Mini Cycle And Treatment Options - Leaving On Vacation

I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow and my 5 gallon tank seems to be going through a minI cycle. I've been treating my betta for a (cause unknown) white patch and some mild fin rot with daily methylene blue baths and 25% daily water changes (other than a trace amount due to an accident, no MB in the tank, except what might have been left on him after the bath - I have been dipping him in tank water before returning him to the tank.)

Yesterday the readings were Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5, pH 7.2. I put in a double dose of prime to bind the ammonia. Today Ammonia is 0 and Nitrite is 0.5 (I didn't test nitrate or pH today). Seems like a minI cycle. I removed a dead snail yesterday, so that might account for it.

The white patch on Giacomo's head is gone, but I will do a bath and WC today and tomorrow before I leave to be sure. The fin rot seems about the same.

I'm hoping the nitrite will be down to 0 tomorrow, but if not what do I do about the minI cycle while I'm away? I'll be gone 5 days. Do I just double up on Prime before I leave and hope for the best? I also have some Tetra Safestart I could dump in before I go, but I'll have to find a different dechlorinator since I've read that you can't use it with Prime. Any advice would be appreciated.

FYI -- Giacomo is feeling better with the treatments. He never stopped eating like a pig, but had been a bit less active and had stopped making bubble nests. Now he's back to his old active self and made a small bubble nest last night, so he's definitely on the mend.

 

You can use TSS with Prime but you just need to wait at least 24 hours after adding Prime before you can add the TSS. This is actually true of any water conditioner that removes chloramines, not just Prime (and as far as I know, all water conditioners remove chloramines).

I standard dose of Prime will detox up to 1ppm of ammonia and/or nitrite, so there would be no reason to double dose, although it will not do any harm.

I have a suspicion that your nitrite will be back down to zero by tomorrow, so you probably will not have to do anything, but if you want to be on the safe side, you could add the TSS just in case. But like I mentioned, just make sure you have waited the 24 hours after Prime was last added.

Ya know, if you were a really serious fish keeper you would let me take your place on vacation (all expenses paid of course) so you could stay home and care for your fish.

Enjoy your vacation.

 

You can use TSS with Prime but you just need to wait at least 24 hours after adding Prime before you can add the TSS. This is actually true of any water conditioner that removes chloramines, not just Prime (and as far as I know, all water conditioners remove chloramines).

I standard dose of Prime will detox up to 1ppm of ammonia and/or nitrite, so there would be no reason to double dose, although it will not do any harm.

I have a suspicion that your nitrite will be back down to zero by tomorrow, so you probably will not have to do anything, but if you want to be on the safe side, you could add the TSS just in case. But like I mentioned, just make sure you have waited the 24 hours after Prime was last added.

Ya know, if you were a really serious fish keeper you would let me take your place on vacation (all expenses paid of course) so you could stay home and care for your fish.

Enjoy your vacation.

Thanks. My hope is the nitrite is gone by tomorrow as well and this was just a blip. Giacomo won't be eating while I'm gone, so he'll be producing less waste/ammonia so I'm probably worrying too much about nothing. I just get so attached to these little guys. If the nitrite is gone tomorrrow, I might ask a neighbor to stop in and add some Prime to the tank every few days out of an abundance of caution.

(And this is my first real vacation in years, so I will politely decline your kind offer )

 

Well at least you were polite with your decline. Ya know...believe it or not, my grandfather's name (on my mother's side) was Giacomo.

 

Well at least you were polite with your decline. Ya know...believe it or not, my grandfather's name (on my mother's side) was Giacomo.

Just wanted to let you know how we made out. Nitrites were up to 1.0 on the day I had to leave for vacation, so I dumped in a bottle of of SafeStart in the morning, dosed with Prime right before I left a few hours later and prayed for the best. I had a neighbor check on Giacomo every two days to feed him and add some Prime (and gave her instructions to call if he wasn't looking or acting right). Long story short, he's perfectly fine. All water parameters were normal when I returned yesterday and the slight fin rot on his tail is looking better -- still a bit ragged, but no more red edges. He had built an enormous bubble nest in my absence. I did a medium sized water change today and will do small ones for the next several days until his fin has healed completely.

Thanks for your help and advice. (In my case Giacomo was named after Puccini. I'm a hobbyist opera singer.)

 

It's great to hear everything worked out. I hope you enjoyed your vacation. Opera singer?...Pretty impressive!