# my tank is not cycling properly



## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

HELLO!
I am a newbie for starting a tank. I purchased a 10 g aquarium on the last week of may. I also got started with a top fin 10g filter and the store owner suggested I get some live bacteria to help speed the cycling process. I also purchased some sand for the bottom with live bacteria, a few fake plants and a greek urn figure for them to swim around in. I was told that cycling usually take between 6 to 8 weeks and I had to wait until then to get some cichlids which i adore. So, the fish store lady was kind enough to tell me that after a week to get some starter fish to help with the cycling process. I picked some colorful platy fish. I was warned that most of them could die but not to worry about it. I bought 4 fish. About a week later the first one died. I brought my water in to be tested and they told me that the ammonia was starting to rise and that was normal. They told me to get a few more fish so I got two more platys. They also told me to start monitoring and testing the water regularly.
Four weeks into the cycling, another fish died. I also noticed that my fish appeared to be covered in small white bubbles, which i assumed were from the filter. I am a Microbiology major in college, so I became more curious about the little white spots. It turned out after consulting a friend, they were the dreaded ICH! I read more about it and found out that when your fish are super stressed, the ICH can come out and eventually the dam parasite will kill your fish. So my next trip back to the fish store, I showed the owner the pictures I took of my fish who confirmed the ICH. She said she did not want to put medicine in my tank unless absolutely necessary because it could disrupt the cycling process. She recommended I put a tablespoon of aquarium salt daily and get a heater for my tank to maintain a constant temperature. I did this for a week keeping my temperature at a constant 81 degrees, but the fish still looked like they were struggling. I went back and asked her to check my water. The ammonia levels were off the charts, which I suspected. She gave me some PRIME which is supposed to remove chlorine, ammonia, nitrate and nitrites and told me to double does the bacteria I add once weekly. Also to come back in another week to test my water. 
7/3/09: ammonia was off charts, nitrite was at 0.5, nitrate was at 0, ph was at 7.8
Six weeks into cycling, my fish looked better and ICH was gone. One of the fish which was originally infected pretty bad died and two days later another one died. (just to clarify the fish were taken out the day the died not left in there for a while to accumulate ammonia) I am down to 2 fish and I tested my water again. The fish store staff assured me this was completely normal. They told me that I should be excited because my tank was progressing with the cycling process nicely. The owner said she did not want my fish to die, so to go home and do a 1/3 water change and add two capfuls of prime. Then to come back the next day and test my water again.
7/14/09: ammonia 0.2, nitrite 0.6, nitrate 10 and pH 7.9
7/15/09: ammonia 0.2, nitrite 0.2, nitrate 10 and pH 7.8
She told me that on 7/15 that it looked well and I could put fish in it, but she suggested I wait one more week to make sure conditions were perfect.
On 7/22, I went in to test my water because I was worried about my fish. They were hovering on the bottom of the tank and not moving much. My water tested at ammonia 0.6, nitrite 0.1 and nitrate at 10 with a pH of 7.8. The fish owner asked me what I had done wrong, because my ammonia went up again and now I could not get fish. She asked how much I was feeding them, which was what they told me 1 flake a fish to prevent food on bottom. She asked when I took the dead fish out like if I left them in my tank for a few days which I responded no. She said then she could not explain why ammonia was up and she recommended me get a bio-wheel in addtion to the cheap top fin filter. I purchased a bio-wheel 100 and she told me to set it up and wait a week again. I got home and set it up (my fish tank is on the side of my bed) and that dam filter is so loud I could not sleep. I called her back and she told me to fiddle with the intake and make sure everything was tight. I did that and there is no change. Is it supposed to be kind lound with a crackiling grinding sound? I was wondering if I should return it. I'm not sure what they are supposed to sound like, but my top fin one is completely silent and runs smoothly. I also am worried because I have no idea now when my tank is going to be finished cycling and these people can't tell me why its not finished. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!:lol:
thanks,
Katherine


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## redlessi (Jul 22, 2009)

First you should get a API master test kit, this will allow you to test the water yourself. Second, since you already have fish, you should do partial water changes daily until your parameters level off to ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate around 5 to 10. Make sure you treat the water that you add with some conditioner and hold off buying any additional fish until the tank stablizes. Patience my dear....... By the way, Bio-wheels are nice but not mandatory for cycling a tank and if it does not run smoothly, either it is not put together well or you should take it back. Good Luck


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## Zombie (Jul 14, 2009)

Congrats on the new tank. I wish I knew more about cycling, but I'm afriad I know very little. I wish you the best of luck. Please do keep us updated.


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## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

Hi Katie,

I have a bio wheel 200 which is silent until I unplug it to do water changes. It always makes that awful noise when I plug it back in but after I prime it a few times and make sure the intake valve is snug in the filter bed, it stops. 

Assuming that your tank is full of water?? If not, the other reason it will make that grinding noise is if the intake tube is sucking in air. Not sure of your model but mine has two places on the intake tube which suck in water. Both have to be fully submerged.

Good luck.


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## Zombie (Jul 14, 2009)

Love your siggy, Romad.


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## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

Thanks. It made me chuckle too.


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## Zombie (Jul 14, 2009)

Haha.


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

Thank you so much! How much of a water change should I do?


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

My tank is very full to the top of water. The bio-wheel is making that awful noise. When I get home I will try to disassemble it again and look for those air pockets, if not I will just return it like redlessi said! thank you so much


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

Thank you for all the posts! these are all excellent suggestions I will be trying all of them and will post back with the results!


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## redlessi (Jul 22, 2009)

Remember you have to put water in the filter before turning it on to keep the motor from burning out. I would change at least 20 to 30% of the water and dont forget to treat the water that you add. Do you have a test kit?


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

HI GUYS! ok I went ahead and purchased the API master test kit and took a reading today 7/24: ammonia is at 0.25, nitrite is at 0, (YAY!) nitrate is between 5 and 10 and ph is still at 7.8. I also performed a 1/3 water change and added my PRIME to ensure removal of cholorine, etc. My two remaining fish still are looking pretty gloomy floating on the bottom of the tank. I'm going to let it sit for 24 hours and then try testing the water again! I will post asap!


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## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

Crossing fingers for you!


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## redlessi (Jul 22, 2009)

How are your fish doing?


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

AHHH guys! Ok so I got back from New Orleans this weekend and my roomate fills me in on the details. My little top fin filter burned out while I was gone (figures...) so he had to hook up the noisy biofin filter to keep the fish alive. He said he did not know what else to do. That is ok I guess I will just have to adjust to the noise. ALSO one of the fish could not take the 2 hours w/o filter (he checked on my fish every 2 hours) and it died :-( I swear I picked the weakest, worst starter fish in the world!!!! I got home today and the last fish is not looking too hott. He keeps floating on the bottom and looks like he is dead but he is still breathing and when I splash the water he tries to swim but looks a little retarded. **SIGH** he will probably die. I went to New Orleans to see the Aquarium for the first time! IT WAS AMAZING! I love orange discus fish and there was a whole tank of them. YAY! anyways... back to the tank: my questions:
1. If I had to put the new filter, am I going to have to start the whole cycling process all over again?
2. I performed a water test for 7/27:
Ammonia: between 0 and 0.25
pH: between 8.0 and 8.2
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: between 10 and 20
So what can I do? More starter fish? 
Thank you guys for any tips you can provide! I will try to post pictures of aquarium in new orleans and of my tank!
Katherine


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## redlessi (Jul 22, 2009)

If you have to put in a new filter, make sure you use the media from the one that is already in the tank. Continue doing partial water changes. As for starter fish you can try danios as they are hardy.


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

i can't use the same pipes, they are two different filters. My last fish passed tonight sadly. So the numbers are NO fish and same reading. I will do a partial water change again and test water. New filter=new cycling process again? When should I put the fish?


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## redlessi (Jul 22, 2009)

not pipes, what did you have inside the filter, ie. pads, filter cartrige, whatever you were using inside the filter take out and put inside new filter.


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

The filter cartridge in my top fin does not fit in the bio-wheel i don't know what you mean


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Read through this thread, there are some issues of concern.

First, your pH is 8.2, that is very high. I am wondering if this is due to the "sand" mentioned in your first post? It seems you bought live sand (sand with bacteria) which may have been intended for marine tanks, not freshwater. Or there is something in your tanks raising ph (the sand or rocks). What is the pH of your tap water on its own? This issue may have been part of the reason for your fish dying.

Second, after being without a source of ammonia for a couple of days you will be cycling from start, so no purpose in transferring media from the old filter now. Clean the filter, set it back up. The sand may have to go, depending upon the preceeding. Get one or two hardy fish but fish that you want to keep, as they will (hopefully) live on for many years.

You mentioned cichlids somewhere...what type? A 10g is small quarters for most cichlids, except maybe a single pair of dwarf apistogramma.


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

The store owner told me the sand with live bacteria would benefit my cycle and be good for the cichlids. I just want a few. I'm not dead set on cichlids. I will test the ph of the tap water and give u a reading tonight of it and my tank again. The cichlids I was looking into were very small orange ones. What do you mean by cycling from the start? I guess that means another 6 to 8 week adventure lol hopefully with less problems. I will go tonight and get 2 hardy fish and see how they hold up.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

katie1587 said:


> The store owner told me the sand with live bacteria would benefit my cycle and be good for the cichlids. I just want a few. I'm not dead set on cichlids. I will test the ph of the tap water and give u a reading tonight of it and my tank again. The cichlids I was looking into were very small orange ones. What do you mean by cycling from the start? I guess that means another 6 to 8 week adventure lol hopefully with less problems. I will go tonight and get 2 hardy fish and see how they hold up.


When we have the tap water pH reading we will know more what to suggest (I and others). "Small orange" cichlids sound like African rift lake cichlids; they will not stay small, and as far as I know most if not all of them are aggressive by nature and a 10g is not going to be suitable for anything but a pair, but I'll leave it for one of the cichlid experts to comment further. A high pH is suitable for African rift lake cichlids, mandatory in fact (in my view), and that may explain the sand (which I suspect is the cause for the high pH, but your tap water test will confirm this).


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

ok here ya go just tested the ph of my tap water and it had a reading of between 8.2 to 8.4. Tomorrow I want to just go get a small cichlid, I heard they are pretty tough and see if it survives. I am going to test the water of the aquarium one more time just to make sure the levels are not too high.


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## katie1587 (Jul 23, 2009)

MMMMkkk just to make sure I did a water test one more time before adding a fish. the ph is still at 8.0 to 8.2, the ammonia is almost 0 like it has a tiny tint of yellow green so it is smaller than 0.25. The nitrite is still 0 and the nitrate looks a little higher than 10 but definitely not high enough to be 20. Im going to get a small fish today and see how it works out.


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