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Ok here is the recreation of events since the beginning.
Bought and set up a 37gallon freshwater tank on march 9th of this year. Started a cycle with fish, on advice from pet store guy and hadn't read this forum yet on fishless cycle. Anyway began with a few zebra danois, added the seachem stabilty as per instructions on the bottle, used declorinator on the water, also I added a small live plant. Cant remember the name, but it has long vertical leaves, not fanlike, almost like seaweed. I have a master test kit that I bougt and began testing for the first month, and nothing at all changed, ammonia is 0-0.25ppm, nitrates and nitrites are absolutely 0. ph is around 7.8. Now like I say nothing happens for a month, so I figure that the bio-load is too low and the plant is eating the ammonia and there is nothing available for the bacteria to begin.
Then I gradually added 8 neon tetra's, the ammonia never really goes above 0.25ppm and there are still absolutely no nitrate or nitrite. Ok then a week later, this 5 weeks total of tank life-time, a tetra dies. This is the first death, I check tank paramters absolutely the same. Do a water change and treat water with seachem stabilty. A few days later another one is dead, same thing with tank parameters. At this point I added some prime to the tank on the adivce of my friend.
Now I leave on a work trip overseas for two weeks, my wife reports to me about a week after I left the the tetra's are dying daily, and one zebra danios, over a period of 2-3days we lose 4 neon tetras and one danio. Then the fish stop dying and I figure that the tank cycle is done after a spike in nitrite and ammonia. I come home to find that the tank is also very clear, when I left it was really getting murky and now it is crystal clear. Ok I figure that the tank is cycled, I Test the water same thing as before, except now there is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate and 0 nitrite. Of note as well is the tap water here has about 0.5ppm ammonia out of the tap, even the RO water I buy from the store that you can fill up in those 20L jugs has about 0.25ppm. I'm mostly using that, so clearly something in my tank is reducing the ammonia. I actually did one water change with dsitilled water, that had absolutely 0 ammonia, but it was expensive. Anyway I take the results to the fish store and they say the results are ok and we add another group of fish, 4 minnows and 2 guppies. All is good in the tank and eveything is fine with all the fish. Two weeks go buy and the results of the test are the same ammonia 0-0.25ppm and nitrate and nitrite are pure 0 on the test. It's easy to color code the nitrite and nitrate cause they are so clearly 0.
As stated two more weeks went by and there was not a single fatality, so we added the cool fish we (me and my little daughter) wanted. These were a school of 6 green tiger barbs. They have been in there now two weeks and all is fine. Water test again, after about two weeks of the barbs being added and still EXACTLY THE SAME? trace ammonia and nothing on the nitrate and nitrite. It's been 9 weeks at this point and all I ever used was the seachem stabilty at the beginning and when adding new fish, prime one time, and de-clorinator. Nothing else. Havent washed the filter media. We do water change ever 1-2 weeks, using RO water.
So is this tank cycled? If so why no nitrates? Did I miss simply miss the nitrite spike when I was away, cause i've never seen a nitrite spike either. But Like I say that was when I was gone and the fish were dying, by the time I returned the water was clear and no fish have died.
Could it be that the tank is cycled and the plant is taking care of the nitrate? Of note also is that the plant doesn't look that great, not bad but some of the older longer leaves are dying. Maybe not enough food from nitrates / nitrites?
Am I doing something to reset the tank cycling and I has never actually happened? I read somewhere that adding bio-filter boosters to increase the bacteraI growth can actually have the reverse effect and kill the existing bacteria. I don't know though.
Am I in for another mass die-off once the cycle starts or is it done. Again there has been nothing dying at all and the fish appear to be good, active movers, good eaters, etc....
Last note is that the PH is still around 7.8-7.9 could this be a problem?
Thanks for any help
My question is why is there no nitrate present?
Bought and set up a 37gallon freshwater tank on march 9th of this year. Started a cycle with fish, on advice from pet store guy and hadn't read this forum yet on fishless cycle. Anyway began with a few zebra danois, added the seachem stabilty as per instructions on the bottle, used declorinator on the water, also I added a small live plant. Cant remember the name, but it has long vertical leaves, not fanlike, almost like seaweed. I have a master test kit that I bougt and began testing for the first month, and nothing at all changed, ammonia is 0-0.25ppm, nitrates and nitrites are absolutely 0. ph is around 7.8. Now like I say nothing happens for a month, so I figure that the bio-load is too low and the plant is eating the ammonia and there is nothing available for the bacteria to begin.
Then I gradually added 8 neon tetra's, the ammonia never really goes above 0.25ppm and there are still absolutely no nitrate or nitrite. Ok then a week later, this 5 weeks total of tank life-time, a tetra dies. This is the first death, I check tank paramters absolutely the same. Do a water change and treat water with seachem stabilty. A few days later another one is dead, same thing with tank parameters. At this point I added some prime to the tank on the adivce of my friend.
Now I leave on a work trip overseas for two weeks, my wife reports to me about a week after I left the the tetra's are dying daily, and one zebra danios, over a period of 2-3days we lose 4 neon tetras and one danio. Then the fish stop dying and I figure that the tank cycle is done after a spike in nitrite and ammonia. I come home to find that the tank is also very clear, when I left it was really getting murky and now it is crystal clear. Ok I figure that the tank is cycled, I Test the water same thing as before, except now there is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate and 0 nitrite. Of note as well is the tap water here has about 0.5ppm ammonia out of the tap, even the RO water I buy from the store that you can fill up in those 20L jugs has about 0.25ppm. I'm mostly using that, so clearly something in my tank is reducing the ammonia. I actually did one water change with dsitilled water, that had absolutely 0 ammonia, but it was expensive. Anyway I take the results to the fish store and they say the results are ok and we add another group of fish, 4 minnows and 2 guppies. All is good in the tank and eveything is fine with all the fish. Two weeks go buy and the results of the test are the same ammonia 0-0.25ppm and nitrate and nitrite are pure 0 on the test. It's easy to color code the nitrite and nitrate cause they are so clearly 0.
As stated two more weeks went by and there was not a single fatality, so we added the cool fish we (me and my little daughter) wanted. These were a school of 6 green tiger barbs. They have been in there now two weeks and all is fine. Water test again, after about two weeks of the barbs being added and still EXACTLY THE SAME? trace ammonia and nothing on the nitrate and nitrite. It's been 9 weeks at this point and all I ever used was the seachem stabilty at the beginning and when adding new fish, prime one time, and de-clorinator. Nothing else. Havent washed the filter media. We do water change ever 1-2 weeks, using RO water.
So is this tank cycled? If so why no nitrates? Did I miss simply miss the nitrite spike when I was away, cause i've never seen a nitrite spike either. But Like I say that was when I was gone and the fish were dying, by the time I returned the water was clear and no fish have died.
Could it be that the tank is cycled and the plant is taking care of the nitrate? Of note also is that the plant doesn't look that great, not bad but some of the older longer leaves are dying. Maybe not enough food from nitrates / nitrites?
Am I doing something to reset the tank cycling and I has never actually happened? I read somewhere that adding bio-filter boosters to increase the bacteraI growth can actually have the reverse effect and kill the existing bacteria. I don't know though.
Am I in for another mass die-off once the cycle starts or is it done. Again there has been nothing dying at all and the fish appear to be good, active movers, good eaters, etc....
Last note is that the PH is still around 7.8-7.9 could this be a problem?
Thanks for any help
My question is why is there no nitrate present?
