# Also in need of URGENT help!



## FishNewb7 (Oct 8, 2010)

So after a month my tank finally cycled.. no ammonia, no nitrites and nitrates at 20ppm. I ran over to my brothers, adopted 2 silver dollar fish and put them in my tank so my cycle doesnt get lost. I just checked my levels and its no bueno.. My ammonia is at .25ppm, no nitrites, and nitrates are a bit high. The water is also cloudy which I do not understand why. There is NOTHING in my tank except for water and gravel. Please help asap!


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## mentalfish (Sep 16, 2010)

i would put some water conditioner in, and try treating the fish for fin rot just in case, wont hurt them.


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

what size tank is it and how big are the silver dollars? idk what u mean by lose your cycle but so long as u continue to do whatever it is you did to cycle the tank u wont lose your biological bacteria. as long as you are "feeding" the tank with someone that creates ammonia then ur bacteria can live off of it. your tank may just be mini cycling due to a sudden increase in the ammount of amonia comming into the tank. thats why its such a good idea to really make sure you start with 1-2 small fish depending on tank size and how well you cycled your tank. if you really feed a tank well durring the cycle you will have a lot more bacteria built up by the end of it and your tank will be able to handle more fish right off the bat.


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## pinetree (Nov 29, 2009)

I would do daily water changes (or every other day depending on your ammonia level and pH) and test daily. It could be a cycle blip because the biolode caused by the silver dollars, food and waste is more than your brand new cycle could handle. Water changes will keep ammonia down and help the fish survive. Please note, if you have high pH water (like 7.8+) be careful to keep the ammonia as low as possible.


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## FishNewb7 (Oct 8, 2010)

Ok so i'm going to try to break this down so its not so much.
1. the size of the silver dollars are about 3-4 inches.. They are pretty large but my brother needed to get rid of them bc they were terrorizing his other fish so thats what i acquired. 
2. I have a 35gallon tank
3. I've only used API stress zyme to get the bacteria going and left it go for a few weeks to get going. Other than that i really haven't used to much to get it going besides prime to get rid of the ammonia. 
4. What i meant by "losing" the cycle is that from what i gathered if you dont put fish in the tank right after the cycle leveled out your cycle will start all over. I talked to a LFS and they said that bioload is probably overloaded like pinetree mentioned and to leave it go for a week to do a water change. 
5. Revolution you said to keep feeding it ammonia.. my ammonia levels are already at 1ppm.. shouldn't I be avoiding ammonia. 
6. How can i get rid of this cloudy slime coat in my tank, or is that normal.

Sorry for the lengthy response but I'm trying to figure all this out. Thanks!


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## pinetree (Nov 29, 2009)

Definitely do not add ammonia. Now that the fish are in there, they will make plenty on their own.

What is the pH of the tank? 

If the ammonia is 1ppm, then I would do a water change as soon as possible. Some people advise that you don't do water changes as often while cycling because they believe it slows down the cycle. I disagree with that. High ammonia = dead fish. As the fish eat and make waste, they'll add the ammonia back in well enough to keep the cycle going until the tank is fully cycled and stabilized.

If the water is just a bit cloudy it could be a number of things. It could just be a bacterial bloom, but I am not certain.


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## FishNewb7 (Oct 8, 2010)

pH is good - 7.2 i attached some pics of how cloudy it is... pretty bad. It wasn't that bad before and I figured it would clear up....not happening.


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

its def due to the size of the fish compared to the size of the tank and how new your tank is.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

When your tank was done "cycling" how long did it take to process 5ppm of ammonia to 0 ppm? 

I disagree about the fish causing this fishless is designed to allow for a full bioload after cycling is done. The fish may have potential to get to large for tank, but they should not be producing enough waste to throw off a properly fishless cycled tank. IMO its much more likely that your were somewhat cycled, but not actually fully cycled to deal with a full bioload. A cycle does not crash, as long as the media says wet it can easily go 2 days with no food without too much of a hiccup in the cycle. With bacteria in our filter unfed bacteria will have a death "curve" if you want to think of it that way. Death rate starts out quite slow cuz bacteria are hardy little thing, however after a certain point they will all gradually start dying in considerable amounts. 

BTW IMO your nitrates are not high at all.


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## FishNewb7 (Oct 8, 2010)

Well it took about 2 days to drop the ammonia and nitrite levels back down to 0. Now i'm just letting the tank do its thing and try to get rid of this cloudiness. Thanks for all the info


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## LilSums (Aug 2, 2010)

You can use a chemical cloud remover in the water, depending on what's clouding up the water it may make a ton of gunk cover the gravel. Sometimes bacteria blooms look like that but I really can't tell you 100% one way of the other. Watch for reddening of the gills or gasping near the surface is ammonia has been a problem, it can poison them quickly. Best of luck!


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Don't use the declouding stuff, it can mask a continued problem. Do not clean the tank, let it get dirty (i.e don't do gravel vacs and don't do filter maintenance) and the cloudiness should go away. Watch the levels and if they go up then you can do water changes appropriately. This happened to me and that did a good job of getting rid of it, it happens with new cycles and with a tank that is kept "too clean." Mine was a too clean situation.


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