update!

[Danya]

hi guys...
I haven't been posting much anymore because i can't get onto the
groups from work! :-\

anyway, my cycle STILL isn't complete, and my tank has been set up for
almost 3 months. so i added some cycle to my tank, now my ammonia is
at a good level, but my pH is low, the alkalinity is low, and nitrate
and nitrite are high. another 1 of my neon tetras died and my oldest
fish, Hal, died. ACK! i guess i'm just going to let the cycle take
its course... i really don't want to mess around with the levels
anymore (i.e. adding more chemicals to try and balance things out).
so far, i have 3 corydoras left, 3 neons, 1 female gourami, 1
swordtail, 2 guppies, and my rainbow shark.

wish me luck

[Peter Ashby]

Danya > wrote:

> hi guys...
> I haven't been posting much anymore because i can't get onto the
> groups from work! :-\
>
> anyway, my cycle STILL isn't complete, and my tank has been set up for
> almost 3 months. so i added some cycle to my tank, now my ammonia is
> at a good level, but my pH is low, the alkalinity is low, and nitrate
> and nitrite are high. another 1 of my neon tetras died and my oldest
> fish, Hal, died. ACK! i guess i'm just going to let the cycle take
> its course... i really don't want to mess around with the levels
> anymore (i.e. adding more chemicals to try and balance things out).
> so far, i have 3 corydoras left, 3 neons, 1 female gourami, 1
> swordtail, 2 guppies, and my rainbow shark.

The fact that your tank produces nitrites and nitrates from the ammonia
your fish produce says you have a cycle. The question is why you are
still seeing the ammonia and nitrites. It seems to me that there are two
possibiilities, inadequate numbers/functioning of nitrifying bacteria or
inadequate filtering. The latter you can fix by putting in another
filter or getting a bigger one, but why after 3months you are still
getting ammonia and nitrites if your filter is adequate for your load I
don't know except that maybe there is something in your gravel that is
causing a problem, poisoning the bacteria or something living in the
gravel producing waste.

Is it possible you are over feeding and have a planarian explosion in
your gravel for eg? You could test for this by not feeding your fish for
a week and seeing if the ammonia and nitrite levels rise to normal
levels that they would achieve in a week. Your fish will be ok for a
week, and will clean your tank of any edibles.

So, either increase output (more filtration) or decrease input.

Peter

--
Add my middle initial to email me. It has become attached to a country

[TYNK 7]

>Subject: update!
>From: (Danya)
>Date: 10/27/2004 12:19 AM Central Daylight Time
>Message-id: >
>
>hi guys...
>I haven't been posting much anymore because i can't get onto the
>groups from work! :-\
>
>anyway, my cycle STILL isn't complete, and my tank has been set up for
>almost 3 months. so i added some cycle to my tank, now my ammonia is
>at a good level, but my pH is low, the alkalinity is low, and nitrate
>and nitrite are high. another 1 of my neon tetras died and my oldest
>fish, Hal, died. ACK! i guess i'm just going to let the cycle take
>its course... i really don't want to mess around with the levels
>anymore (i.e. adding more chemicals to try and balance things out).
>so far, i have 3 corydoras left, 3 neons, 1 female gourami, 1
>swordtail, 2 guppies, and my rainbow shark.
>
>wish me luck

The product Cycle will not help at all. It has the wrong type of bacteria in
it.
Same with Stress Zyme and Bio Zyme.
To be honest, I can't figure out why it's even legal for them to claim what
they are.
It's possible that you're having problems because:
A. You're not doing enough water changes.
B. Water changes are not regular, as in weekly, but more scattered, such as a
20% this week...then a 40% 3 weeks later, then a 20% the next week, etc.
It's best to do them on a steady basis and keep up with them.
(I'm not saying this is what's *you* are doing...I'm just spouting out
possiblitites.)
C. Over feeding. Food that is not eaten decays quickly and can really messup
your water chemistry.
D. Not vacuuming the gravel, or not good enough of a job.
C. Too many fish in a new tank.
D. Too many fish for the tank size.
E. Not that this has to do with why it's still cycling, but more for
unexplained deaths... Disease (reason for deaths other than stress from a
cycling tank).

[Mbuna]

Hey Danya,

You can get to the groups through FishGeeks at http://Aquaria.Info if
your work is blocking newsgroups.

Sean
__________________________________________________
Posted via FishGeeks - http://Aquaria.info

[Danya]

well cycle DID help, so there. :)

my levels are great now, so i've added 4 more neons (i now have 7
total) and i added 2 julii corys since the one i did have died...
i'm hoping to get some live plants this weekend if the LFS got some
in.