Enlightened_Gamer

Hello everyone!

I am very happy for finding this site today, everyone is really helpful and passionate about keeping healthy fish in harmony with their environment. So here is my problem.


I had a wonderful tank that was established for 2 years with 5 fish, a frog, and living plants. It was perfect, I had all my original fish, I never had to do a restock. Then disaster struck, when I returned from my honey moon I noticed the fish were acting really lethargic and that their fins were all stringy. I did a water test and every reading was off the chart. I did a fast 50% water change and did my best to get things back to normal but they didn't make it . My first question is, in a span of 6 days what could have happened? I had my light on a timer, I cleaned and Vacuumed the tank, I tested the water a day before I left and every thing was Ideal. I had a friend of my house sitting and all he did was feed them.

So now I am starting a fresh water tropical and it has been just over a month and I am in a rut. My nitrite levels have declined from off the charts to 5.0 to 3.0, my other readings are ideal but these high levels of Nitrite will make living conditions in my tank stressful if not fatal. I have added API Stress Zyme, a Biological filtration booster. I have added this as directed from the bottle, but there is no change in my readings. So any input on how to bring my tank under order and bring these Nitrites down?Thank you all for your help and support.

Lucy

Hi Welcome to Fish Lore

I'm really sorry you lost your fish.
It's possible they were over fed and you had a huge ammonia spike from left over food. It's hard to say.

What are your ammonia readings?
Personally, I'd stop adding any bacteria booster. A lot of them contain the wrong kind of bacteria and it dies off quickly and never allows your tank to properly cycle.

Do you have fish in the tank?

Enlightened_Gamer

No fish and no plants and ammonia is .25 (safe)

Lucy

Actually the only safe ammonia is 0.
At least there aren't any fish in the tank to worry about.

How are you cycling and what source of ammonia are you using?

As long as your nitrites are declining and your nitrates are going up, you're still in the cycling process. You may just have to be patient.
Have the nitrates been stuck there?

What test kit are you using? The strips aren't very accurate. Most here use a liquid test kit such as the API master kit. It's very reliable.

Enlightened_Gamer

The only thing I have been adding has been stress zyme, and yes I am using test strips. It is a 30 gallon tank and I have added about 2 gallons of water from our 10 gallon tank that is thriving. Should I add some more or is this hurting the Fish-less cycling?

Lucy

I used stress zyme once....it now sits in a drawer, in my other post above you'll see my opinion about so called bacteria additives. You usually have to keep adding it, if you stop, the cycle can crash.
The only one that I've heard people say worked for the is Tetra SafeStart.

The water from your established 10g won't help the cycle. The bacteria isn't free flowing it grows on the gravel, filter media and decorations.

This would be my suggestion. Do a huge water change and stop using any so called biological filtration booster, unless it's Tetra SafeStart.

Take a peice of used filter media and a handful or two of gravel from your established tank and put them in your 30g. That should seed the tank with the correct kind of bacteria.
Feed the tank with either pure ammonia or a pinch of fish food that should get a nice bed of benefical bacteria to establish.

Test the water daily and keep a log of the findings Once the bacteria can process the ammonia with in 24 hrs your tank will be cycled with readings are 0 for ammonia, 0 for nitrites with 5-10 nitrates showing.

Be patient, I hope this helps.
Let's see what other members have to say

MrsM3197

Hi Enlightened Gamer, glad to have you on FishLore with us. I will agree with Lucy. More than likely your friend watching your tank probably overfed them...such a shame, sorry you lost your fish. Also, in agreeance with the only save ammonia being 0. Ammonia even just a little bit will burn fishy gills and will cause fishy stress if not death. There really isn't much good bacteria you need in the water itself. The good bacteria lives mostly in your filter, in your substrate and on your decorations. If you really wanna give your cycle a boost, why not take a good bit of your gravel from your established tank and put it in your new one? That'll give it a kick start, or take a bit of your filter media from your established tank and stick it in the new filter...or both! You'd get it cycled pretty quick that way. Best of luck to you! Congrats on your decision to fishless cycle.

MrsM3197

Ok, I'm slow....Lucy beat me by a lot!

Lucy

lol

It's always good to have more than one member's input!

jdhef

It took my tank about 6 weeks to cycle, so you aren't really in a rut, it just feels like it. Cycling time is kinda like dog years, every day cycling feels like 7 days!

Your only real options to speed up the cycle are Tetra SafeStart or adding filter media and/or gravel from an established tank as mentioned above. I thing if you added some used filter media and /or gravel, you would possibly be done cycling by the end of the week.

Good Luck

Enlightened_Gamer

I just wanted to say thank you for all your information! I am going to use all the advice and do a water change and introduce gravel, decor, and used media from the other tank. Thank you for the kudos on the fish-less setup and I hope to have pic's up to share with you all of you A.S.A.P, thanks again!

Lucy

Your welcome!

We love pics, we'll look foward to them
Good luck and keep us posted.

Plecolover12

Sorry you lost your fish. I don't see what would be wrong unless the bactieria died. It is possible.

Dozey

I’m sorry to hear about your loss but congratulations on your recent wedding. Lucy had great advice to offer on another post that I will share. When going away and asking someone else to look after our fishies pre-measure each feeding in paper cups or pill bottles or what ever you have.

It has to be difficult for an inexperienced fish keeper to feed a tank. The incredibly small amount of food that fish actually need is even intimidating for me much less then a non-fish keeper.

Great advice from Lucy!