Tank Cycle. Nitrites Level

[kolxy]

Hi.

PH-6.8

Ammo-0.0

Nitrites-0.5

Nitrates-40

Kh-50

Gh-60

I have 20 gallon tank with 3 comet goldfish (i know too many).

i have AquaClear power filter for 20-50 gal. aquariums as i was advised in net store. It filters 200 gph.

My tank 2 month old and i new to fish keeping. After few mistakes, fish lice on 1 of my fish, few PH crushes i had it as low as 6.0 ( now i know why) my tank seems like almost finish cycle but my nitrites stay between 0.25 to 0.50 for about 1.5 month. My ammonia went to 0.0 in the middle of the last month. I used Fritz-zyme Turbo Start #700 1 month ago.

How long i see those nitrites readings? Is there anything i can do about it? I am doing 20% water changes 2-3 times per week.

PH and KH are another issues. i keep adding corals(not crushed). Its still low but i have no crashes and its stable now. i dont want to mess with baking soda.

Thank you and sorry for my english - its not my native. B.T.W. i did not lose any fish so far.

[lynda441]

I'm sorry no one has answered your question. If you're still around, let's see if we can get you some answers.

First thing that I think is most important, do your fish still have lice? If so, we need to deal with that right away. All of your fish are going to get the lice if we don't get rid of them now.

Your filter is okay for the standard 10x filtration, but as you're overstocked, if you could add another 100 gph, that may help your water handle the bioload better. Also, stuffing extra media, fiber or sponge, not carbon, in your filter could help.

Really, your ph right now is okay. 6.8 is not that far off of 7.0 and it's much more important that it remain stable than anything. But, what's troublesome is your KH and GH levels. Your KH should be over 100-150 or more and GH should be between 100-200. Your low KH and GH readings are probably why your ph won't stabilize. If you're no longer having crashes, it sounds like your crushed coral might be working, but I would continue to test your KH and GH and try to get your readings up over 100-150 for each with the crushed coral. High nitrates can also cause ph to crash, which you also have.

If you have readings of both nitrites and nitrates, that should mean that your nitrites are dropping in your cycle and you're moving into your nitrate phase, but your nitrites are still too high when you also have such high nitrates. Neither should be this high. Hopefully, by now, maybe your nitrites are gone, but regardless, your nitrates need to be, at least, below 20 ppm, and I prefer below 10, but with so many fish, you may have a difficult time doing this. You can only achieve this by larger water changes.

Worrying about how long it will take for your tank to cycle isn't as important right now as getting your water parameters back in line. 20% water changes are not nearly sufficient enough given your bioload, even if you're doing them 2-3 times a week. You need to increase your water changes to 70% 2-3 times a week, and to start with, I'd highly suggest doing a 90%-95% water change for the first change to try to get rid of all of your high and unstable readings. A large water change will bring down your nitrates and, along with the crushed coral, might get your ph, KH and GH back in line.

Please read this post about how to correct ph, gh and kh. http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=65745

Edited October 21, 2008 by Lynda Von G

[kolxy]

Thank You for Your reply Lynda Von G. My tank finished cycling. Now my PH is 7.2 and stays stable for so far. My problem with KH and GH begin right out from the tap. Tap water GH-10, KH-0-10 mg/l

I was shocked. PH-6.4. I use drops to measure it. I will try to bring PH in a water change bucket close to 7.2 using "correct PH 7" or PH UP.Or my be baking soda. I ll try to add some crushed corrals in my filter. It takes time to make it right.

Fish lace no problem any more. It happened 1 1/2 month ago. I treated my tank with 2 tablets of Parasite clear from tank Buddies. Its gone so far.

[lynda441]

Glad to hear that you got rid of the fish lice. That could've been a bad thing!

And, glad to hear that your tank has cycled. I'm sure you know that all the ph correction additives and baking soda are temporary fixes and can create unstable fluctuations in your ph when they dissipate, but as long as you are keeping it in there and the ph doesn't fluctuate, that's the most important thing. It would be good to get the crushed coral in your tank as soon as you can. And, the crushed coral doesn't have to be put in your filter. Anyway, good luck and hope to see you more on Kokos! Please feel free to ask any questions you might have!

[kolxy]

I try to buy crushed corals this weekend, i want to take out activated carbon insert in my filter and put a back of crushed corals instead.