Hi,

I'm cycling my new 40 gallon tank. its at day 13. Everything seems to be going well. Ammonia peaked at 2.0 yesterday, nitrites were at 0.1, so I did a 20% water change, today the ammonia is about 1.0-1.2 and nitrites about 0.3. I've been doing about 10% water changes every other day. The tank has 3 fish, an aqua one canister filter., and a reasonable amount of aeration through a bubble wall and airstone.

The last few days we are experiencing a bit of a heat wave here, normally my tank stays in the opptimal temp range without any effort, I have a nice brick home with concrete floors and aircon so the temp is pretty stable. But its been 45C here all day, thats about 113F, the tanks been at about 84F today. I've had the aircon blasting since I got home, the house was a sauna. in 5 hours I have managed to drop my house temp down to 26C which is about 78-79F,. much more comfy, but the tank is still about 82F.

I just wondered if there was anything I should do or watch for? I've turned up my air pump to help add more aeration as I know that the water holds less oxygen at higher temps, should I expect any effect to the cycling process, it is looking like a very hot weekend, but fortunately I'll be home most of it to keep the aircon running. I'm not comfortable leaving it running when I am out.

The fish seem relatively happy. Perhaps a little slower than usual, but I think that seems expected?

I hope that its nothing to be concerned about, but I am very attached to my fish and want to do everything I can to make the cycling as stress free as possible.

Thanks for any tips/feedback in advance.

I neglected to mention pH is 7.2

I just had to pop in here and bask in your heat. Right now it is -8F (-20C) with a wind chill of -19F (-28C).

I sounds like you are doing what you need to do. You are addressing the oxygen issue - other than having a fan to blow across the surface of the water during the day, you have done well. The bacteria does need oxygen to process waste in the nitrogen cycle, so give it lots of that and all should be good.

Your cycling bacteria will actually thrive in the 80's (F).

Keep an eye on the parameters and do not be afraid to change out a bit more water as needed to keep the ammonia down. You do not need to worry that there is not enough ammonia for the bacteria - your fish are constantly producing more......so there is adequate supply. When you get to the nitrite spike part of the cycling you will need to be a bit more aggressive about the water changes to keep nitrite down - it is far more toxic than ammonia to the fish and can cause long term damage to some fish.

Hang in there, you seem to be doing well!!!!

Do me a favor - go outside and raise your face to the sun........ it has been sooooo long since I have seen the sun........

Thanks for the tips again daryl. I'll make a special trip out into the sun tomorrow for you. Its the middle of the night at the moment, but you are welcome to some of the heat.

I can't begin to comprehend -20C.... Never been there. Gets to about -5C here in the middle of the night in winter. but even then its usually about 10C in the day. How do you stop your fish form freezing?

I'm going to do another water change tomorrow. Have enough for a 25% change sitting. Tap water has chloramine in it here so I treat it and let it sit 24 hours.

I think my cycle is actually more advanced than I thought, as you may or may not recall I had no nitrate test kits last week, from my swim bladder problem. I just tested the water in the cycling tank for nitrates and they are about 6 ppm atm. Its 0 out of the tap.

I guess the warm weather has been helping.

I haven't noticed a nitrite spike tho. I thought that a nitrite spike should occur before nitrate would appear?

I took your advice about pinching filter media from the existing cycled tank I guess that has had a bigger impact than I imagined. Plus gravel. Do you think I am still likely to get a nitrite spike?

I've setup a fan now too, on a stand for the tank, I can leave that running no problems.

If you have fish in the tank watch out for protozoan and parasite outbreaks, such as ich and flukes.

With pH of 7.2, you should be fine if you keep ammonia below 2ppm. Amquel or prime would help with that.

Since you're starting to see nitrIte I'd add the salt at 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. predissolve in tank water and make sure it disperses well when you add it. Be sure to use non-iodized salt with no other additives. NitrIte is toxic. It enters thru the gills and binds up the red blood cells keeping them from being able to carry oxygen. Salt helps protect against nitrIte poisoning because it competes with nitrIte for uptake thru the gills. When you do partial water changes just add 1 tsp of salt per gallon changed till nitrItes come down to 0, then you can skip adding any more salt. Your partial water changes will then remove it over time.

All seems to go be going along well. Doing daily water changes., keeping ammonia at about 0.5 to 0.8. Nitries floating from 0.1-0.3. And nitrates climbing a little. Test kit jumps form 5 to 10 on colour chart but I would estimate about a 6-8. Little more colour than the 5 on the chart but much less than the 10.

I think the forecast cool change has arrived. Its only about 30C out this afternoon.