Why's my tank not showing nitrate or nitrite ?

[Lxj]

40litre tank 4 weeks old, I use prime and fluval cycle .

I can can see ammonia and do a water change every 2-3days 10l or 20l.

4 weeks and still no nitrite or nitrate is this normal?

i have lost fish too
thanks

[genki89]

The tank is still cycling. The colony of bb has not yet been fully established to convert the amount of amonia produce to be converted into nirite.

For shorter period (impatient), u can get super 8000 series of bb from lfs. Dose it to boost the speed. However, since u have fish, i don know if it is safe as it will kick start or restart ur tank cycling

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[Allesgut]

too little detail of your fish community and ammonia readings. please share more.

[Laika]

What fish have you lost? What test kit are you using? And if you see any ammonia you want to do a 75% water change at least daily. The lack of clean water would of been the reason for the fish dieing.

[Lxj]

Hi I've lost 4 neon tetra 1 otocinclus . Using the api test kits for ammonia nitrate and nitrite . When I test water and if there is ammonia I will change water so that no ammonia is showing .
I'm not showing any nitrate in water tests, I'm getting nitrite, and will do a water change, tank is 5 weeks old.
Any help/advice appreciated Thanks in advance

[Urban Aquaria]

Sounds like your tank is still in the middle of the cycling process and the fishes are getting affected by the spikes in parameters. Just continue doing the water changes since you have fishes in the tank (to help reduce the harmful effects on them), eventually your tank will complete cycling, just give it some time.

[Lxj]

Thank you . Started to think I was doing something wrong.

Just noticed a neon biting at my bettas fins when feeding.

[Lxj]

Poor betta he's had white spot, a cyst which is being treated with a bacterial treatment . All gunk is currently coming out and the neons have picked at this too (on the side of betta face) when feeding them - maybe they thought it was food??? They did spit it out.

[Laika]

Poor betta he's had white spot, a cyst which is being treated with a bacterial treatment . All gunk is currently coming out and the neons have picked at this too (on the side of betta face) when feeding them - maybe they thought it was food??? They did spit it out.

That betta should be in a tank on his own, your other fish will bully it to death. You shouldn't have that many fish in a small tank cycled or not. They are being poisoned by their own waste.

[Urban Aquaria]

If the betta is infected with white spot and still has visible cysts you should be treating the entire tank for Ich infection. When white spot/ich cysts erupt thats when thousands of free swimming ich tomits spread to other fishes.

The fluctuating and toxic parameters in your cycling tank will greatly lower the fishes resistance to infections so you will need to solve all those issues as soon as possible, otherwise the Ich infection will persist for a very long time and infect new fishes even after the tank is cycled.

[Lxj]

Hi there so you you think ich has caused the cyst ? As I am using a bacterial treatment as advised by two pet shops .

when the bacterial treatment has finished, I will try using a treatment for white spot.

he has had white spot previously, I could see what looked like grains of rice on him, and treated him and thought it had gone and then He had a whitish looking bump which just seemed to slowly get bigger and bigger and burst when I started a bacteria treatment, all orangey looking stuff was/is coming out.

i had no idea my tank was overstocked , and will look into rehoming the neons. I didn't realise they would bully my beta.

[Lxj]

I will up the temp in my tank too. How long should I keep my tank at this temp, and will the higher temp cause catfish or neons or my betta to die. I will slowly increase temp from 26 currently to 30 degrees. Thanks in advance , this is soo much more complicated than I initially thought, keeping fish, I just want a happy healthy tank.

[Laika]

This is what you want for white spot, http://www.amazon.co.uk/ESHA-EXIT-WH.../dp/B0016CBTYW

Your tank should be around 22degrees usually so 26 at the minute will help speed up the ich life cycle so they drop out of your fish strait into the water that has the white spot treatment in it and kill them. I would double the length of time you do the treatment also (run the treatment twice back to back)

[Urban Aquaria]

Hi there so you you think ich has caused the cyst ? As I am using a bacterial treatment as advised by two pet shops .

when the bacterial treatment has finished, I will try using a treatment for white spot.

he has had white spot previously, I could see what looked like grains of rice on him, and treated him and thought it had gone and then He had a whitish looking bump which just seemed to slowly get bigger and bigger and burst when I started a bacteria treatment, all orangey looking stuff was/is coming out.

i had no idea my tank was overstocked , and will look into rehoming the neons. I didn't realise they would bully my beta.

Usually for white spot/ich, their cysts are those tiny white dots like fine salt particles... i guess the larger cyst on your betta could be due to a separate secondary infection.

Either way its always better to separate infected fishes to a hospital tank and treat them there, rather then leave them in a community tank whereby their infections could still spread around.

I guess at this point in time, you'll just have to assume that whatever is infecting the betta is now in the water column, so just have to continue anti-bacterial and anti-parasite treatment.

[Lxj]

Unfortunately I haven't got a spare tank.

All the other fish do appear ok -7 neons and 2 otocinclus

[blureddy]

Hi Lxj, would you mind telling us what filtration are you using?

or any pictures to tell a better story?

[Lxj]

Hi there I have an eheim pick up 60 filter.
I was advised this would be good for my 40 litre tank by an aquarium shop??

[blureddy]

Hi there I have an eheim pick up 60 filter.
I was advised this would be good for my 40 litre tank by an aquarium shop??

Hmm, is there any air pump or just the eheim pick up filter?

Technically, all the beneficial bacteria has died off due to the medication.

So during this medication period, do not feed the fishes.

Reason being that when u feed the fishes, they produces ammonia, and there is no bacteria to consume the ammonia and ammonia is toxic to the fishes.

ammonia is usually the main reason why fishes fall sick.

My only suspect is that initially there wasn't enough oxygen in the water that causes the slow grow of bacteria. Also what is the temperature like?

Regards

[Urban Aquaria]

Hi there I have an eheim pick up 60 filter.
I was advised this would be good for my 40 litre tank by an aquarium shop??

The eheim pick up 60 filter is an okay internal filter... the filter media volume is relatively small though, so it can't hold much bio-media house beneficial bacteria, and it takes up space inside the tank.

Maybe consider upgrading to a larger hang-on filter or canister filter which can hold more bio-media, that will make a big difference in developing and maintaining a much more stable cycle.

[Lxj]

I did wonder if the medication would kill of the good bacteria.

The enhiem is the only filter I have it does blow out bubbles at the top of the surface. I did have another filter in too which was for a smaller tank 19l , this blew bubbles at the surface too, but I removed it as I guessed the enhiem filter would be ok .
Temperature of tank 25.5