altogether. Your pandas will thank you!

Wolfman

thanks ya'll for all your help I drove to another town tonight to try and find some bio spira, at a pet smart but they didnt have any so I bought some stuff called cycle I figure its just water but at this point I am pulling out all the guns to try and get my pandas a good home.

P.S. so whats the deal I have been cycling this tank for 4 weeks with no results. Any advice for the next tank I try and cycle thanks again

Isabella

If you don't have more time and you'll absolutely "have to" take the fish as soon as they arrive at your local fish store, then use what Gunnie has suggested (I myself never used Bio Spira, but if Gunnie recommends it, that means it's safe to use - I trust her judgment ). Don't know about the other product you bought instead of Bio Spira, but I hope it's effective. If, however, the store can hold the fish until your tank is cycled, wait until such time. If you'll have ANY ammonia or nitrite in your water while you have fish in the tank, you'll need to be performing 50% daily water changes, until both ammonia and nitrite = 0. It's better not subject the fish to these highly toxic compounds.

Wolfman

thanks everybody for your help

chickadee

Sorry to say that Cycle is not effective as a help. Bio-spira is generally only available over the internet. Right now I wish I knew of someone here on the forum who sold it as I do believe in giving the forum the business first but so far the only place I know of is:

http://fishstoretn.com/bio_spira.html

It is important to know that it has to be shipped overnight or 2nd day air to arrive in good shape as it has to remain cold and the cold packs generally only last that long. I took a chance on the 3 day shipment on one shipment and got a dead shipment and it is too expensive for that. The tank is considered fully cycled after the Bio-spira has been added and even though there will be a small ammonia spike when the Bio-spira settles into the filter it is not going to harm your fish in any way. I have used it MANY times.

Rose

jumpingtadpoles

the marineland site has great info everywhere on it, but the most interesting is the bio-spira parts

http://www.marineland.com/science/nspira.asp

Wolfman

thanks I have been looking for bio-spira online and couldnt find it

dmcl1

Another positive vote to BioSpira here ... I used it to help us get our tank cycled (after making the mistake of adding fish to the tank too early). Had to drive 1+hour to find a non-chain fish store that carried it (sure would be nice if PetSmart would decide to carry it since that's all we have nearby).

Within 24 hours, my ammonia and nitrite levels were finally increasing. Now, two weeks later, I have a fully cycled tank and much happier fish. Just added an Oto yesterday -- hopefully they'll have more soon so he can have friends.