My levels with fish coming?

[traco]

I've got six 2.5" discus coming Tuesday. Tank has been running for a month with fishless cycle.

Been adding a capful of ammonia every couple of days to keep cycle going.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 1.6 :(
Nitrate: 40 :mad:

I've been having cloudy water and have done three water changes of about 25-30%. Yesterday did 50% and then added two capfuls of ammonia. The levels are from this morning. The cloudiness is getting better with the water changes.

Hydro sponge, canister filter have been cleaned on different days, just lightly squeezing. Added a Penguin 350 yesterday and squeezed hydro sponge onto the sponges of the penguin to seed.

Should I leave things as is? Will be doing a water change Monday to ready the tank for Tuesday. Should I do another water change with the way the nitrites and nitrates are?

Thanks.

Barb

[Discusgeo2]

During a fishless cycle, the water should not be changed until the cycle is complete, and you are getting zero ammonia and zero nitrite readings. The only exception to this would be if you accidentally add too much ammonia during the process. If you accidentally do this, you will see either ammonia or nitrites off the charts at 6-8 ppm, and they won’t come down without a water change. Nitrates are the result of the bacterial breakdown of ammonia which turns into nitrite which in its final stage will be nitrates. Nitrates are less toxic than ammonia and nitrites but can cause stress, which can lead to disease as well as death if not properly cared for. High nitrate accumulations are more toxic when oxygen is low. Nitrates can do damage to the fish's red blood cells and this in turn causes them to be oxygen deprived.

Symptoms of high nitrate levels are: new small fish die off within 2 to 3 weeks, fish appear lethargic other than at feeding times, growth is slowed, increased susceptibility to disease, slow wound healing, redness or red patches on the body.

# Ammonia:
Ammonia is the most toxic product formed in water. Sources of ammonia in aquarium water are fish respiration and digestion and decaying foods. Freshwater fish begin to be stressed at levels of .50 ppm (parts per million). Marine aquaria levels should be less than .05 ppm; reef tanks at 0 ppm.

# Nitrite:
Nitrite is the toxic intermediary product created in the process of breaking down organic waste products. It occurs between ammonia and nitrate in the breakdown sequence. Levels above 1.0 ppm are to be avoided.

# Nitrate:
Nitrate is a mildly poisonous end product of the breakdown of nitrogenous waste products in the aquarium. While thought to be harmless to MOST fresh water species, fresh water aquarium levels should not exceed 300 ppm. Less than 50 ppm is the desired level for saltwater aquaria. Reef tanks should be maintained at less than 5 ppm. High nitrate levels in both fresh water and saltwater aquariums will promote excessive algae growth.

[Carol_Roberts]

If you are going to add fish on Tuesday you have to do a 99% water change on Monday. I don't think your tank is fully cycled yet . . . . You will have to monitor ammonia and nitrIte very carefully. Keep ammonia and nitrIte at zero with water changes once discus are in the tank. Your tank will eventually cycle, but you may have to do large daily water changes until that happens. Or you may want to postpone the discus for another week or two.

[Barb Newell]

Good advice Carol!

We've postponed the shipment. My advice was basically the same as yours, just a little more patience Barb.

Barb

[Howie_W]

I second Carol's advice.

Your tank is not fully cycled. Performing a full water change the day before the fish arrive is a must.

You are indeed going to have to pay close attention to the ammonia and nitrate levels. It will also help if you hold off on feeding your new arrivals for the first 24 hours, and feed sparingly for the next day after.

Also be prepared to perform large daily water changes as the tank cycles.


Howie

[traco]

Hi

Tested this morning and nitrites have gone down to .3 so at least there is some improvement :)

I'm going to lessen the time the lights are on; they are on 10 hours for my potted plants. This should help with the bacteria bloom?

I will leave the tank as is, no water changes and keep adding ammonia. Will adding a capful a day help or hinder the cycle? If and when the tank is cycled, if I add a capful daily, it should be able to handle it and have zero for ammonia or nitrite levels on the test kit the next day?

At least I'm having all these problems before I get my fish.

Barb

[Carol_Roberts]

once you are showing nitrItes a capful every other day is probably enough

[RockRiverfish]

Hi everyone, I'm relatively new here so please correct me if I'm wrong.

As I understand it, the bacteria responsible for converting Nitrite to Nitrate (Nitrobacter) are actually inhibited by the presence of ammonia. Continuing to add high levels of ammonia will only delay the complete cycling of the filter. So it would make sense to reduce the addition of ammonia to every other day (like Carol said), or maybe even better to just reduce amount added each day. In a natural system the ammonia is added at a rather steady rate throughout the day, thus allowing the Nitrosomonas bacteria to convert it to Nitrite almost instantly. Since the ammonia never builds up, the Nitrobacter aren't inhibited.

I wonder if anyone has ever attempted a fishless cycle by adding the ammonia at a constant rate throughout the day. Like dosing of trace elements in a saltwater system. It would be interesting to see if this would reduce the amount of time needed to completly cycle the filter.