acceptable for fish?

a friend of mine has a tank 7 months old and never added fish yet (waiting for certain equipment to come in, quite similar to my situation) and he just replaced his sand, that was comprised of half dead, dry sand and half bagged "live" sand, so my point is it probably held some biological existence. when he replaced the sand with all bagged "live" sand 2 days ago, his no2 and ammonia spiked but are climbing back down, his ammonia is down to .5 and his no2 is down to .2 and no3 are 0 and everything else is perfect. His question is, are those acceptable levels as long as their climbing down, to get a fish today? if those are acceptable and he can get a simple fish like a hardy clown, then im going with him to get my first fish so im hoping these are acceptable as well ;D

Thanks

 

Clownfish will live but won't be happy. Waiting a few more days until ammonia and no2 is undetectable is nothing compared to 7 months. IMO

 

Completely agree, but there is a time frame. The LFS we go to is not going to be open for a whole 2 weeks, it will be under maintenance and remodeling so its now or never cause thats the closest lfs within a longshot of our houses. Any other opinions?

 

Don't throw fish into an uncycled tank. It's cruel to the fish. Would you like to take a 2-week bath in ammonia?

 

what? the tank is 7 months old, he saw everything spike and go down to nothing/undetectable. The tank underwent the initial cycle, my point was just that the sand created a mini cycle.

 

Don't you mean "now or in 2 weeks"?

2 weeks isn't THAT long, really... I would wait.

It's been setup for 7 months so 2 weeks is a drop in the bucket to do it the safe way.

 

i added my clowns in a two week old tank, yours is a mini cycle, it should be fine a day or two. i think its ok.

 

I would just consider how you will feel if the fish dies for some reason, even though it may not be entirely due to the tank having ammonia in it, it could have been a contributing factor. It's an added stress factor.

I know it's hard to wait, but in the end you will know that if your fish has trouble that you did everything you could to make it's transition into your tank as easy as possible.

 

So, you said earlier that ammonia is .5, and no2 is .2... that's not UN-detectable, so that is what blackraven is probably referring to.

I'd say wait it out a few days if possible. I'm not sure why he decided to throw out sand and replace it with "live" sand in the first place. Bagged "live" sand just has nutrients and bacterial cultures that will seed the tank and start a cycle. So if it had set for a while, the tank had probably gone through a small cycle already and there would be no need for adding more 'live' sand.

The thing is, unless there is no other bio-load on the tank, it will definitely cycle again when you add the fish... with no bio load, or rather nothing for the bacteria to feed upon, the bacteria will not populate enough to take care of the ammonia introduced by adding a new fish.

What is the tank volume (size)?

the most humane way people cycle is with something dead like frozen shrimp or some frozen fish food, basically anything that will break down and provide fuel for bacteria to grow.

If I were you and you want a healthy stable environment for your fish, I would add something for two weeks, let the tank cycle and ammonia and nitrites drop to ZERO, then add the fish... don't waste your money and the fish's life by experimenting...

 

no offense to anyone and i appreciate the responses but i was not looking to get lectured, i just posted this for my friend, and its his situation I know how to cycle a tank and everything you told me, and as i said this is for my friend. My simple question was that my tank went through a mini cycle and ammonia and no2 are up a little, so if i add a fish in today because there are time restraints, would the fish be ok for a day or two until the water gets back to perfect since its a hardy clownfish... thanks all for the positive posts.