7.3IDIDSL

I set up my first fish tank which is a 55 gal. on December 26. Seeing as i hadnt found this forum yet i followed the directions that came with my starter kit tank and went out on December 27th and added 6 Giant Danios to my tank.

Ever since ive been testing the water daily and keeping a log.

From December 27th to January 21st - (26 days) I had no nitrites or nitrates and my ammonia would fluctuate between 0 and 0.25. I was doing daily 25% or 50% WC to keep the ammonia down.

On January 22nd i decided to give tetra safe start a shot so i went out and got a bottle and added it to the tank.

Heres my log of the days after i added tetra safe start

• Jan 23 Amm-0.25, nitrite-0, nitrate 5.0
• Jan 24 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-0, Nitrate 5.0
• Jan 25 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-0.25, Nitrate-5.0-10
• Jan 26 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-0.25, Nitrate-5.0-10
• Jan 27 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-0.25, Nitrate-5.0-10
• Jan 28 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-0.25, Nitrate-10
• Jan 29 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-0.5, Nitrate-10
• Jan 30 Amm-0.5, Nitrite-1.0, Nitrate-10
• Jan 31 Amm-0.25, Nitrite-1.0, Nitrate-10
• Feb 1 Amm-0, Nitrite-2.0, Nitrate-20
• Feb 2 Amm-0, Nitrite-5.0, Nitrate-20
• Feb 3 Amm-0, Nitrite-5.0, Nitrate-20

Its been 12 days since ive added the tetra safe start. To me it looks like it sure did help my cycle and does exactly what its suppose to do. So IMHO tetra safe start works.

My question now is should i do a water change today? or is there a chance it will mess up my cycle? Im just wondering because my gravel is turning brown/yellow so the tank is clearly dirty. Thanks

Lucy

It looks like your nitrites are raising which means your tank isn't cycled.
If the gravel is that dirty it could be the fish waste and left over food is creating ammonia in your tank.
The bacteria is converting the ammonia to nitrites but your lacking enough of the bacteria that converts nitrites in nitrates.

Anyway, I'd do a water change and gravel vac.

cerianthus

At this point gravel should not be touched. Just perform smaller water changes (even twice/day) to reduce nitrite level. By vacuuming, you may disurbed what already established in the tank thus may delay the cycling process. Cut down on food. SKIP feeding if have to for couple of days. If anything, fish will/can die due to prolonged exposure to nitrite than from starvation. If enough gunk on/in the gravel, that should keep the process going w/o stalling. Make sure to not to change any filter medium until cycle is complete.
Dont know what kind of fish, but by adding SALT (low dosage) will help you lower nitrite level as Sodium will bond with Nitrite. One way to reduce toxic nitrite in case of emergency and end product can be removed via water changes. You are almost there.

Shawnie

a small water change and a small gravel vac will do it...the pleco cant handle salt so I wouldnt add that

Fla_Larry

i would personally agree with shawnie at this point, lightly vacuum the gravel and a no more than 25% water change including the vacuuming ( dont forget to add prime to it ).

You are almost there for sure.

Aries

Tetra safe start is a live culture so results will vary. I have used it where it kept levels in check until cycle was done. I have used it where I had to change down toxic levels. If ammonia or nitrite are 1 PPM or higher, change the water. It is defeating some of the safe start in the water but we must consider the fish. Cycle be darned

7.3IDIDSL

Well i did a small 25% water change tonight and vacuumed a little bit of the gravel. Im going to wait till tomorrow morning to do a water test. I hope my nitrites start to go down pretty soon. Ive still got no ammonia.

agabr123

i don't know about this when using TSS, but i know that some members have had a lot of luck doing small water changes if they get stuck in the nitrite phase of the cycle. hopefully that will work for you! good luck!

FL CommunityFans

I had something like this happen to me when I use biospira on my 29gallon (which if anyone remembers blew out the back panel 1 week after putting the biospira in). I applied what remaining biospira I had, in to the tank, and it ended up finishing the cycle after petsmart exchanged me a new tank for the ones that blew on me (customer service was good that day thank goodness).

One thing with these live cultures I have learned, you don't dose according to tank size. You overdose according to tank size. For my 55gallon I put in the 90gallon package of biospira and the tank was cycled within the week(I added over 20 fish at that time as well). That's anotehr trick with teh live cultures - buy the total stock of what you want in the tank then apply the live culture. The fish will start producing waste which the live culture will start feeding on and you have a fully stocked tank that is cycled within a week or less (or so has been my experience)