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Ammonia and nitrite levels question / minispike???

1868 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  prov356, 
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I just added some fish to my new tank. I was given bacteria beads from a previously established filter which I added to my filter. The bacteria beads were handling a bioload that was bigger than what was added to my tank. I added 7 1-2" cobalt blues and 9 .5-1" yellow labs. My water readings are: 1ppm ammonia, .25ppm nitrite, and 10ppm nitrate. My fish do not seem to be suffering or having any ill effects at all. All are very active, eating well, and the cobalts even tried to spawn.

I was just wondering how the experts here think I should proceed (ie water change, add prime to remove some ammonia and nitrites, do nothing and wait, add bio spira, etc). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.
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remarkosmoc
Even when using existing filter media, or even an existing filter, your tank will still cycle. Using the existing biomedia will significantly reduce the duration and intensity of the cycle, but it will still occur.

A level of 1ppm ammonia is harmful and I would put in an additive for now to reduce the amount of ammonia in the tank immediately. The drawback of this is artificially neutralizing the ammonia slows down the cycling process, but it is better than losing fish.

If at all possible, I would remove the stock from the tank and cycle the tank with disposable fish or a fishless cycle.
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remarkosmoc
False readings are possible if your kit is really old, but I find that unlikely, especially since both ammonia and nitrite are high, you would have to have 2 bad tests which is statistically unfathomable.

If ammonia of 1.0 is one notch from zero, you have a very vague test kit, mine is the standard api test and 1.0 is the 3rd step from zero in the middle of the card.

With using the old filter media you should already have a good start of bacteria and I don't think the bio add ons will be worth the cost.
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