# Bad cycling?



## danibu (Mar 3, 2011)

Okay, I've tried to do this twice. I just got a seven-ten gal tank about a week and a half ago. I live an hour away from any pet store and so, when my husband was in said town I asked him to pick me up some pure ammonia to cycle my tank. The petco guy swore to him that I didnt need ammonia, but this bacteria in a bottle stuff so he got that instead. It is called nutrafin cycle. It says on the instruction how much to add each day and I cycled my tank with it for about 8 days before adding fish. ( It says you could add fish immediately, but I waited to be safe.) Now, I have two little two inch oscars in it for three days and my ammonia test strips have jumped to the "danger" level on the color strips! Last night I did a 25%water change and Added more bacteria hoping it would help. I checked it this morning and it was worse so I did another water change and added some more bacteria. I am making a desperate trip to that pet store town to upgrade my tank size to maybe a twenty or thirty gal (if that even exists, I'll see what I get when I'm there) because I want these fish to grow to their full potential. What can I do to make sure these fish live long enough for me to switch them to the new tank? And should I cycle with ammonia this time? Or will that take too long and I should use stability by tetra? (another bacteria in a bottle, heard on here it works wonders.) HELP!!


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## baileysup (Nov 25, 2009)

i think a ten gallon tank is too small for oscars. when you get your larger tank (make sure it's large enough for the oscars), i would just add Tetra safestart or this product called stability. you then should be able to add the oscars right away without having to cycle the tank. i'm in the middle of cycling a 10 gallon tank myself, and for a newbie, it can be a bit difficult i must say. if you cycle a tank using fish, without using safestart or stability, your fish will likely be damaged or worse (R.I.P.). i actually just found this out today. there is an excellent sticky thread about the "Nitrogen Cycle" (cycling a tank) in the "General Freshwater" section, that is a MUST READ in my opinion. i learned a lot from it, and it will help you understand the process. hope that i helped a little. i'm sure others will chime in with more great advice for you. best of luck!


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## Danio king (Feb 25, 2011)

you need at least a 55 gallon for those Oscars. The ammonia will not get any better until you have a bigger tank.


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## chronoboy (Jan 17, 2011)

Danio king is correct, those oscars probaly produce to much waist for your little tank and little filter to control right now since its a new tank and your bacteria isnt set and stabled out, this is how I got my old oscars given to me. My aunt went to a petstore and the guy set her up with a kit "wich this still piss's me off" they sold her a 10g kit wich included "tank, filter, light, gravel, heater, tetra safestart" and he then sold her two baby oscars, and to top it off some other small fish at the same time, well two days into it I get a call from her saying all my fish are dieing so I went over thier and only the oscars made it, so i tell her that she needs alot bigger tank and new everything else, but that is not the route she wanted to go so then I offered to take the fish off her hands since I had a extra 55g cycling that was empty at the time, so I offered to buy her some fish that would be good for her 10g and she then tells me the only reason why she bought the tank was cause she loved the oscars and she told the guy that and then she asked him to pick out the supplies needed to take care of these fish, so she was upset after I imformed her that she couldnt keep oscars with that tank so then she just gives me the tank cause all she wanted was oscars, let's just say i was pist that sombody let my aunt waist this money so I went down thier and flipped out, got the manager to give my aunt a refund on the tank and dead fish, on top of it I got to keep the oscars and some of the supplies for free, and now the workers are suppose to ask what size tanks people have before they sell them fish.

So my point is a fishstore should ask questions like what size tank the fish will be in and what other factors in the tank could cause problem for said fish they are purchasing, and exercise the right to refuse sale to customer if they feel that the fish they want isnt a good fit for thier tank.

Not trying to make this a lecture on you, it's just unless you feel like dropping anough cash to buy a 125g tank then I would get rid of the oscars now before you get to attached to them cause in a few years they will need that big of a tank, from experience I had to give away my oscars cause for two reason one the new place had no good place for a 125g and plus they where already two big for my 55g, and after having for a couple years it sucked to get rid of them, they where like my dogs they would eat out of my hand, and my third oscar survived a house fire, thier hardy cool fish if you plan on keeping them.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Am I the only one that is noticing that people are supposedly cycling their tanks with the bacteria in a bottle while there is NO fish in the tank???
The point is to add the fish and the bacteria in a bottle at the same time and for every day for a week.
There has to be an ammonia source for the bacteria to feed on.

The point of the bacteria is so you don't have to buy a bottle of ammonia and spend 6 weeks waiting for the tank to cycle.

To reiterate.
if you want to do a fishless cycle buy ammonia and wait for 6 weeks while adding ammonia daily.
If you want instant cycling add fish and add bacteria in the bottle as instructed.


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