Willow

The fish seem to be acting normal. The tank had completely cycled prior to adding the other 4 fish one at a time over 3-4 weeks. I think we may have unknowingly cleaned the gravel a little too much after adding the new fish. We knew the more fish; the more waste. But that may have hurt us in the long run. We haven't cleaned the gravel in the last 2 weeks since this ammonia and nitrite spike happened because of the advice of the local pet stores. We will try adding the bacteria from our smaller tanks filter into one of our existing filters to see if that speeds up the process any. We may also add another filter to see if that helps to keep the waste under control. I didn't think we had too many fish but now I think I may have been wrong. I have read that with goldfish they need more than twice the filtration of tropical fish tanks. Also I have added salt to help with the stress on the fish. I didn't know that Prime can give an ammonia reading. That's good to know. Thanks, Willow

Thanks for the reply. Test kits we just bought a few weeks ago but there are no exp. dates on the boxes. The test kits are used for the small tank also and give readings of a cycled tank. We do have a measurable amount of nitrates as well. We were told not to touch the gravel by every pet store person in Lethbridge so we didn't. We have a small tank that is cycled but I think that the levels are too high for the amount of filter material that I have available from that small tank. We were also thinking about adding a bigger filter. Tomorrow when my husband is home we'll vacuum the gravel to see if that helps. Thanks again, Willow

Hi! I'm new here. My name is Willow. My husband and I live in Lethbridge. My husband Michael and I have a 55 gal. tank with 7 goldfish in it. We started it a little over 3 months ago. It had cycled and so gradually we added 4 more fish over 3-4 weeks to the 3 we used to cycle the tank. Now it seems to be stuck in the high ammonia and high nitrite stage and I just can't get the levels down. I do daily water changes but don't touch the gravel. I have used Cycle and the Waste control to go with it. I've tried Stability too. Now I am adding Prime with every water change. We are using a Nitra-sorb bag in the filter and an ammonia catching bag also. We have a 110 gal. and a 60 gal. filter in the tank and air stones for airiation. We are now thinking about getting another tank to move some of the fish into so the tank has a chance to cycle properly. Does anyone have any other suggestions. None of the pet stores have really been able to help. We've tried everything they have suggested. The fish seem fine healthwise but I know this is really hard on them. Thanks, Willow