# Cycling



## cheseboy (Aug 5, 2005)

I am not really a newbie, but this is a newbie question. I am currently cycling my 20 gallon and am using goldfish to do so (comets). I bought three comet goldfish aproxamitly 1" in length. Anyway 2 of my fish have turned sluggish and died in the first week. I am nearing the end of my first week and the biggest gold fish is still swimming seamingly happily around the tank. I have read that if you cycle with too few fish, then when you go to add fish then the tank will go through another cycle. The question is should I buy more fish, this time large, or should I try and use liquid ammona as an ammona source instead of the fish.


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

The fishless method would be better. goldfish produce a lot of waste, and a lot of ammonia, by adding 3 at once you made a large ammonia spike (especially since you added them right off the bat with virtually no nitrifying bacteria in the tank) that killed your 2 goldfish, which cut the amount of ammonia being made by 2/3 and allowed the third to live. the third goldfish lived long enough for the ammonia spike to go down, except now there's a nitrite spike. if you had added 1 goldfish, then another the next week, and another the week after, you'd allow for the bacteria to grow and and keep the spikes small enough for your fish to still live on.

goldfish arent very good fish to cycle with. zebra danios, although more expensive, would be a much better choice.

I'd add bacteria, like your filter media, from another tank.


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## cheseboy (Aug 5, 2005)

Ok, well that explains alot. Thanks, also I'm using stress zyme it claims to help the development of your biological filter. Ok then, I'll try adding bacteria from an established tank to help it along. Thanks! :mrgreen:


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

stress zyme doesn't work because it doesn't have the right species of bacteria in the formula to cycle the tank. Stability or better yet biospira works 1000X better.


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## cheseboy (Aug 5, 2005)

Ok, well I have another problem now. It is already the 11th day of cycling and my total ammonia is about .75. is that alot, should I be worried? I have been adding in stability to help my cycling along. Is it possible that my bacteria is unable to grow because somthing is inhibiting it's growth or killing it? I have some ammonia reducing zeolite granules. Should I add some to my filter to help? Also, my nitrite and nitrate are both 0. I know some cyclings of tanks take over 30 day but I just want to be sure because cycling this tank is not going very smoothly.


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

No, dont add those. just do some water changes to dilute the ammonia. .75 is quite a bit and may even be inhibiting your bacteria.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

definately inhibiting the bacteria. Bacteria dies from ammonia at around .5


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## cheseboy (Aug 5, 2005)

Ok, well I've decreased my ammonia to .25 and are doing water changes to keep it at bay. Though why would you recommend agenst useing zeolite rocks. To the best of my knowledge is actually stores ammonia for 30 days. It dosen't nutrilize ammonia like ammo-lock. So that would mean testing would still be acurate, right? Is is because the zeolite might remove all the ammonia and starve the bacteria?


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