cycle gone bad

[crysmom]

We set up our 30 gallon freshwater aquarium the end of June. Used conditioned water four live plants let the tank run with the plants for a week or so. Then we added 5 guppies. they were in the tank doing well and about 2 weeks later we added a pictus catfish ( I was told it was a vegetarian and would bother the guppies hmmph!) Then we added 5 neons about a week later.

The catfish ate three of the neons and two of the guppies

so the tank had a catfish, and three neons and three guppies.
I took our water in to be tested only to find that the nitrites were sky high, the pet shop said it was akin to the fish swimming in raw sewage. I did a 25% water change that day and then every second day but again we have had another guppy die, and the catfish died as well

So now that we have learned the hard way I have bought a testing kit and the water now reads as follows
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 3.3 (that's as high as the test reads)
General Hardness 120 moderate hard
Carbonate Hardness 90 (seems the test says "excellent buffer" for that number)

my kit doesn't measure nitrates.

Now the tank only has one guppy left, who doesn't look so great. I think the tank is cycling. I am supposed to wait until the nitrite and ammonia read zero for how long before I can start adding fish again?

Is this normal cycling values for the water? I was told by the petstore to add "nutrafin cycle" to the water is this going to help cycle faster?

I wish I new before I started that there was a fishless way to cycle

[Peter2]

My fish shop said that a gold fish is the best fish to start off with because they are innune to ammonia.

[emmanuelchavez]

Originally Posted by Peter2

My fish shop said that a gold fish is the best fish to start off with because they are innune to ammonia.

Definitely not true.

[Peter2]

well it was probbly something else in the 8 week cycle

[Lotus]

A nitrite level of 3.3 will definitely kill most fish. You'll need to do a large water change (like 60 or 70%) to get it down. Anything above nitrite or ammonia of 1ppm, and you can expect fish to start dying. The only way to get those levels down is by water changes.

This is a great article on cycling with fish: Aquamaniacs :: View article - Cycling Safely - by Clint Tisher

[crysmom]

Thank you for your advice, I have read the article on cycling. I was doing the water changes (well not till too late obviously) even with 50% water changes daily it still took 5 days for the test to lighten All the fish have passed so now I guess we will wait out the cycle and keep testing and just start with a small stocking.

I guess it will be a couple more weeks till we have fish

[JLW]

Catfish are predators, dont allways believe what they tell you at the lfs. Whatever they can get in their mouths is food. Cory's are safe to add with smaller fish, they dont bother any fish and are excellant bottom dwellers and are rather cute too.

[Peter2]

i saw on videojug.com that you should wait at least 2 days without a fish in the tank. And when you float the bag pour a bit of the tank water into the bag so the fish can get used the tank water.

[roark fishies]

No, it takes longer than 2 days to cycle a tank. You are going through the nitrite spike right now. Since all your fish died your gonna have to have some type of ammonia source to keep the cycle going so it can finish. Otherwise all the good bacteria will die off and you'll be right back at square 1. Buy some pure ammonia (no additives) and start slowly adding that to your water (or buy more fish to add the ammonia. But then you run the risk of them all dying again.) Keep testing to know when cycle is finished. You'll need that nitrate test kit too. A cycled tank should look like this: Amm-0, nitrites-0, nitrates-under 20

[sombunya]

While the subject of cycling is being discussed, I started a 20 gallon tank.

I added some good bacteria according to the directions, one vial a day for five days.

I have one 2" Bluegill in there with three small Sculpin, 2"-3" long. I feed them very lightly. So lightly in fact that when I do feed them they gobble everything up quickly.

Ammonia is next to nothing, nitrites have been running about .25 ppm. I've been doing 25% water changes every night.

I'm guessing there are better ways to cycle a tank but am I doing anything drastically wrong here?