Problems with Cycle

Hi everybody..............new here to FishLore. First off, I would like to say that I am happy to be here and that I look forward to interacting with you.

I have a problem with my 55 gallon freshwater planted aquarium. I bought it from a guy and it had two Hygger medium size sponge filters in it. I planted it with various plants and did a fishless cycle. I initially added 4 small albino cory's and 5 black tetras and 1 bristlenose pleco. There is a medium size mystery snail in there also. Everything was fine with the water. The nitrates were always rapidly rising and I was changing about 10-15 gallons of water a couple of times a week. I then added 5 rasboras and 2 more medium sized cory's. I was having a little problem with cloudy water and decided to purchase another filter. I bought a Tetra Whisper EX-70 about 1 1/2 weeks ago and turned that on. I almost immediately noticed that the ammonia rose to around .25 ppm, 0 nitrites and as I said the nitrates rise 20-30 ppm in a 12 hour period. I did a test of my tap water and discovered it contained around 10-20 ppm of nitrates. I then did some research and decided to purchase some Seachem Purigen. I placed that in the Tetra filter. It clears the water but it does not do as advertised. I bought it to help control the nitrates. Its not doing that. I am having a heck of time with this tank. Since I started this about 1 1/2 weeks ago, I am changing 10 to 12 gallons of water a day. The ammonia is still present, .25 to .5 ppm, nitrites usually 0 but I noticed yesterday that they rose a little bit. My main concern is the rise in the nitrates. They go from around 0 to over 40 in a 24 hour period. I am at a loss. Should I take out the new filter? What can I do? Any help our guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

The filter is not the problem. A filter will not reduce nitrates. In fact, they tend to produce them as your biological filter (the beneficial bacteria) does it's work. A new filter shouldn't effect that either way when it's only a few days old.

You will not be able to use your tap water as is because it already contains more nitrate than you want in your tank. One of the main points of the water change is to remove nitrates, not add them (as I'm sure you know . You also should not be drinking it with those levels of nitrates. Young children are especially at risk at these levels.

A reverse osmosis filter could be used to remove the nitrates in the tap water along with all the good stuff you want in the tank. You then would need to replace the "good stuff" using a bottled product prior to adding it to your tank.

Others here have direct experience with this situation and hopefully will weigh in.

 

Like FishDin said, most filters are not designed to remove nitrate. Or rather, the biomedia inside are not designed to remove nitrate.

With that said, nitrate below 20ppm is fine for your fish, so you can use the tap water, it just can't be your main method of control. The plants however, over time will control your nitrate.

Purigen by the way, does not remove ammonia, nitrite, nor nitrate directly. Seachem was very coy when it came to describing Purigen. This is directly from their FAQ:
Seachem - Purigen


So it tries to remove the source of nitrate, but honestly that is pretty close to being impossible to be super efficient. And it will definitely not lower the concentration of nitrate already present.

 

Welcome to Fishlore

You said you fishless cycled this tank. Can you tell us a bit more about how you cycled the tank? How long ago did you set this tank up? How long had it been running before adding fish? What are all the numbers, pH, ammonia, nitrites and we already know the nitrate number. If you are seeing any ammonia I fear this tank is not cycled and you are now doing a fish in cycle.

There is a way to remove the nitrates before adding the water to your tank but you will need a container big enough to hold enough water for your water changes and some nitra-zorb in a filter running on this container. The nitra-zorb will remove the nitrates from your tap water.

 

Thanks so much for all the input. I did another test on my tapwater this evening and there are definitely nitrates present. I've attached a photo. It looks to be around 20 ppm. I also did another check on the water and the results are as follows (photograph is attached):

Ammonia - 5 ppm
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20-30 ppm

Before I went to work this morning I checked the water and here's what I had:

Ammonia - .25-.5 ppm
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20 ppm

Here's how I cycled the tank. I planted the tank with numerous plants. I bought a small bottle of Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride and I used Imagitarium biological booster. This process started on 8/18/21. This process went on until 9/6/21. That is the day that I added 6 black tetras. I made sure that my readings were 0 on the ammonia and 0 on nitrites for 3 consecutive days. I change my water, usually between 15 - 20 gallons weekly. I added the other fish on or about 9/15/21. I started having problems when I attached the Tetra outside filter. I am DEFINITELY doing a fish in cycle now. I hate that, I thought I had it right. I hope that's enough information for you guys to help me figure this thing out. Again, thanks to everyone for their help.

 

Good information. Thank you.

One test tube concerns me and that is the pH. It looks to be 6 or lower. A cycle struggles at that level. The good thing about it is the ammonia you are seeing isn't as toxic as it would be at a higher pH level but the bacteria struggles to eat it.

Is this the pH level from your tap? If it is higher from your tap we can hold it at the level of your tap by adding crushed coral to the filter. BTW: adding the extra filter didn't cause the ammonia to go up. It was just a coincidence that it happened along about the same time as you added the filter. I have to think the pH level is the cause of the ammonia spike.

Since you are now doing a fish in cycle you need to keep both ammonia and nitrites if they show up down to negligible levels with water changes. When you do a water change, change out at least 50% of the water. By doing the bigger water changes you will be keeping the fish safe. Keep in mind, bacteria isn't free floating in the water so water changes will not be removing any of it.

Just be sure you add your water conditioner to the fresh water before pouring it in the tank if you have chlorine/chloramine in your tap water. If you are using a python type system to refill the tank turn off your filters and add enough water conditioner to the tank to treat the full tank before starting to refill.

 

Ok I think your ammonia went up because you added more fish. This is like a mini cycle. New fish new waste but not enough bacteria yet to eat it so ammonia rises. A few water changes will straighten this out. New filter has nothing to do with it and is allways a good idea . If reading this right you’ve only been at this for a month. So your cycle is still just beginning. So new fish will throw it off.
Can you give us a compleat reading of your tap water. Ammonia,ph,nitrite,and nitrate. Also from looking at your vials I’d say your nitrates are at about 5 not 20. Even 20 is nothing to worry about. Foe best results put the vial in front of the chart. If you can see a color through it that’s not it. It’s the last color you can’t see .
as bad as that looks it’s only 20ppm .

 

Good information. Thank you.

One test tube concerns me and that is the pH. It looks to be 6 or lower. A cycle struggles at that level. The good thing about it is the ammonia you are seeing isn't as toxic as it would be at a higher pH level but the bacteria struggles to eat it.

Is this the pH level from your tap? If it is higher from your tap we can hold it at the level of your tap by adding crushed coral to the filter. BTW: adding the extra filter didn't cause the ammonia to go up. It was just a coincidence that it happened along about the same time as you added the filter. I have to think the pH level is the cause of the ammonia spike.

Since you are now doing a fish in cycle you need to keep both ammonia and nitrites if they show up down to negligible levels with water changes. When you do a water change, change out at least 50% of the water. By doing the bigger water changes you will be keeping the fish safe. Keep in mind, bacteria isn't free floating in the water so water changes will not be removing any of it.

Just be sure you add your water conditioner to the fresh water before pouring it in the tank if you have chlorine/chloramine in your tap water. If you are using a python type system to refill the tank turn off your filters and add enough water conditioner to the tank to treat the full tank before starting to refill.

Thanks so much. The PH is very low. Its also low in the tap water. How can I raise the PH in the tank? I would like to at least have it up to 7. Any help with that is appreciated. Again, thanks so much.

Ok I think your ammonia went up because you added more fish. This is like a mini cycle. New fish new waste but not enough bacteria yet to eat it so ammonia rises. A few water changes will straighten this out. New filter has nothing to do with it and is allways a good idea . If reading this right you’ve only been at this for a month. So your cycle is still just beginning. So new fish will throw it off.
Can you give us a compleat reading of your tap water. Ammonia,ph,nitrite,and nitrate. Also from looking at your vials I’d say your nitrates are at about 5 not 20. Even 20 is nothing to worry about. Foe best results put the vial in front of the chart. If you can see a color through it that’s not it. It’s the last color you can’t see .View attachment 814657as bad as that looks it’s only 20ppm .

Okay...........I got it. Thanks so much for that. Here's what the tap water is looking like. I have been reading these levels way too high. When I used your method to read the results of the nitrate test, it showed zero nitrates. The yellow color was the one that I couldn't see. But, you can see there is a noticeable brown tint to the water, so I would say its up around 5? Looking the way I was looking, it looks like its up to 20. You have just saved me a lot of water................ Thanks so much for that.

Good information. Thank you.

One test tube concerns me and that is the pH. It looks to be 6 or lower. A cycle struggles at that level. The good thing about it is the ammonia you are seeing isn't as toxic as it would be at a higher pH level but the bacteria struggles to eat it.

Is this the pH level from your tap? If it is higher from your tap we can hold it at the level of your tap by adding crushed coral to the filter. BTW: adding the extra filter didn't cause the ammonia to go up. It was just a coincidence that it happened along about the same time as you added the filter. I have to think the pH level is the cause of the ammonia spike.

Since you are now doing a fish in cycle you need to keep both ammonia and nitrites if they show up down to negligible levels with water changes. When you do a water change, change out at least 50% of the water. By doing the bigger water changes you will be keeping the fish safe. Keep in mind, bacteria isn't free floating in the water so water changes will not be removing any of it.

Just be sure you add your water conditioner to the fresh water before pouring it in the tank if you have chlorine/chloramine in your tap water. If you are using a python type system to refill the tank turn off your filters and add enough water conditioner to the tank to treat the full tank before starting to refill.

The ph in the tap isn't much higher...........probably around 6.4. I am starting to catch on here............the help and people here are great.

 

To raise your ph a mesh bag with crushed coral will bring it up.

 

I agree with 86 ssinit The best way to raise and stabilize your pH is by running some crushed coral in one of your filters. Since there are fish in this tank be sure you rinse the CC before putting it in the filter. If you don't it may raise the pH too quickly. Once rinsed and put in the filter it will take several days for the CC to raise the pH as much as it is going to.

You may always have to keep CC in your filter. My water is very soft with a low pH too. I have run CC in my filter for years. I check my pH every few months. If I see that it has dropped any at all I know my CC needs to be replenished.

 

Okay...............I'm not sure there's anything more to talk about in this thread. I have received some excellent advice and plan to put every bit of it to use. I thank everyone SO much for the help. If anything else comes up I'll be sure to check back in. Again, thanks so much to everyone for the help.

 

Okay...............I'm not sure there's anything more to talk about in this thread. I have received some excellent advice and plan to put every bit of it to use. I thank everyone SO much for the help. If anything else comes up I'll be sure to check back in. Again, thanks so much to everyone for the help.

Please stop in from time to time to let us know how things are going. Don't be afraid to ask questions along the way.

 

Please stop in from time to time to let us know how things are going. Don't be afraid to ask questions along the way.

I will do that. I'll keep y'all posted on what's going on. Thanks so much for everything.