mza1979m

I have a 20 gallon tank with 13 fish (2 green cobra guppies, 2 serpae tetras, 5 feeder guppies and 4 other tetras I'm not sure of). Anyhow, I started this tank on July 13th and shoved all these fish in there only armed with the knowledge that this aquarium needs water for the fish to swim in! I even bought the fish before I put water in the tank. I didn't even know I needed to dechlorinate the water. I had shoved the fish right in tap water. Since that time, in the past 9 days, I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge on this hobby. I went from a person who couldn't tell the difference between an angelfish and a white whale to someone who'se able to explain the entire cycling process using really big words.
ANYways, here's my concern... After 9 days, my ammonia level is currently about 0.25 ppm (I'm not using the test strips, but the bottle drop thingy), and it has been for the past 4 days. My nitrite level is 0. So obviously my tank is cycling but to me it seems like it's barely in the first stage! The second bacteria colony that breaks ammonia down into nitrite doesn't seem to have developed yet. All the fish seem to be doing well (I lost one within an hour of shoving it into the tank, probably too much shock, considering I had opened the bag and threw the poor fish in the tank, forcing it to get used to the water quickly, but all other fish are fine for now). For the past 4 days I've been changing 20% of the water daily. First off, should I continue doing daily water changes? I read on another site that I should, but I assumed that was for an established tank. However, for a tank that is in the process of cycling, I'm a little hestitant, as it makes me believe that if I'm constantly changing the water, that means I'm cleaning out the sources of ammonia from the water (waste, ammonia exerted from fish gills, excess food), thus decreasing the ammonia ppm, and in turn, decreasing the amount of beneficial bacteria that need to feed on this ammonia. Am I correct in believing this? Should I continue to do the water changes? Should I continue to feed the fish daily (I've been feeding them every other day since I found out I've got ammonia in the tank)? Should I just continue to let ammonia levels rise in order to encourage the beneficial bacteria to grow and get on with the cycling process?

I'm using the following products:
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/...conditioner8oz
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/...osebioclean8oz
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/...ebiosupport8oz

I'm feeding them the following food (and have just started feeding them freeze dried blood worms today):
http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/...sgranules353oz

Their temperature is currently at about 75 deg. F.

Sorry for the drawn out explanation, but... yeah, whatever.

BMueller777

Whoa dude... lol

You should go and return all of those fish. You tank will hit it's first spike soon and a majority of your fish will die and the ones that don't die will live much much shorter lives b/c of the damnage done by the cycling process.

You also have too many fish to start off with.

That's just the start of it, I'm sure people will tell you more

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The early bird may get the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese....

Freshwater tanks:
45g: 1 Random river fish, 7 Goldfish, 2 Angel Fish, 2 Black Skirt Tetras

BJP

Ammonia showing up isn't the start of the cycle. It's when nitrite shows up. You need bacteria in place to produce nitrite and later nitrate. Just respiration alone from the fish releases ammonia into the environment. The cycle hasn't even started yet.

Any detectible level of ammonia or nitrite means there's more food in solution than bacteria present to remove it so bacteria populations will increase eventually.

With fish in the tank it's going to be almost impossible to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down. To get close is going to require a lot of work and not feeding the fish.

To speed things up you need a source of bacteria. With no nitrite testible you don't have any yet and it could takes months for it show up on it's own if at all. I stopped one test tank after about 90 days waiting for the first sign of life.

The bacteria sources can be old filter material from another tank, gravel or deco from an established tank, live plants, espeially those with the little pots of floss or the liquid suppliments like Bio-Spira by Marineland. Hagen's Cycle would be my second choice there.

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mza1979m

Of course, that makes sense I suppose. Didn't think of that. Thanks a lot.