Suggestions on cycling my new 20 gal aquarium

"Osteole" wrote in news:1154236461.544228.310490
@s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:


Can anyone make any suggestions concerning the Nitrogen numbers?

You're going to just have to wait. There are some products out there that
claim they seed your tank and cycle it faster, but how effective they are
is questionable. Recently completed research has demonstrated that some of
the bacteria long held responsible for removing nitrite from aquaria do not
even exist in detectable amounts in aquariums and in fact totally
unexpected bacteria are doing the work.

Do you have your filter from the old setup? Can you run the two filters in
tandem? Can you port some of the biological medium from the old setup into
your new one?

Those options will all help removing the nitrite from your new setup
faster, but you are still going to have to continue to wait and water
change when the levels begin to climb too high.

Aerating the water as much as possible will help both the fish and the
developing bacteria culture. Salt will help detoxify the nitrite and the
fish's body will do the rest. Fish can produce more hemoglobin in response
to the effects of nitrite, but if the concentrations climb too high too
fast the resulting stress on the fish's health can be quite serious.

Goldfish are high waste producers so it is going to be an uphill battle.
You would have done better to cycle the tank with just the Betta and then
moved the goldfish over afterwards--not that I'm advocating keeping them
together long term. Both goldfish and Bettas are hardy, but to get either
of these fish to thrive long term you'll have to provide for their
individual needs.