Fish In Tank While Cycling With Tss

So here's what I have:

40 gallon breeder

When the ammonia hit 0, I threw in a bottle of TSS+ and got an Opaline Gourami hoping the nitrite phase would go by quickly with TSS+. Of course, nothing happened, so I'm about a week into my nitrite spike. After day 1 with TSS+, I started doing large doses of Prime daily just to keep the nitrite non-toxic for my fish.

So my fear is that with just a single fish, I'm worried that he can't produce enough turds to keep the ammonia loving bacteria fed until my nitrite spike is gone and I can add more fish. I'm not sure if I should change the water after a week to at least bring down the nitrite some because I'm adding Prime which should supposedly detoxify the nitrite anyway. I'm worried about adding ammonia to the tank to keep the bacteria happy because of my fish.

Maybe I shouldn't have added the fish right? lol. I just got excited and figured TSS+ would do the trick for me.

So how should I handle this situation?

 

Well, I'm no expert, but I think the gourami is probably producing enough ammonia to keep some of the bb alive. But probably not as much as what you had cycled with. I'd say just wait out the spike and then introduce new fish very slowly. But someone else may have much better advice.

As for the water change/adding prime, I'm not sure. I've never used TSS+ but I know you're not supposed to do water changes for 2 weeks, right? But prime only detoxifies up to 1 ppm ammonia and nitrites. So I'm not sure what to say about that. Sorry, I'm not much help lol

 

You’re right Valerie, the one fish is producing enough ammonia, combined with uneaten food too. Everyone on here was raving about TSS+ so I just tried it again recently, and it didn’t work like when I tried a few years back.

Your number 1 priority at this point is to worry about the fish staying alive. If you have other established tanks you could use media from those too.

 

Thanks. I guess one nice thing is that the gourami gets some of his air from the surface like a betta, so the nitrite may not be as bad for her as other fish perhaps?

I do have 2 fully cycled tanks, but they're very recently cycled so no spare media to give up.

 

Thanks. I guess one nice thing is that the gourami gets some of his air from the surface like a betta, so the nitrite may not be as bad for her as other fish perhaps?

I do have 2 fully cycled tanks, but they're very recently cycled so no spare media to give up.

If they’re fully cycled taking a little media from each won’t hurt it.

 

I'm going to give that a try then and see if it can give it a little boost.

I wonder if it might not be a bad idea to temporarily put the gourami in the 20 gallon tank with 3 harlequin rasboras. I was planning to add 5 more this week but I can hold off a few days until the 40 is ready. That would let me keep dosing ammonia in the 40 until cycling is complete

 

I'm going to give that a try then and see if it can give it a little boost.

I wonder if it might not be a bad idea to temporarily put the gourami in the 20 gallon tank with 3 harlequin rasboras. I was planning to add 5 more this week but I can hold off a few days until the 40 is ready. That would let me keep dosing ammonia in the 40 until cycling is complete

I think that's a great idea

 

After adding TSS+ you cannot perform a water change for 14 days (nor should you be adding Prime to the tank for I believe at least a week).

TSS+ is a great product, and it seems that almost everyone who has it not work properly have used the product incorrectly.

 

After adding TSS+ you cannot perform a water change for 14 days (nor should you be adding Prime to the tank for I believe at least a week).

Seems like that woulda been some great info to put on the bottle then. lol

It literally just says to shake the bottle, add to your aquarium, then add fish. Absolutely no additional instructions.

 

I agree, it is a real disservice to buyers of TSS that there are no proper instructions included with the product. I can't for the life of me understand who in their marketing department thought it would be a good idea not to include instructions with such a finicky product.

That's just one more reason that FishLore is such a valuable resource.

 

Not only that, but if you aren't completely satisfied they'll refund your purchase. You'd think with a promise like that, they'd make sure to cover every possible failure. Talk about a bad business model!

 

Do you plan to add more fish than the gourami eventually?

If not, it doesn't matter if the ammonia eating bacteria dies. The bacteria will find equilibrium.

If you do plan to add more fish it's fair to expect a minI cycle. Those aren't as bad though and normally clear up in a week or 2.

 

Yeah I'm definitely adding more, I just want to do it in stages so as not to overwhelm the bacteria too much. Not completely decided on what I'll stick in there though.

 

I extensively researched and even asked their customer service, after seeing jdhef talking about it a lot, I decided to give it another try. Still didn’t work for me lol! I then added one of the seeded sponge filters I had instead.

My ammonia was at about 2 ppm after adding just one koi swordtail to a 29 gallon.

 

Yeah I'm definitely adding more, I just want to do it in stages so as not to overwhelm the bacteria too much. Not completely decided on what I'll stick in there though.

Good plan.

I would just let the nitrite portion of the bacteria finish cycling and let your ammonia bacteria die off a little. Then SLOWLY add fish.

There's no problem having minI cycles that don't bring your ammonia/nitrite over 1 ppm because Prime will completely detox the compounds and you won't need to a do water changes. Your bacteria will make quick work of catching up and will be up to speed in a week or two. But if you add fish too fast, you'll have to do water changes daily which sucks....

 

I have had a lot of success using seachem stability. I am fairly new to the hobby but I've done both fish in cycles and fish out cycles using it and never had any issues with a spike. It contains all the bacteria you need to help establish the tank. I also use filter media from an already cycled tank. I have even read that people have put the stability in the media to help distribute it. I have always applied it directly to the substrate with a syringe. Not sure that helps you now though

 

hey so I got home from work today and tested and nitrite was at 0! It went from 5+ to 0 overnight woohoo!

 

Run the test again to make sure it's accurate. If it was accurate, give it a day then test again. If still 0, you're cycled!

Also check to see if you have nitrates.

Congrats!