Hey everyone! I need advice. I’ve been cycling my 37 gallon tank with one Thai Oranda for 5 weeks now. I know not recommended but here we are. I started seeing nitrites & ammonia barely a week in since I seed cycled it with bio filter from friends established tank. Since I was worried about ammonia being too toxic I’ve been doing daily water changes the first few weeks. I know with prime it makes it temp safe but I didn’t want to chance it. So any ammonia over 1ppm I did a change. About 2 weeks ago finally saw nitrates. Now here’s my quandary. Been testing water twice a day & water changes have slowed to about 25% every other day. However, for the most part my nitrites have been zero with ammonia still present. It climbs, I get scared so do a change. Attached is pic of current readings. Should I just stop changes let ammonia get to 2-3? Is that why it hasn’t dropped cause I keep doing changes messing up the cycle? Sorry for all my questions. Any advice is appreciated!
Posted by Spiritual_Ad_3837
3 Comments
You need to leave it alone as it cycles. Don’t mess with it. Just top it off as it needs. The best thing in keeping an aquarium is patience. It will cycle but it will take time.
Doing that many water changes is definitely the reason why I think. Definitely stop for a little and see if it improves at all, but if it drops to a point where it will hurt the first definitely do a water change.
No, keep on doing water changes. Water changes are important in fish-in cycling to keep fish safe, and contrary to what a lot of guides say, water changes when fish-in cycle does not at all inhibit the cycling process.
With that said though, the concentration of ammonia needed to be toxic is dependent on pH and temperature: [https://www.aquariumadvice.com/threads/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity.159994/](https://www.aquariumadvice.com/threads/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity.159994/). At a pH of 7 and temperature of 25 degrees Celcius for example, even 4ppm (total) ammonia is not toxic to fish, let alone be lethal. Here’s a good calculator to use: https://www.engineering.iastate.edu/~jea/w3-research/free-ammonia/nh3.html. So have a check, and see if you can let ammonia climb higher before doing water changes, or otherwise.
By the way, Seachem Prime should not be used to detoxify ammonia/nitrite. The manufacturer claims that Seachem Prime detoxifies ammonia/nitrite by converting them into a non-toxic form, however there is evidence that this is not true. Here’s two experiments done by aquarists finding that Prime does not bind to ammonia, convert it to a non-toxic form, or do anything to detoxify ammonia: [https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/does-prime-actually-detoxify-free-ammonia-nh3.849985/](https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/does-prime-actually-detoxify-free-ammonia-nh3.849985/) and https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prime-does-not-remove-ammonia.885857/.