Cycling tank - ammonia nil, nitrites rising?

Question
QUESTION: Hi there, I hope you can help!

I'm a total newbie at this. I have set up my tank 60x30x38, and have got two cherry barbs. I started with brand new, clean equipment. We are on day 6 now, and I have been measuring the ammonia levels every day and they have been consistently nil (using Tetratest kit). Today out of interest I checked my nitrite level and this has gone up to 0.8 mg/l (also Tetratest). I didn't think this was possible - can the nitrites go up even though I haven't had any sort of ammonia spike?

The water is also kind of cloudy and discoloured - a bit yellowish. I don't know if that's relevant. (It may be from the bogwood as I heard this can cause discolouration, although I thought that had cleared up in the few days of running the tank before I put the fish in.)

The fish seem OK, although they are very quiet and just sit about at the bottom of the tank most of the time, whereas in the first couple of days they were out and about more than this. Should I be worried about them? One of them comes out to feed twice a day but the other is very reclusive.

Mainly I am confused about how I can have nitrites rising when ammonia has stayed at nil.

Any advice, please?!

Thanks

Maia

ANSWER: First of all, the discoloration of your water is from the tannins leaking out of your bogwood. You need to soak it in a tub with boiling water. Change the water everyday and add HOT water to leech all of the tanins out.

Now the cycling. Its not really possible to totaly skip your ammonia spike. Your ammonia should spike, then nitrites, then your nitrates should steadily rise. Take your fish back to the local fish store and try fishless cycling. It will take less than HALF the time, and you dont put fish indanger. Its much quicker, and it makes you a responsible fish owner. Read about it here:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=2678


Let me know how it goes.


Thanks,
    ~Matt

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi Matt

Thank you very much for your reply.

Unfortunately I can't take my fish back to the shop for at least a few days. In the interests of not killing them between now and then, I am hoping you can clarify a few things for me please!

1. Will the bogwood tannins harm my fish or just look bad? I was told they are harmless and the tannins will clear up eventually by themselves, is this true? How long might it take? If it will harm the fish then of course I will take it out, but the hot tub soaking idea is not going to be very easy, to say the least so it will be bye-bye bogwood. :-(

2. Right after I e-mailed you I did a water change. I have now done 3 changes of about 15% each over the last 24 hours or so, spaced by about 10-12 hours. The fish seem a lot happier and more active. The nitrite level has gone down to 0.3mg/1. Ammonia still nil. So this all seems to me working - what do you think?

Also, after I e-mailed you I realised that the dechlorinator I've been using (Interpret Bioactive Tapsafe) claims to have "beneficial bacteria" in it. My theory is that the dechlorinator introduced some of the bacteria that eat ammonia but maybe not the ones that eat nitrite, which might explain why I didn't get raised ammonia levels but I am having nitrites. Is this plausible? Can you think of any other explanation? Like you, I didn't think it was possible to skip the ammonia spike and go straight into nitrites, but maybe the bioactive dechlorinator could be responsible?

Thank you so much

Maia

Answer
The tannins from the bog wood are in no way harmfull to your fish. Infact, some fish like discus prefer tannins from peatmoss and the like. You should be fine, just keep doing water changes to take the tannins down. When your water is clear, do one last water change and swish your filter cartriges in the bucket to get rid of any stuck on tannins.


It looks like its working to me. You should see steadilly increasing nitrates. When your nitrates reach 30-40, do a MASSIVE watter change and then you are cycled.

Most products claim that they "contain beneficial bacteria." which, quite frankly, is a crock of crap. The product "cycle" also is full of boloney. The only thing that has beneficial bacteria is "biospira" which provides an instant cycle. Only items that have to be refridgerated contain the bene. bac.


Let me know how your cycle finishes up!


Thanks,
    ~Matt