With bottled bacteria (TSS+ and Stability) - do I or do I not change water

PLEASE dont bash all my rookie mistakes too bad. - 36 gallon tank.

Well, to make a long story short (I hope), today is 14 days that tank was set up and added some fish food first day. Tomorrow will be 14 days since I used TSS+ but I put it in about 30 minutes after using Prime to dechlorinate water. So, after doing some research, it appears I may have killed out the bacteria in the TSS+ by adding so soon after the Prime (they suggest 24 hours - mine was 30 minutes) and not really having an ammonia source for it to feed on.

So a week later after I found this out, I started using Seachem Stability (today was Day 8 for the Stability) since (another rookie mistake) I had 8 little Danios in the tank. Tomorrow will be 12 days with fish in - 15 days total - 14 days since adding TSS+ and the 9th day with Stability.

TSS+ says not to do any water changes until after 14 days (tomorrow). I have been working as if not all my TSS+ was nullified, so have not done any water changes yet. There have been no changes in my water parameters, expect one day I thought there was a tinge or orange on nitrates but was yellow the following day. Pretty consistent according to API Tests:

pH - 8.0
Temp - 77
Ammonia - 0.25 Total (hard to tell if it was 0 or 0.25 so I have been using 0.25 ppm to be safe and have been treating the tank every other day with Prime just in case (to help protect the fish). If someone says, "No, that is 0" then please let me know. My first time with the API, so not sure how solid the color change is -- anyway, I am going wtih 0.25 ppm. This should calculate to 0.0137 ppm free NH3.
Nitrites and Nitrates have been 0 (for both).

Oh, and I did do a test on tap water (again) and it appears to be almost the same as tank ammonia wise.

Well, I thought I was going to make this short.........

My question is since I am reaching the 14 day mark since I added the TSS+ and will probably stop the Stability tomorrow, do I change water if I am not showing any Nitrite or Nitrates and low ammonia (about the same as tap water) or do I let the cycle just continue for a little while until something changes? Seachems example cycle chart doesnt have changing any water for 30 days.

Fish are doing GREAT. So far, there has not been any ammonia spike (I am so afraid of my mistakes thus far, some days, testing twice) so the bioload isnt spiking everything. No cycle yet (no nitrates at all except for that one day it had a tint of orange).

There are so many conflicting stories out there on if you should start changing out water or not. I dont want to set any bacteria I have starting in filter and stuff back if I should just let them be.

I appreciate any help on this. Thanks!!!!

Below are my results along with one that shows tap water (on left) with tank water on right.
Thanks as always

 

You were showing signs on nitrate so maybe it cycled... do a 50% water change to get the levels down close to 0 for every thing lightly feed fish and wait a few days test it all again and if nitrates show up and the rest is low levels it’s probably cycled I could be wrong tho ...and if it hasn’t cycled yet just do a 50% water change treat it before you add it back to the tank wait 24hrs and then add another whole bottle of tss+ nothing else and wait 14 days again
Also when doing fish in cycle using tss+ don’t add prime everyday the bacteria needs an ammonia source to feed on that the fish is providing ... adding the prime is locking it and killing it so you probably prolonged the cycle... I would just restart it honestly 50% water change treat water before adding it wait 24hrs and then whole bottle of tss+ again wait the 14 days don’t add anything else or do water changes during the 14 days

 

After just 14 days just 8 little fish in 36 gallons of water will not spike the nitrates. 0/.25 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates isn't unusual in this short amount of time with such a low bio-load.

Since you are doing a fish in cycle you may want to start very slowly stocking this tank. By adding just a few fish at a time bacteria will increase to handle the higher bio-load after each addition.

You were showing signs on nitrate so maybe it cycled... do a 50% water change to get the levels down close to 0 for every thing lightly feed fish and wait a few days test it all again and if nitrates show up and the rest is low levels it’s probably cycled I could be wrong tho ...and if it hasn’t cycled yet just do a 50% water change treat it before you add it back to the tank wait 24hrs and then add another whole bottle of tss+ nothing else and wait 14 days again
Also when doing fish in cycle using tss+ don’t add prime everyday the bacteria needs an ammonia source to feed on that the fish is providing ... adding the prime is locking it and killing it so you probably prolonged the cycle... I would just restart it honestly 50% water change treat water before adding it wait 24hrs and then whole bottle of tss+ again wait the 14 days don’t add anything else or do water changes during the 14 days

Prime doesn't lock up ammonia. The bacteria can still process the ammonia even when adding prime.

 

Thanks! So, should I start changing water after the this14 days or just let it wait until something dictates that I need to start performing changes? The Seachem example cycle chart has start water change after 30 days and Tetra says not perform one at all until after 14. Fish are doing great! There is NO SIGN of distress whatsoever. I know I overstocked right off the bat with the 8 danios and I am not going to add any more bioload until I start seeing some sign of tank cycle (I guess this is correct)?

Wonder why Tetra says not to add until 24 hours after ammonia nullifier - I had guess that it affected the ammonia that TSS+ had (was part of the TSS+ to feed bacteria in the bottle - I thought - plus it said to add ammonia source right away or bacteria would starve and I didnt add fish until the next day. Well, maybe it worked..............If not, there should be PLENTY of bacteria seeding in that tank right now.

 

Thanks! So, should I start changing water after the this14 days or just let it wait until something dictates that I need to start performing changes? The Seachem example cycle chart has start water change after 30 days and Tetra says not perform one at all until after 14. Fish are doing great! There is NO SIGN of distress whatsoever. I know I overstocked right off the bat with the 8 danios and I am not going to add any more bioload until I start seeing some sign of tank cycle (I guess this is correct)?

You didn't overstock this tank. Maybe I worded it wrong. Personally I don't use bottled bacteria. Without it we know exactly what to expect. With it we add it and wait. We don't know if it has worked or not.

The only way you are going to know is if eventually nitrates start going up. With just 8 little fish in this tank it can take a while for them to show up. The amount of nitrates depends on the amount of ammonia being processed. 8 little fish in this size tank won't be producing a great deal of ammonia. If the ammonia level starts going up you will know the bacteria in a bottle didn't do its job.

Wonder why Tetra says not to add until 24 hours after ammonia nullifier - I had guess that it affected the ammonia that TSS+ had (was part of the TSS+ to feed bacteria in the bottle - I thought - plus it said to add ammonia source right away or bacteria would starve and I didnt add fish until the next day. Well, maybe it worked..............If not, there should be PLENTY of bacteria seeding in that tank right now.

I don't know. Something about it conflicting with the TSS. I was just pointing out that prime doesn't lock up ammonia. It simply detoxes it. Bacteria can still process ammonia detoxed with prime. I actually speak from personal experience. My fish in cycle finished up within 6 weeks even though I used prime with each water change. Most of the time it was every other day and at one point it was daily.

I try to correct incorrect information when I see it.