Nitrogen cycle and filtration issues

Hi,
I recently bought a 10 gallon tank. I know about the nitrogen cycle so I was going to wait at least two weeks or until the all the levels were right before adding any fish. The only problem was that I was given fish as a gift only three days after I started the cycle. Its been a week and I have had the usual nitrite and ammonia spikes, but not at levels harmful to the fish. About two days ago I tested the water and the ammonia was significantly high and so was the nitrite. I decided to do a 20% water change and a little gravel vacuuming and I added an extra 10 gallon filter thinking that that would help with my problem. Since this is my first aquarium I am very naive about a lot of stuff so I was wandering if you could help me answer some of my questions. --- Since the fish were added just three days after I started the cycle, does it mean they are not very likely to survive? and, does having two 10 gallon filters in a 10 gallon tank does any harm to the fish or the cycle? and will removing one of the filters later on cause any disruption in the cycle or the fish?

Thank you in advance for your help--

 

HI and welcome to fishlore! When cycling with fish there are only two ways to keep fish safe that I have heard of (1) you should do daily water changes until ammonia is 0 and nitrites are 0. OR (2) You can buy Tetra SafeStart (this is the only brand of bacteria in a bottle that is known to work) but then you would not do any water changes until the cycle completes.

could you post for us your current parameters of ammonia/nitrite/and nitrate - this will help determine how far in the cycle you are. Fish in cycling may take longer, and of course is riskier.

As for the extra filter: having two filters instead of one is great! I have that too. Generally it is best to overfilter and under stock an aquarium: if you have more filtration than needed and fewer fish than the aquarium can support, then water quality is better. Since you have a 10 gallon, under stocking is unlikely, so over filtering is especially good. I would not remove that second filter if I were you: it would probably mess up your cycle since most of your good bacteria live in the filters, although once you have an established colony of bacteria (cycle completed) bacteria would double in 24 hours, so even if you removed half of the bacteria, in 24 hours you would be ok again; however, I would recommend seriously thinking of not removing the second filter because it helps keep your water cleaner, and then you have a backup filter also (if one of them fails while you are away). The only good reason that I can think of for removing that second filter would be if it takes up too much space - 10 gallons is a fairly small tank. Caveat: I am still a newbie myself, so there may be other good reasons that I do not know of yet. best!

 

Great advice from JoannaB. I just wanted to welcome you to Fishlore!

 

HI and thanks for replying!
my ammonia is at around 3, my nitrate is at 10, and my nitrite is at 3, ph:7.2 and my water is hard.

I did not know that good bacteria grows on the filter, and unfortunately I just replaced both my filters with new ones ... will this just make things worst?

thanks for all your advice, I will likely keep both filters in, but like you said, a 10 gallon tank is fairly small and the lid does not properly fit right now so I will try to look for a new lid or something.

Thanks again!

 

Great advice from JoannaB. I just wanted to welcome you to Fishlore!

Thanks

 

Yes,removing both filters and replacing with new ones was not good unfortunately. I have learned that the entire "replace your filter every month" is a marketing ploy by manufacturers to get you to buy more products, and since replacing filter diminishes bacteria it is especially not recommended during cycling. your levels of ammonia and nitrites are both way too high to be safe for fish. The goal is to bring them both down to below 1 as soon as possible. Do as big a water change as you can (definitely 50% at least at this point - since your levels are so high and you have fish to keep safe, you might consider doing several water changes in succession to get the levels down from these high levels). Remember to add dechlorinator to the water. If you can, use Amquel+ or Prime as dechlorinator, since they also detoxify ammonia for 24 hours. Do not measure water params immediately after water change though if you use Amquel+ or Prime. In 24 hours measure water again, and do another water change.

Wait a mo moment: when you say two filters do you mean two separate independent filter machines or just two filter cartridges in one filter machine? Had previously assumed you meant two separate filter machines, but now I wonder about this.

 

I did a water change this morning (20% and I used water conditioner and added bacteria supplement). should I just keep doing water changes today until the readings drop to below 1 then?

I do have two separate filter machines (2 TOPFIN 10)

 

Which bacteria supplement are you using? The only one that is known to work is Tetra SafeStart, and with Tetra SafeStart one is not supposed to do any water changes. One adds the entire bottle, and then waits. If you are using another brand, then most likely the bacteria are not a self sustaining bacteria, and then these will actually do more harm than good because they will be out competing self-sustaining bacteria. What this means: you would need to continue to use that product (if it works) every time you do a water change for the lifetime of the aquarium. Trust me, you would like to get the self-sustaining bacteria to grow in your tank. They will either grow on their own or with Tetra SafeStart help.

What I would do if I were you: stop using bacteria supplement, make number of water changes however many it takes to bring your ammonia and nitrites down to below 1. If water changes do not appear to have positive effect, make sure to also test your tap water, since some tap water has ammonia or nitrites in it. Once your ammonia and nitrites are safe for today, wait 24 hours, and measure again and do another water change daily until ammonia 0 and nitrites 0. If daily water changes is more work than you are willing to do, try acquiring Tetra SafeStart, but do daily water changes until you get it. If you do get Tetra SafeStart, search on this forum for directions on how to use it - I do not know myself, since actually I did a fishless cycle. Good luck! And feel free to continue asking advice here. I have found that this place is a great source of info.

 

this is truly a great place, and thank you for all your advice! I will try to get the Tetra safestart today, but in the meanwhile I will do another water change to drop the levels. I really wanted to do a fishless cycle myself, but was not able to.
I am going to try my best to keep these fish alive and healthy...we'll see.

thanks and have a great day!