How do I reduce ammonia and nitrite levels in my 28 gallon tank?

Question

My 28 gallon tank is still in the early cycle stages with 4 zebra danios, 3 mickeys, 3 catfish and 1 fish that the clerk at Petsmart (Yeah, I know!) told me would eat the black ramshorn snails that infested my tank. I removed the plants that had snail egg sacks today and bought new plants.

I was told that plants would help speed up the tank's cycle and cut down the ammonia and nitrite levels. I did a 25% water change yesterday too. Do I do a daily 1-2 gallon water change for the next 3 weeks? Also my carbon filter gets gross about every 3-4 days. Do I change that often too? Here is what the Petsmart clerk told me to do: add 3 capfuls of Cycle every day for 3 weeks and do a weekly water change of only 10%. I dosed the tank with Prime instead. I have to be patient I know while the tank finishes cycling for what, the next 3-4 weeks? My ammonia detector is at "alert" and the NH3 detector is light green "stress." Daily 1-2 gallon water changes? Prime once a week? What should I do?

I am guilty of over-feeding the fish: 2x a day. Probably why the carbon filter is a brown color.

What is 25% of 28? I guessed it was somewhere around 6-7 gallons?

Last resort for me would be to put 10 gallons of water from my 28 gallon into my 10-gallon tank with all but 3 fish that would remain in the 28 gallon to finish cycling it for the next 4 weeks or so.

So no Cycle or any ammonia lock? Just water changes?

So far I've done two gravel syphons in the past two weeks. This week was 25% and last week was only 5 gallons worth.

I almost let a Petsmart clerk convince me to buy an underwater gravel filter today but thought, that's the least of my problems right now with the high ammonia and nitrite levels. I don't want to start completely over. Patience is a virtue but I don't want to kill my fish and be back to square one again.

Answer 1

First I would say forget the Cycle and all similar products, those are money makers for stores and trash for aquariums.

Plants won't really help much with the cycle ammonia levels or nitrite, but they will keep nitrate levels lowered once the tank is cycled.

For now don't change the filter at all, but do change enough water each day to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels in a fairly safe range. You do want some in the tank or the tank won't cycle at all. Just good old fashioned patience and water changes are the best answers for you right now.

I would suggest larger water changes though, closer to a 25% change will drop the ammonia levels to a much safer range and you may possibly be able to skip a day all along depending on daily ammonia levels.

As a side note, keep the tank slightly cooler than normal during a cycle with fish in the tank. It's true that warmth encourages faster bacterial growth, but cooler temperatures makes the ammonia less toxic for the fish, so less go for the slower but safer option.

ADDITION:

2X a day feeding isn't over feeding at all, just don't feed more than they can eat in 3-4 minutes at each feeding. The main thing to be sure of is that there is no leftovers polluting the tank.

25% of 28 is indeed 7 gallons, but 6 is fine too. That's not one of the carved in stone numbers. What you really want to do is keep the ammonia level fairly safe. If that take 5 gallon fine or 10 gallons fine too. And by "safe" I mean something fairly low on the scale.

Do a gravel siphon over the surface of the gravel with each water change and clean at least a portion each time. Just to get up any waste or uneaten food that has accumulated.

Good job avoiding the temptation to change stuff lol. Under gravels are not a bad thing, in fact can be good as long as they aren't the sole filter on a tank. BUT, you don't want to do anything extra in the tank at this time.

As long as you do enough water changes to keep the ammonia low, you and your fish should come through it fine :)

If you have additional questions please feel free to email me

MM

Answer 2

Here's the problem with ammo-lock - it neutralizes the ammonia and interrupts your cycle. Plants don't help a tank cycle, they have nothing to do with it.

If you want to get around the cycle and keep the fish healthy and stop all the nonsense, here's what you do: add bacteria. Not the kind in a bottle, which isn't worth the container it comes in, but real living bacteria from a mature tank - this way both types of bacteria will be present and will deal with your problems like no bottled additive can.

You can find bacteria on the filter media of any established tank. For tanks with undergravel filters this would be the gravel itself. If you get your hands on some of this (perhaps a friend or a fish store can help you out) then you put this in your own filter (but don't let it dry out before you get it home). Depending how much you can get you can shorten the cycle to a couple of weeks, a few days, or even skip it altogether, as I've done in the past.

As mentioned don't clean the filter until the cycle is complete and when you do make sure you do it in de-chlorinated water so you don't kill the bacteria. You certainly don't need an undergravel filter since modern power filters do an equal job in biological filtration, a much better job in machanical filtration, and are in general much cleaner in the long term.

Answer 3

If you don't have an under-gravel filter, you need one ASAP. Any well kept (larger) tank should have both. The undergravel filter is what's called your biological filter. It helps breakdown ammonia and nitrite levels.

Also, be conscious of how much you are feeding. It appears that if your carbon filter is getting that filthy every few days, you may be over-feeding. Nevertheless, you may wish to upgrade your carbon filter. Additionally, if you are overfeeding, the unused food will add to your ammonia problem.

You can also try other additives (Ammo-lock) which works pretty good. There are some good web sites which also have tips. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals is good.

I always had success in my 30 gallon with an under-gravel filter and power head, PLUS my over the side carbon filter.

Good luck with this.

Answer 4

I think that your carbon filter shouldn't get gross every 3-4 days. Are you sure you aren't overfeeding? Also, vacuuming the bottom of the tank vigorously worked well for me when I had a new tank.

Answer 5

Add Ammo-lock to get rid of the ammonia, and they sell something to get rid of nitrite, but I forgot what it's called. The plant will get rid of the nitrite.

~ZTM