Cycling Question

[flutterbye75]

I was just curious about how long does the ammonia spike for in a cycle before the nitrites and nitrates kick in?

I have a 10 gallon currently with a few zebra danios that I had in another tank to cycle it.

I used seasoned media to start it for a day....that is when i added the danios. I had a ammonia spike yesterday .25. I did a 50% water change and it brought it down, I tested it today and the ammonia was at .25 again, so I did another water change, about 40%. What next?

[maxpayne_lhp]

I was just curious about how long does the ammonia spike for in a cycle before the nitrites and nitrates kick in?

It can take up a month (4-6 weeks) but you can boost it up by bio-Spira. but it also depends on other matters. With a small size it may take shorter duration, I think.

I used seasoned media to start it for a day....that is when i added the danios. I had a ammonia spike yesterday .25. I did a 50% water change and it brought it down, I tested it today and the ammonia was at .25 again, so I did another water change, about 40%. What next?

For how long was your tank running before adding the danios?

[MyraVan]

I think you're being a bit too eager with your water changes, making needless work for yourself. An ammonia level of .25 would be high for an established tank, but it's actually pretty low for a tank undergoing cyling. And zebra danios are extremely tough animals, able to withstand, well, almost anything you can throw at them (they survived the astonishingly stupid things I did when I got my first tank). I think big water changes like you're doing are only necessary when the levels are much higher, and (for some reason or another) you have more sensive animals in there.

There may be some benefit in leaving the ammonia levels as high as your fish can tolerate, since lots of excess ammonia in the water may help speed up the growth of the good bacteria.

I wuldn't bother doing water changes unless your ammonia or nitrite levels get to be quite a bit higher, like... I guess I have to pick a number here... maybe 2ppm? And then do whatever water changes you need to keep the level from going above 2 or thereabouts.

[DavidDoyle]

This chart from http://fins.actwin.com/aquariafaq.html should help.