# Water issues eheim 2217



## junior670 (Jun 28, 2013)

Hello all I sorry if my post is a little off subject. i recently set up a 75 gallon freshwater tank for cichlids.. I am using an eheim 2217 canister filter which is supposed to good for like 150 gal. I did a fish less cycle, so I thought at least.. Have cichlid sand in the aquarium and cycled with fritz zyme 7. After about 9 days my readings were:

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0 
nitrate 10-20

With those parameters and the fact that I did have a presence of nitrate you would think the tank had cycled right? Well now 8 days after having stocked my tank I have a slight ammonia/nitrite reading.. Ammonia only at .25 but still there. Did I do something wrong? I thought the eheim was all about water quality... What should I do? Any help is much appreciated.


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## Kalost (Feb 27, 2013)

How much did you dose your tank with ammonia during the cycle? And how long did it take to convert to nitrite per dose?


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## Kalost (Feb 27, 2013)

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=239823

This is a link to the fishless cycling, this works perfectly.


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## junior670 (Jun 28, 2013)

I do not know how long it took to convert per dose to be honest, but doesn't the fact that there was nitrate mean the ammonia and nitrites were converted?


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## Kalost (Feb 27, 2013)

I cant say for sure maybe someone can chime in here, but maybe the ammout of ammonia that you added during the fishless cycle was not enough to grow the ammout of BB that you need to convert the bio load of all the fish you stocked your tank with. Being only 9 days i cant see your tank being cycled even with the fritz zyme 7. I personally used a different type of nitrifying bacteria to cycle my tank and it took a little over 3 weeks to finish properly testing the water each day and following the link i posted.

How many and what size of fish did you get?


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I don't think there are any issues with the 2217 filter, good choice by the way.

I do agree with Kalost's statement above though. It is possible you are seeing a slight ammonia spike because of the addition of fish. It just takes a while for the bacteria to catch up to the new addition of fish.

A 25% daily water change with water conditioner should reduce any chance of damage to your fish due to the ammonia. Monitor with water tests for the next couple weeks.


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