Question: Tank cycling and fungus

Hello all,

I was hoping I could get a few of my newbie newt mom questions answered! I have never cycled a tank before and I am abit worried with the water quality.

I currently have a 20 gallon tank cycling for a pair if Alpine Newts (. a. apuanus). The tank has 2 drift wood logs that were boiled prior, 2 10gallon sponge filters, a mix of half very fine sand and large river bed rock substrate, some water lettuce and a couple long leafy plants I dont know the name of.

The current temp of the tank fluxuated between 68-72 degrees. I plan on getting a cooler set up for it soon. My water tests came back with 7.6 PH, 0 ammonia, 4ppm Nitrite and 40ppm Nitrate. My tap water is only 5ish ppm nitrates. Should I begin water changes even while its cycling? The water itself is still pretty hazy.

I'm worried the nitrates and nitrites are very high.

Also during this week of cycling, a white stringy fungus rapidly formed over night. I've worried myself to death over it and im hoping someone here has experience with it? I've read that its terrible and can kill your fish/newts and I've also read that its harmless and part of the cycling due to high nitrates.

Any help on this would be great!
Thank you all,
Tia

Minor update:
Attached fungus pictures. Plants are doing pretty bad since it started.
Did 3 tests for water just to make sure the readings were accurate.
Final tests came back 0ppm Ammonia, 4ppm Nitrite and 7ish ppm Nitrate. 7.6 PH.

Your pics aren't loading for me, (maybe because I'm on mobile browser?) Without seeing pictures my first guess would be the driftwood? I am not really sure though so take what I say cautiously lol. I'll get on a computer and see if I can view from there.

Ekmanor said:

Your pics aren't loading for me, (maybe because I'm on mobile browser?) Without seeing pictures my first guess would be the driftwood? I am not really sure though so take what I say cautiously lol. I'll get on a computer and see if I can view from there.

Click to expand...

Edit: Pics still aren't loading, perhaps you could try a free picture hosting site/app such as imgur? (It might just be me- wait for others to say if they can see the pics.) How long have you been cycling the tank? This is one of those things in my opinion that is finished when it's finished (hopefully that makes sense.) It's been awhile since I've cycled a tank so again, wait for other's opinions/advice. Wait for the Nitrites to reach 0ppm again and then do a water change to lower the nitrates to around 5-10ppm if needed. Sorry if I wasn't much help- like I said it's been awhile. Good luck. And welcome to the forum by the way, someone will surely be able to help you with any questions you may have.

Hi Ekmanor.


Thank you for the welcome and the reply! This site is very informative and people are very helpful.



The tank has been cycling about 3 weeks now. I'll redo water tests daily to watch the nitrite levels and will do the water changes once it reaches 0 as you instructed.


Here are the direct links to the picutres via Imgur. Not sure why they wont upload.


https://imgur.com/a/UF7pxDY
https://imgur.com/a/zXp1lb3


Thank you again for all the help

Hey Tiarette. I would do water changes just to speed up the process. Sometimes it can take a month to cycle completely because of all the buildup of the nitrates and nitrites. But on driftwood it is normal to have a white "film" whispy cloud looking thing on your wood. It is just bacteria I believe, and I have had it with every piece of wood I've ever had in a tank.

Hi Joe

Thanks for the reply.
Thats good to hear. I think i got overly worried on something thats naturaly occuring!