Topic: cycling a 29 gallon tank

[mickey_r]

the other day i call tetra and they told me not to do anymore water change til the amno hits 0 i just test the readings and they are NitrIte 0.50 NitrAte 10 and anmo 4.0 and i havent did any water change sense oct 1,2009. need advice and help.

[wendyjo]

Do you have any fish in the tank?

[Pagey]

If you have fish in the tank, I'd do a partial change at this point - maybe a quarter to a third. Enough for the bacteria to be able to play catch-up.

[mickey_r]

no fish in the tank it is a fishless tank right now

[wendyjo]

Then just leave it be until you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and readable nitrates.

[Cholly]

That's the advantage of a fishless cycle, you can let the ammonia and NitrIte levels get above what would cause fish distress or even death. Speeds up the process without harming living creatures.

[mickey_r]

update on 29 gallon tank fishless from oct 1 thruogh nov 5 NitrIte 0 NitrAte 5.0 sense i ran out of amno drops i have to buy a lil mate snapper amno alert after 1 day with it in the water it reads yellow which is 0 amno idea green is stress and blue is need help. so  what yal think time  for a fish or not.

[Cholly]

I'm not positive I understand your post, the grammar is a bit garbled, but it sounds like you are ready for fish.

[mickey_r]

i said that the NitrIte is 0 and NitrAte 5.0 and i ran out of anmo drops on bottle 2 and i brought a lil mate snapper anmo alert to put in the fish tank and it reads yellow which is the same as 0 anmo and i add fish to the tank anyways  they are common small goldfish the cheap once for .38 cents that way if they die i want lose no money on them.

[Cholly]

Your readings are good. Tank should be cycled with those readings, it was the right time to get fish.