Will someone respond to this PLEASE?

[Lady Hobbs]

As previously mentioned, I am cycling a 55 gallon. I have 0 ammonia levels but have nitrites of .25 already. Explaination? Coming from the tap, nitrites are 0.

I've been expecting the ammonia levels to climb first.

[NorthernBoy]

how many fish in aquarium? I am going to try Bio-Spira this go-around. Cycles tank in 24 hour and you can fully stock the tank the next day.

[Lady Hobbs]

Gosh, I don't know about that. I've heard bio spira is really good but 24 hours to cycle sounds somewhat too fast and too good to be true. Cycling too fast may make the tank a little unstable for awhile but heck, they are for for several weeks anyway. I hope it works that good.

I've been expecting a big ammonia spike after having so many fish in the tank and especially during that 2 day power outage. Maybe it will come yet.

I have moved many of the fish back out again. Just had to have them in there while I was dumping all those buckets of water. I still have more in there than probably is adviseable. Figured out I have about 36 inches of fish per 55 gallon.

Thanks for answering my post, big boy.

[kimmers318]

Didn't you add alot of items to help jump start your bacterial colonies when you started this tank? Although you had the issue with the power outage, alot of your bacteria should still have survived. My understanding is it also takes longer for the nitrite eating bacteria to grow, so you may just experience a little unusual cycling process. Don't fret if you don't see the bad readings...be happy that something worked out. I have found that adding decor and gravel from an existing tank works wonders starting a new one so just watch your parameters (as you are obviously doing) and act accordingly. Don't let yourself worry until there is something to worry about dear.

[CJ1]

Ok, this will probably go against many people's thinking, but put away your test kits. You have been doing this fish thing long enough now to feel confident in what you're doing. If you think your cycling technique is right, don't worry so much about testing. No matter how you do it, there can be spikes in the toxins, but the tank will settle down. I fell into the testing trap in the beginning and it drove me nuts. I assume you used some media from one of your other tanks to help kick start this tank. Just observe the fish. If all seems fine, I really wouldn't worry. I do have test kits but haven't used them in years. You have seen pics of my tank. The fish are extremely healthy.

[Lady Hobbs]

How do you know when the levels are sky high and water needs changing without the test kits? If ammonia gets over 1 you should be doing small water changes to keep the water from getting too toxic. Same with the nitrites.

I don't use the test kits hardly at all on the established tanks but use it daily on the cycling one to keep track of the water parameters.

[Lady Hobbs]

Don't let yourself worry until there is something to worry about dear.
Look at my hair. See how gray it is? :) I got it all from cycling fish tanks. :)
I goofed up so much with other tanks that this one was going to go right by text book. HA I'm only worried as I'll be leaving for FL Wednesday and won't be here to do what needs to be done so that's stressing me a bit. OK. A LOT!

I now have ammonia to .025, nitrites .50 and nitrates .50.

PS now going off topic.........in another post I mentioned maple leaves but can't find that thread. I read up on it again and Oak leaves are better as they don't rot away as fast. Don't really know the benefit of them, however, but did want to correct myself.

[CJ1]

The toxins are needed to get the helpful bacteria growing. By reducing the toxins through water changes, which would make sense, you are slowing down the cycling process. Just test for nitrites. When you have zero nitrites showing, tank is cycled.

[Lady Hobbs]

The toxins are needed to get the helpful bacteria growing. By reducing the toxins through water changes, which would make sense, you are slowing down the cycling process. Just test for nitrites. When you have zero nitrites showing, tank is cycled.
Thanks for the post. It kinda tossed me when I saw such small ammonia levels. I'm used to those humungous spikes. :) I'm of the opinion that cycling smaller tanks is much more difficult. This one seems to be going much too good to be true.

[NorthernBoy]

I totally agree with CJ. We often get into a testing frenzy and end up either prolonging the process or killling it completely. Best advice...Be patient and only add a few fish at first.

[Lady Hobbs]

I had the worse time cycling the 30 gallon all due to things I did wrong.
First, I decided I hated the gravel color so changed it. And the tank had just finished it's cycling. SMART! Then a bala shark got fungus about the time it had cycled again and bacteria was killed off with the fungal meds. Third time out...........I had to move the tank to make room for the 55 gallon. Here we go again.

It got so my fish were throwing their little fins over their eyes when they saw me coming.

This tank is going so smoothly in it's cycling that it's scarey.