Cycling issues

Question
QUESTION: I have a 40 gallon freshwater aquarium using an AquaClear 110 HOB filter with foam, floss and biomax.
The tank is going on 3 weeks old.
I have 1 spotted Pleco, 4 Rosey Barbs, 6 Zebra Tetra, 1 clown loach but will be adding more loaches when cycle completes, and 1 rainbow shark. I also have a Bala but I am giving him away.
My ammonia is zero, my nitrIte is .50!
My nitrAte is 10 ppm and the PH is 7.2.
I keep my tank at 80 degrees.
All fish look fine, but I am worried about the nitrItes.
I have been keeping fish for 40 years so I am not a beginner.
I started the tank using Tetra Safe Start. It is supposed to instantly cycle your tank, but obviously I have issues.
What would you do? They say no water changes while using Safe Start.

ANSWER: Hi Joe,

Nothing instantly cycles a tank except using a large quantity of gravel and filter media from a well established tank.  'Products' on the market simply do not have the appropriate nitrifying bacteria (it has to be kept cold or it's dead, do-nothing bacteria) and in my opinion these types of products are a waste of money.  I wouldn't use the Safe Start personally.  

I'm sure you are already aware that the cycling process can and will stress and disease, if not kill, your fish.  The only fish I'm really worried about is your clown loach.  They are extremely sensitive to water conditions, and well, really anything, and seem to go belly up pretty easily.  I have perfect water in my 120 gallon and just added a new one to the three I had a few days ago and he just could not adjust to the new environment he was in and flipped out and died.

I wouldn't get overly worked up about the nitrites.  While it is always supposed to be 0 nitrites are actually only about 50% as toxic as ammonia, which would be worse.  So it's really the equivilent of you having 0.25 of ammonia and this isn't good but it's not horrible either.  I would do 20% water changes every other day until you see that it's gone.  That little will be pretty easy to get rid of, especially with your over-filtration.  You can also double dose a water conditioner called Prime.  It will strip out the chlorine and chloramines and it will also help detox the nitrite for the fish while allowing it to complete the cycle and turn into nitrates.

Good luck : ) April M.

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

QUESTION: Hi April, and thanks for the response.
So, by doing the water change I also remove the $20 worth of Tetra Safe Start. I guess that was a waste.
Also, aren't I slowing down the cycle by removing whatever bacteria has already developed?
NitrAtes are fine, it is just the NitrIte that is high. Will that not level off in time?

Answer
Joe,

Again, I don't buy into those kinds of products.  There isn't one out there on the market that will instantly cycle a tank and make it immediately safe for fish.  I think the best way to cycle a tank is jumpstarting it with another healthy, established tank's filter media/gravel, using a fishless flake cycle or using a fishless shrimp cycle.  Nothing else works as fast or is as easy on the fish as those are.

You can certainly do zero water changes and let the nitrite convert on it's own but you run the risk of stressing, diseasing and even killing some of your fish in that process.  Any ammonia or nitrite present can stress and kill a fish.  And the nitrite could get worse than what it is now before it converts to nitrates.  It may climb to 1.0 or 5.0 or even 10.0 before it converts and then you have big trouble with the risk factor.

The only way to force the conversion and remove the toxic nitrites is water changes and this increases the chance that the fish won't feel any toxic ramifications from it.  Does it drag out the cycling time?  Sure it does but it's easier on the fish.  Again, I think most of your fish are hardy enough to take the tiny bit of nitrite you have for the time being except for the loach.  Over time with continuous exposure it brings the risk up and if it climbs further then there is real trouble.

And the fact that you already have nitrates present suggests that removing the little bit of nitrite that you have today with water changes may finish the cycle.  You aren't removing a ton of beneficial bacteria when you do water changes.  There are very little free-floating nitrifying bacteria in the water.  It's concentrated in your filter and gravel mostly but is also on the tank walls and plants and decos.  Now if someone were to go overboard and do daily 100% water changes that would obviously be very bad but we're not talking about anything that radical.

It's completely your decision on what to do.  That's just my opinion on what I would do if it were my tank.

Good luck : ) April M.