Help with cycling first aquarium

[Mellie101]

Hello, have been following topics on the newsgroup and would really
appreciate some help.


I am in the process of cycling a 55g tank. I intend to have 5 goldfish

in it when it is fully cycled. 1 fantail, 1 Ryunkin, 1 pearlscale, 1
black moor and a oranda. Firstly do these fish all get along together?



The Aquaria has been up and running for a week now. I am using a
Fluval 404 so understand that I am 'over filtering' which is a good
thing with goldfish?? The day after running the aquarium I put the
Ryunkin and fantail in to help cycle the tank. Was going to use feeder

fish but didn't want to get attached to them then have a tank full of
them at the end. I am using 'Cycle' to speed the process up too. Our
pearlscale is in a different tank and won't be added till the cycle has

finished.


So when the first week was up I did a water test. The PH was 7.8 which

is a bit high although I understand this will naturally come down and
is still in the parameters that goldfish can handle. My ammonia was
0.25, Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 5. This seems a bit 'too good to be
true' in just a week. I was reading that this could mean the tank is
cycled for the current fish and now I should add one fish at a time
until I have my full stock and allow for a spike of ammonia and
nitrites after each fish is introduced.


Also the temp of the tank is running at 74-76 degrees. This is without

a heater. The fish are doing well, eating and having a great time in
there.


Could somebody please advise me if I'm doing this right or if I haven't

got a clue at all.


I am loving this 'hobby' so much


Thanks Mellie

[eric]

"Mellie101" > wrote in message:

> in it when it is fully cycled. 1 fantail, 1 Ryunkin, 1 pearlscale, 1
> black moor and a oranda. Firstly do these fish all get along together?

Yes, usually. The only problems you may have is that some of the higher
mutated fancy varieties have limited swim abilities. This may mean the
pearlscale for instance gets less food during feeding.


> So when the first week was up I did a water test. The PH was 7.8 which
> is a bit high although I understand this will naturally come down and

This isn't high at all and perfectly fine, as long as its stable.


> is still in the parameters that goldfish can handle. My ammonia was
> 0.25, Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 5. This seems a bit 'too good to be
> true' in just a week. I was reading that this could mean the tank is
> cycled for the current fish and now I should add one fish at a time
> until I have my full stock and allow for a spike of ammonia and
> nitrites after each fish is introduced.

No, its not cycled. How often did you test? You most likely haven't even
started getting much of the nitrite producing bacteria. You want to test
every few days to see these values change so you know where you are at. In
the first week you should see ammonia peak and then start dropping. While
ammonia is dropping you will begin to see nitrite which will peak after a
week or so, then you will see nitrate slowly increase.

[Koi-lo]

"Mellie101" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
>
> Hello, have been following topics on the newsgroup and would really
> appreciate some help.
==========================
I replied to you on the other NG you posted this too. :-)
--

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Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
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[[email protected]]

I just went through this process with a little 20 gallon tank. It drove me
nuts for several weeks till I found the stuff that works. It's called "Bio
Spira", and it's offered by a lot of aquarium stores. It cycled my tank in 3
days. The stuff is amazing. This is not required, as all the proper bacteria
are naturally occuring, but it speeds up the process immensely!
Do a Google search on Bio Spira, and read all the happy replies it gets. But
don't expect it to be cheap. It has to remain refrigerated, and has a fairly
short shelf life. Expect to pay about 20 bucks for enough to do a 55 gal
tank.
Hope this helps! Enjoy your new fish!

Respectfully

--
Kevin

[Gail Futoran]

> wrote in message
...
>I just went through this process with a little 20 gallon tank. It drove me
> nuts for several weeks till I found the stuff that works. It's called "Bio
> Spira", and it's offered by a lot of aquarium stores. It cycled my tank in
> 3
> days. The stuff is amazing. This is not required, as all the proper
> bacteria
> are naturally occuring, but it speeds up the process immensely!
> Do a Google search on Bio Spira, and read all the happy replies it gets.
> But
> don't expect it to be cheap. It has to remain refrigerated, and has a
> fairly
> short shelf life. Expect to pay about 20 bucks for enough to do a 55 gal
> tank.
> Hope this helps! Enjoy your new fish!
>
> Respectfully
>
> --
> Kevin

I've read many testimonials here and on other
aquaria newsgroups about Bio Spira. I'm
glad it exists and would use it if the occasion
arose.

I did my first tank the hard way, using pure
ammonia and doing a fishless cycle. It worked
fine, and since then have simply seeded
additional tanks from the original tank.

Gail