Is that going to be it for a spike in nitrites/nitrates???

**Pixxie75** · 02-01-2013, 05:01 AM

Well I made it, I hope.
I have a 20 gallon tank and have 2 goldfihs, 2 irredesent sharks, 1 pictus, 1 pleco, 1 rapheal catfish.
I thought I had done the cycle with my two gold fish for 3 weeks...
I found out the hard way and my tank hit 10 for my nitrites and 200 for the nitrates.. for a week it sat this high.
I was doing half water changes everyday.
It started to come down and I changed the filter (cartridge) and vacumed the tank with my water change and it spiked again to the highest levels on the stirps.
Then over night it went down to 1 and 40.
And then the next day 0 and 0.
Its been good like this for a week. I think I was over feeding as well during all this and started to be a bit stingy with the food.
Does this mean I am through the cycling and I am good now?

**mizzoutank** · 02-01-2013, 05:27 AM

Sadly No.
Could you elaborate on how you cycled this tank? Im not following what happened?
Also, we need to address your fish as they physically cannot fit in 20gallons

**Honey Badger 1** · 02-01-2013, 05:30 AM

I would love to see a picture of your tank and the fish in it.

**mizzoutank** · 02-01-2013, 05:32 AM

I second that, with the new forum look we areable to share pictures better and it is fun to see all the different aquarium styles

**Lady Hobbs** · 02-01-2013, 05:34 AM

Not me. The mental picture of 2 goldfish, 2 iridescent sharks, 1 pictus, 1 pleco, 1 rapheal catfish is enough for me in a 20 gallon tank.

You might want to read about cycling in my signature?

**Pixxie75** · 02-01-2013, 05:40 AM

I have a 150 gallon tank my dad is giving to me once he is finshed building his custom tank so they wont be in the 20 gallon for long as they will get quite large.
I seet up the 20 gallon tank and let it run with a starter bacteria for 1 week. Then I added 2 gold fish for 3 weeks.
Then I was under the misunderstanding that I had established the tank and could add more fish. That is when I added the 2 irredecent and rapheal. Then a couple of days later I added the pictus and pleco.
And I started testing the water and noticed the nitrite climbing. I think I was over feeding adn I am not sure if my fliter is the best. Its a cartiage one, and you pull the whole thing out and put in a new one. Which I did. (maybe the canistser filters hold more bacteria as you dont have to pull out the media?)
With in a couple of days my Nitrites and Nitrates were the highest level on the tester.
I keep up with 50 % water changes daily, added the air rock and put the temp up to 78.
It stayed up like this for a week. I thought for sure the fish were going to die. They all survied and I am at week 8 now and the nitrite and nitrate are showing as zero when I test.
I am just unsure if that means my tank is stable and cycled?

Mommy1 I will post a pick as soon as I figure out how:)

**Lady Hobbs** · 02-01-2013, 05:47 AM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...cent_shark.jpg

Here's your shark and you have two of these. If you have a pleco, you must have driftwood because it's a food source for them and a diet requirement. Pleco's should not go in new tanks as they will often starve to death. Goldfish are cold water fish and the others you have are warm water. Good rule of thumb is do not get the fish until you have the tank.

Removing the cartridge in your filter also removes the bacteria and why you lost your cycle.

**Pixxie75** · 02-01-2013, 06:03 AM

So will it spike everytime I remove the cartridge to clean the filter?

**Lady Hobbs** · 02-01-2013, 06:10 AM

Yes. That's where you cycle is.

**fishn00b** · 02-01-2013, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by Lady Hobbs

Yes. That's where you cycle is.

Not necessarily true depending on the filter...I have been using cartridge filters for a while and the Aqueons have this plastic stuff that never comes out with a ton of surface area for BB growth. You do lose some of it in the cartridge but as long as you don't ever clean off the plastic casings in there (blue pieces if its aqueon) then you should be ok. Also don't change those nearly as often as the package suggest just rinse the cartridge off in tank water.

That being said, to help out you can do what i just did to my larger aqueon and get a media bag with small filter media pieces and stick it in behind where the cartidge fits, or modify the cartridge to remove the carbon & replace wqith crushed traditional filter media so you can effectively never replace it and never deal with loss/partial loss of cycle. From what I read more surface areas that is never removed/disintegrated without affecting flow the better.

That stock list is wild though even if it's temporary.