Beginner having problems Help please!!!!

Master Shake · New member Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 3

I am a beginner who has his eyes set on chiclids. Three of my close freinds have tanks with chiclids in them and I love how active they are, not to mention how beautiful they are. I have a 50 gal corner tank and have 7 africans in it. It has been running for about a month and my nitrites are running high. I know now why it happened I did not let the tank build its positive bacterias. If I could do it again I would. Confused

The guy at the fish store told me to run the cycle stuff and clean the rocks with a syphon every week. I did this and nitrites stayed the smae. I went to a different store and the guy told me to double up on the cycle and wait a couple days and come see him if it did not work. It did not so I saw him today. He told me he was goin to give me some of the gravel from his tank. will this help me get the mature bacteria.

Your thoughts on the situation. Any help would be appreciated.

M_wm · Senior Member Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 613

Yah gravel from an established tank will definatly speed up the cycle. But youve had it running for 1 months with fish and you used cycle? It should be done. Have you tried to do any large water changes? like 30%

Master Shake · New member Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 3

yes I have done about three 25 % water changes. One thing I forgot to say Is I did not start the cycle when I put the fish in. I added cycle about two weeks after the fish when I noticed the nitrite levels.
Another question if I just keep changing water and adding cycle will it eventually level out or will the nitrite just continue to go up. Will everything die if it is not taken care of or will it fix itself in the end???

t_chelle16 · Moderator Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 3437

How high are your nitrItes and what are the readings for ammonia and nitrAte as well? How often and how large are your water changes?

If you can find a product called BioSpira it should work a lot better than Cycle. Other than that, keep up with the water changes. Also keep an eye out for heavy breathing. If that happens, you might want to add some aquarium/kosher salt to the tank. It will help them breath a little more easily.

-Chelle