jchico1977

Good day to all,

I have a 30 gallon tank that is about 4 weeks old and still cylcling small hint of white cloudy water . Now I was told to do a 10 percent water change daily. Ok to this i ask should is this true? I only have a amonina test kit API and i have been getting readings today of 1.0 for amonina last night i did about a 30 percent water change because the levels spiked to 2.0. Today i was planing to go to ly local fish store and buy a API master test kit and Prime. Now can any one else recomend any other chemicals to speed up my cycle, like bio-spira or anything that is more comon. Oh yeah 1 more when i do a daily water change should i be vacuming the gravel to daily?

acua clear 300 with sponge/amonia/biomax media

30 gallon

7 glo fish

2 tetras

1 black tail 3 inch shark i think thats the name lol

1 gorm

1 clown loach

Shawnie

cycleing with fish needs daily water changes of at least 30-50% with the prime...if you can find tetra safestart, that took over for bio spira....no you do not have to vacuum daily but you do need to do water changes daily with ANY amnt of ammonia...gooodluck!

Lucy

It would be a good idea to up the water change to 50% and use Prime as your water conditioner to detoxify the ammonia for 24hrs between water changes.

Weekly vacuums should be fine. You don't want to do a heavy vacuum and disturb the developing bavteria.

jchico1977

wow 50 % water changes ok and use prime. Will prime take away my amonina or just mask it. What else can I use to help get rid of the amonina and speed up the cylce. Will doing water changes daily remove the good bacteria?

Shawnie

you cant speed it up with out tetra safe sstart...patience is all you can do when cycleing with fish..and water doesnt contain the bacteria needed for the cycle..its more in your filter media and gravel

Lucy

Water changes won't remove bacteria, it's not free floating, instead it grows on surfaces.

Prime will make ammonia less toxic but still make it available to feed the bacteria.

Shawnie mentioned Tetra SafeStart, I don't have personal experience with it, but several members have cycled tanks using it.

Shawnie lol

Allie

Gravel vacs should only be done once a week on most tanks.