Cycling tank with fish question about way I'm doing it.?

Question

I have a new 10 gallon tank. Have a bio wheel filter good for up to 50 gallons and 2 filters inside and 2 air stones in the tank. 
I know you should only have 2-3 fish in the tank if you cycle the tank with fish. Well the bait shop would not give me 2-3 fish they only sold by the dozen so I paid for a dozen rosy red minnows which are also sold in pet stores. Instead of 12 they ended up scooping up with almost 50! I put them all in for the heck of it and the water ammonia everyday is between 4.0ppm and 8.0ppm. Well I been changing 3 gallons of water each day and after the ammonia still reads at least 1.0ppm and the next day is back between 4.0 - 8.0 ppm so I keep doing the changes to try to keep the ammonia from passing 8.0. I had them 3 weeks now and out of the about 50 only 20 died so far in the last weeks which I'm not keeping any in the end.  
Every time I test for nitrite and nitrate they read 0 ppm is that normal? I been using ph down and treatment to get rid of the chlorine that wouldn't hinder the production of bacteria right?

Amber · Accepted Answer

I personally find cycling with ammonia to be easier than trying to keep up with fish. 

If all of your fish do end up dieing, I'd buy a bottle of ammonia (ingredents should be ammonia and water, nothing else.) and do it that way. You don't need to do any water changes until the end. 

Take out 5 gallons of water each time you do a water change, and do 2 a day, once in the morning and once at night. 

It could take several weeks before you get a nitrite or nitrate reading. My own tanks which have been set up for a long, long time (granted, they are understocked) still do not have a reading of nitrite. They do read ammonia, though. 

Bait stores always give you a lot of minnows. It's to be expected. 

Stop using Ph down. Waste of money. My own ph needs to be messed with, but I'm not going to. 

No, the cholorine remover stuff is safe for your cycle.

Anonym · Answer

Yeah, you have a problem...

50 minnows can't live in that tank, even if it was cycled the ammonia they produce will overwhelm the filters. 

Next, it's takes weeks to get the bacteria established. Until they are you won't see nitrite or nitrate. Problem is that if the ammonia gets up around 8.0 you actually kill off the bacteria !!!

Advice?

Take all but 2 of the fish back to the bait shop, and just give them back (no refund or anything, just get rid of them). Then do a large part water change (or several) to get the ammonia down to a sensible level that the fish can survive. 

Then wait.

This will work, and you will end up with a cycled tank. Doing anything else is pretty much doomed to fail.

Ian

Cycling tank with fish question about way I'm doing it.?

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