Hello all, I'm a new Goldfish owner of about 3 months and have been doing a lot of ready on this forum. Thank you for all of your posts of information. Most of the questions i've had, i've found the answers to in the posts.

Finally i have a question and can't find the answer. I believe my tank to have cycled since my ammonia levels are now at zero (finally). I do a 60-80% water change every week and sometimes twice a week, but about 30 minutes after the change, the nitrites are up to 5/PPM and nitrates are at 20/ppm. I've tested my tap water and there is 0/ppm nitrates/nitrites, so i believe it's something going on with the tank. Any suggestions/recommendations?

Tank info: I have a 15 gal tank with filter and aerator and 2 common goldies each are about 2-2 1/2 inches and a bristle nose pleco about the same size. My water temp fluctuates daily from 70-75. No direct sunlight and the water heater is off. I have a light covering of river rock on the bottom.

Welcome to koko's ....sorry you are haviing probs ..for a tank to be cycled you need to read 0 ammonia 0 nitrItes and a reading of nitrAtes 5-20 no more than 40.. and stay that way until a weekly water change..you are how ever overstocked ..commons need 20g per fish and plecos can get pretty big and are just as dirty as goldfish and they are not compatible with goldies no matter what the guy at the local fish store says they can take a liking to your goldfishes slimecoat...even thogh they may be small now they will get bigger and create more probs. when you are cycling and your nitrites are that high and beacuse you are over stockd you should be changing 75-80% of the water daily..and ONLY rinse filtermedia in a bucket with tank water ..do not replace during a cycle ...when you are cycled and being overstocked I would change 30-50% every other day to keep water in check and nasty bacteria to min until you are able to house them into a bigger tank or rubbermaid container..here is a link to the nitrogen cycle

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/cycle.html so you can look it over again ..cycling is a pain and it will be evetually over be patient and waterchange till the cows come home

Hello Rich and welcome to the board.

I'm moving this over into 'water chemistry' for you as you'll get a lot of input there from people who are, or have just recently cycled their tanks.

Just to get things started there are a few things which will help you.

Firstly, the nitrogen cycle passes through 3 stages before being complete Ammonia, NitrIte and finally NitrAte; the tank is considered cycled once there is consistently no reading for ammonia and nitrite, but you have a reading for nitrates. You are not yet cycled and hitting the second phase at the moment.

Secondly, this requires immediate attention:

"the nitrites are up to 5/PPM" !!!!!!

these levels are highly dangerous for the fish and will cause gill damage and suffocation. The best thing you can do, immediately, is to make a 100%, dechlorinated and temperature matched water change. The only way to control safe water readings during this phase is by making very large daily changes. Test your water every day and change enough to return the nitrite to zero. If you have Prime or AmQuel it is a great help in detoxifying lower levels like 0.25/0.50

Thirdly, your situation is made far more difficult by the fact that your tank is very overcrowded; the waste output of all three fish in this small water volume rises very quickly and is hard to keep on top of.
We normally recommend 20gals each for commons; plecs, which are potentially dangerous tank mates for goldfish (they can get a taste for their slimecoat), need between 30g and 50g depending on type and size.

Below my signature you will find two links which explain all of this in far more detail. Take some time to familiarise yourself with everything, as it can be a lot to take in all at once - especially when you are trying to stabilize an emergency.

Do post back with any questions you may have.


Double-post Hi-d!! Didn't see you there.....

Thank you for your replies. Since reading your posts, i've done a 100% water change and since then 80% water changes daily and removed the rocks from the bottom to be better able to vacuum up the fish messes. The nitrites are not increasing nearly as fast. In fact over the last 24 hours they are between .25-.5

Since the last water change (30 hours ago) my water quality test results are:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 20-40
Nitrite: .25-.5
Hardness: 150 consistently
KH: 180-300 consistently
Ph: 7.8 consistently

I do realize i need a bigger tank. I have been looking for a little while and just today I found a used 75gal tank for sale that has been used the last few years as a reef tank. Any recommendations, suggestions or things to consider before using or buying this tank?

Thanks for all your help,
Rich

You're doing fine with the cycle. You are over halfway. You must be getting very close to the end now where the first 2 are zero and nitrates are present.
Let us know how you go so we can celebrate when its done. There's a smiley specially for it