hi i use use to keep fish years back but ive just been given a tank so ive started up again, the person who gave me the tank had restarted his tank up but when i got it i wasnt sure if it had cycled so i just empited all the water and started fresh, now 6 weeks down the line im a bit stuck i have a rio 125 with a fluval plus 4 filter i have been doing daily water changes to keep the ammonia down but it keeps coming back. The nitrite readings are 0 and the nirtate are 1.0 and have been for 2 or 3 weeks its just the ammonia comes back , In my tank theres a bull dog pleco and 4 brown 1.5inch bristlenose which i got given with the tank, this morning the i empited half the water out and put fresh in as the ammoina was over 1.0 im just a little worried about the plecos there breathing quite fast on the sand and not eating, i have 2 air pumps in so there oxygen in the tank like all fish keepers i dont want them to die so can anybody help thanks tubbs
help with tank
- Thread starter tubbs11
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Ha standard new tank syndrome, there is a good article on the forum about tank cycle. But founds like your first stage bacteria has still not been able to keep up with the waste produced by the plecs, i would recommend adding some biological supplement that you can get from any LFS or even better some established media from someone, this should help. As your ammonia level is rising that should rectify it. someone correct me if i am wrong but the bacteria that breaks down ammonia into nitrite takes 8 hours to reproduce and the bacteria that breaks down the nitrite to nitrate takes 28 days.
yup agree, the tank in my view is not able to cope with the waste. Use the tetra safestart as instructed on the bottle, but add some for each water change. try not to feed for a day or two. Also if you have a friend who has a filter up and running, ask for some filter material from their filter for yours to seed yours. How long did you cycle the new tank before adding the fish if I may ask ? cheers jk :thumbup:
i started with a fish cycle hoping to get by doing the daily W/C but what i think ive done is ive taken to much water out and not left enough for the tank to break down the ammonia into nitrite
haha see thatwhat you dont want to do, dont introduce fish straight away as there will be not enough bacteria to cope. But yeah add the tetra safestart, it is normally at 5ml per 10litre i think. best thing is get some established media off someone else.
yup just shows how important it is to cycle. The safestart should be fine and water changes as well. good luck cheers jk :thumbup:
the tank will be on its 7th week of running now just did a test on water this morning and ammonia is 0.50 nitrite 0 & nitrates 1.0 ive have just bought some NUTRAFIN CYCLE BIOLOGICAL FISH WATER SUPPLEMENT to help the job along