Cycling with fish

[Johnny]

Hi everyone,

First time aquarium user, My partner has had fish tanks for years and years. We recently set up a 2x1x2 foot tank and added some live plants & fish. We did the water conditioning and added some aquaruim salt 24 hours prior to adding the fish.

After adding them i learnt about cycling the tank and unfortunally i have no where to put the fish while it takes place.

After speaking to the guy at the aquarium he pointed out the Master test kit which i quickly got, He suggested that i test the water every 2 days and change 15-20% of the water.

I thought i should do this more often. So im testing every 12 hours and replacing 10-20% of the water every 12 hours aswell.

So far i have this chart.
Filled it up Saturday and treated the water, Sunday we put in a Bristle nose, 2 Kribensis, Parrot Cichlid, Silver Shark, Peacock Dragon Blood & a snail

The PH Spiked last night, Im assuming its from the buffers in the tap water?

I brought the kit yesterday so the testing started there:

Day Time PH A Nitrite Nitrate

Monday 4.15pm PH 7.4 A0.5 Nitrite0.25 Nitrate0
Tuesday 12.20am PH7.4 A0.5 Nitrite0.25 Nitrate0
Wchange Tuesday 12.35am PH7.6 A0.25 Nitrite0.15 Nitrate0 Changed 15L (One Bucket, 18%)
Tuesday 10.30am PH8.6 A0.5 Nitrite0.1 Nitrate2
Wchange Tuesday 10.40am PH7.6 A0.35 Nitrite0.1 Nitrate1 Changed 15L (One Bucket, 18%)

Nitrate has just started to appear, We did use the old power filter from the last tank except i rinsed it with hot water and let it run in a hot tub for about 15-20 minutes.

Can anyone let me know if im doing this correctly? Any help would be apeciated :)

[lil_fuzzy]

Had the old filter dried off before you put it to use again? Cuz if it was being used, you killed all the filter bacteria that it needs. Filters whould only ever be given a gentle rinse in old tank water, never use tap water. But if it hadn't been used for a while then that's fine.

I'm also cycling with fish, left the tank fishless for a week and then slowly put fish in. First 2 weeks I did daily 30% water changes, now I do 30% every 2 days. So far so good, haven't lost any fish and they all seem to be thriving. Even have newborn molly fry in there and expecting both molly and swordtail fry in the next few days.

Oh, and the silver shark is a schooling fish, and they get really big really quickly. It shouldn't be kept alone, so either return it, or get a few more, but only if you're planning to upgrade to a bigger tank. They need HUGE tanks! They are very active and fast swimmers, so they won't be happy in a tank which is too small for them.

[Johnny]

Thanks for that,

I brought some "Easy-Life" fluid filter medium today, Supposed to help keep the fish healthy and speeds up the growth of the good bacteria. Going to give a dose to the water now

[Johnny]

Just an update, I do plan on getting another silver shark so the one in there has a buddy, Our Kribensis are following each other around and they are actually getting ready to mate. I'm looking around for a 4 or 6 foot tank now! We started with a Siamese fighter then the addiction grew from there :p

Anyway, I gave half a dose of the stuff to the tank, The fish had more energy since, The water cleared up after going hazy for a little bit and the fish were still active so i did another test. Ph has risen to 7.8 Nitrite levels have dropped to 0 but ammonia is at .5, Did a 15% change and gave another half dose to the tank. They seam fine except when its cloudy they act a little different. Just waiting for the tank to clear up again then ill update this again

[lil_fuzzy]

Kewl.

Silver sharks should be at least 3 together.

[hotwinter]

Hey guys, I'm Johnny's girlfriend. We bought another silver shark today and they are so at ease with each other. They're already best buds being bad smells and picking fights with your bright yellow cichlid.

We did another small dose of easy-life this arvo and tonight they're all livid. Very energetic and happy.

I've had a silver shark on it's own before and it actually seemed rather happy. Made good friends with the big black cat fish I had.

[Johnny]

Levels spiked recently, Now seeing Nitrate in the water.

Amonia has dropped from 8.0 to 4.0
Nitirites are at 1.0 & Nitrates at 20

Tank is a little bit cloudy, But the fish are really active compared to before. They are all lively and have attitude again! So it looks like its easy sailing when the Amonia and Nitrite levels drop and stay at zero?

[wombat1100]

Just keep up those water changes and checking the parameters and you will be fine, a valuable lesson learned!

[Johnny]

Cheers,

The cloudiness is already almost gone, Amonia levels are around 0.25, Nitrites around 1.0 and Nitrates around 40

Nitrates did spike but 90% of the plants in the tank are real, I heard they use the nitrates as food? Nitrates have gone down to 40 from 80. Ill be checking it each day.

When levels are fine im assuming i should only change water if the nitrates go through the roof? Whats the maximum level nitrates should be at a given time?

[wombat1100]

Hi Johnny , just want to be sure you understand there is a difference betwen nitrates and nitrites, from what i have read nitrates are fine in lower levels and are actually good for your tank , but the only safe level of Nitrite is ZERO. this is like poison to your fish , will cause death by suffocation.Same thing goes for Ammonia, Zero is safe
once your levels are under control, you can just go to 25% changes a fortnight or so,
if you look at this, it will explain lots , but it is a bit deep!
http://www.thefishtank.com.au/forums/showthread.php?t=171