New 55 gallon tank, almost finished cycling?

[JayFiveAlive]

I have a 55 gallon tank set up with currently 5 fish in there.. some mollies, a gold gourami, and a halfmoon betta. The tank is about a month old now.

I have been reading up on cycling and didn't realize I should not mess with the gravel. I for some reason thought anytime I do a water change, it should be by gravel vacing and so I have been gravel vacing since day 1 :(.

Anyway, I just did a 20% water change again yesterday. Ammonia has been at 0 ppm for about 2 weeks, nitrites are through the roof (4-5+ppm), and nitrates are like 60ppm now after the water change, but tend to stay around 80ppm.

How long will it take for my Nitrites to lower? Did my gravel vaccing screw this up? From here on out I will not touch gravel and when I do water changes I will just suck the water out of the top. Is there anything else I can do to speed the process up? Major /face palm on the gravel thing :( speaking of which... when do I want to gravel vac?

I have about 8 plants in my tank now and will be adding more down the road.

[Stlouisfish]

I hope you realize that your nitrite level should be at 0 for your tank when it's fully cycled and nitrates should be consistently no higher than 20ppm (before a water change) unless your tank is still cycling which is sounds like it is. I would do daily 50-75% water changes to bring nitrites/nitrates lower or else you are going to start losing fish. Gravel vacuums remove beneficial bacteria although the main concern is building up that bacteria in the filter. I also thought I should vacuum the gravel every time I did a water change until I learned otherwise (my tank has been up for 4mos) - now I just siphon water once a week. About your high nitrates, I hope you're not overfeeding your fish.

[JayFiveAlive]

Yeah, the tank has not finished cycling. I went with a fish cycle instead of fishless which I prob would not have done if I could go back in time. It does sound like I need to do daily water changes.

Is it safe to do water changes immediately with tap water as long as I am using Tetra AquaSafe Plus Water Conditioner? It claims to work instantly, but I have been letting my tap water sit out for 24 hours, then putting in that stuff and aquardium salt before adding it to my tank.

[Rue]

Letting your tap water sit for 24-48 hours allows the chlorine to dissipate.

If your water is treated with chloramines (more stable) it won't help.

Dechlorinator (that also inactivates chloramines) works immediately. Use it and do more water changes while you're cycling.

[Stlouisfish]

I also did a cycle with fish - little did I know how long it would take doing it that way. I took the advice of the guy working at my LFS and grabbed a few feeder goldfish - he said "You stick them in there to produce ammonia and return them in a week because they'll kickstart the process" and then I could add "more desirable" fish. These guys know how badly we want fish in a tank - lol. How large is your tank?

[KatzeSlaugen]

aquarium salt is highly debatable, but IMO continual use is a waste of money. as far as the nitrites are concerned if i read correctly and you are cycling with fish and 4-5 is way too high, same with the nitrates.

dechlor does work immediately so letting your water stand doesnt have too much of a benefit.

ide do a large water change (50%) to get your nitrates down to 40ish ppm and your nitrites down to 2-2.5. then in a few more hours do another to take the nitrates down to ~20 and the nitrites down to 1-1.25, your fish will appreciate it

[Stlouisfish]

Yeah, most people here don't recommend using salt regularly unless you're using it to treat something that salt can help with (like a case of ich).

[JayFiveAlive]

Awesome, this is very helpful! Thank you guys.

I will do a 50% water change when I get home from work and then another 50% water change before bed. And I also won't be touching the gravel :)

I guess I will save the aquarium salt in case of emergencies or if I need to do a larger than like 75% change. It's nice to know that it really may not do anything cause that one less thing I have to worry about/buy!

andreahp, my tank is a 55 gallon one.

The filter I use is the Pengiun Biowheel 350.


Any other advice or tips are always appreciated!

[Cermet]

Agree - no fresh water fish needs salt - if nitrites are that high, salt helps the gills eleminate waste - 1 tsp/10 gal aquarium salt for fresh water fish is what I have been told. After nitrites fall, using salt is not only a waste of money but useless.

You need a min of 75% WC to get the nitrites down from 4-5 ppm to 1 - 1.25 ppm; a 50% WC will not do that but will require you prepare more water to replace - a single 75% is easier and less work! while doing what two 50% achieve.:hmm3grin2orange:

[JayFiveAlive]

Doh! Well its a bit too late for a 75% now, but maybe tonight before bed I will just do a 75% instead of another 50. Fish will be so happy!

[KatzeSlaugen]

Agree - no fresh water fish needs salt - if nitrites are that high, salt helps the gills eleminate waste - 1 tsp/10 gal aquarium salt for fresh water fish is what I have been told. After nitrites fall, using salt is not only a waste of money but useless.

You need a min of 75% WC to get the nitrites down from 4-5 ppm to 1 - 1.25 ppm; a 50% WC will not do that but will require you prepare more water to replace - a single 75% is easier and less work! while doing what two 50% achieve.:hmm3grin2orange:

two 50% water changes change out 75% of water. the reason i reccomended two is because large water changes can easily kill or severly stress if you dont match the water temp carefully.

[JayFiveAlive]

two 50% water changes change out 75% of water. the reason i reccomended two is because large water changes can easily kill or severly stress if you dont match the water temp carefully.

Maybe I should stick to 50 again tonight then lol. Getting over zealous.

Will do need to do 50% daily changes until Nitrities stay down?

[Cermet]

If you are unable to match pH/temp, then any water change can be deadly; not clear why that should be hard to do?

Two 50% WC's cause greater pH/temp fall then one 75% so really, the 75% is better (less water is removed/added) compared to two 50% since the pH -temp will change in the tank will be a good bit less (do the math!)

That said, maybe you just want to rest and relax between smaller WC's so the work is spread out (more trips and chemicals, though), so doing the extra water is not as big a concern - what you like to do is what you should do! I only suggest based on the math, not what people prefer.

keep those nitrites down (I did 90% WC, sometimes twice a day in a 75 gal for my discus. Continued some weeks until my ammonia/nitrites went to zero; thats life with a fish based cycle!) and use salt until you do.

Good luck!:hmm3grin2orange:

Realized I should give an example: assume a 10 gal tank:

Two 50% WC = 5 gal + 5gal so the total changed is 10 gal but only 75% of toxins removed.
One 75% WC = 7.5 gal only = 75% toxins removed

The second uses less water and chemicals but gives the SAME amount of toxins removed - your choice since two 50% can be seperated by an hour to rest - maybe a better idea.

[JayFiveAlive]

So after my 75% WC yesterday, I tested the levels again today and they are:

pH: 7.5ish
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 2ppm
Nitrates: 6-7ish ppm

Is it necessary to do another 50% WC or should I wait another day and see what the levels are at? Don't I want more nitrates? (those lower nitrites right?)

[Lady Hobbs]

Leave it go now as those nitrites have to drop to 0. But your tank is only cycled with enough bacteria to support what you have in the tank now. When you get this cycled, you add a few more fish but then have to wait again so you can grown more bacteria to support the additional fish.

It simply takes nitrite bacteria longer to grow than ammonia bacteria and you still are not done with the cycle.

[JayFiveAlive]

Ok, thanks. I decided to put the temp up from 78 to 81 to help the bacteria grow. The fish definitely are happy today thumbs2:

[JayFiveAlive]

Yayay!!! I am so excited! Last I tested on Wed and levels went up a bit, butttt here we are on friday and I just tested again. Here are the results:

pH: 7.5ish
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 1ppm
Nitrate: 10ishppm


WOOOT. Hopefully just a few more days and Nitrites will hit 0. :19:

[jackson17]

Add a tiny bit of ammonia if you didn't or don't know to. You don't want to starve the bacteria.

[JayFiveAlive]

Add a tiny bit of ammonia if you didn't or don't know to. You don't want to starve the bacteria.

I have 5 fish in there. They should produce enough ammonia shouldn't they?

[Cermet]

NEVER add ammonia when you have fish - I'm sure that was a misread by the poster. Your fish produce all the ammonia that the bacteria need. Looks like you are getting there. Good luck.:hmm3grin2orange:

[Lady Hobbs]

Add a tiny bit of ammonia if you didn't or don't know to. You don't want to starve the bacteria.

add ammonia with fish? NOT!!!!!!

[Lady Hobbs]

I have 5 fish in there. They should produce enough ammonia shouldn't they?

Of course and glad you realize this. You might want to start looking into a canister filter down the line. A 350 pengium isn't enough for your tank once you start adding more fish. If not a canister, then another hang on the back but a good one.......like the AquaClear 110.

[JayFiveAlive]

I would prefer to have one filter, just cause I would rather not have too much hanging down in my tank (looks ugly and less natural you know heh). Would a single AC 110 be enough for it or should I really have two filters going?

I am assuming if I wanted to transition to a single AC110, I would want both filters running for awhile so that the new one could build up the BB?

I hear people love canister filters, but I dont know much about them, would a particular model be good for my 55 gallon? I really don't know anything about canister filters except I know they have a seperate box that sits next to or inside my stand :P I would like a decent amount of fish in my tank, obviously I don't want to mega overload it, but I want a decent amount.

[JayFiveAlive]

Doing some research and canister actually sounds pretty nice! I will consider getting one of those instead of an AC110 I think since they should do a better job filtering I would assume.

How many fish wouldmy pengiun 350 support before I really need to think about different/more filtration?

[JayFiveAlive]

YAY!

Just tested again:

pH: 7.5ish
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates 10ppm

That looks fully cycled!!!