I have a new 53 gallon corner tank (curved front, 90 degree back). It's intended purpose is to house a 10" goldfish that I've had for almost 12 years. I'm currently in the stages of cycling the new filter, but I'm having some trouble.
The following method I've done almost 10 times and it works every time.
I raise the ammonia level to around 5ppm using 100% pure ammonia. Then I stick a bit of already established filter media in the new filter, and usually within 5 days, the ammonia levels are back down to 0ppm. Now 2 weeks later the ammonia is still at 5ppm and I never got the milky white bacterial bloom that I'm use to seeing. Is this temperature related? When I normally cycle a tank its around 78F, this tank, due to not having a heater, is around 68F. I'm more then willing to buy a new heater if its needed, and I'll probably buy one anyways for the fishes sake (he'd probably like 75F a lot better then 68F?)
But that aside, I'm really curious as to why the tank isn't cycling. I've been fish keeping for over 15 years and have never had a cold water tank, nor have I ever seen a tank not cycle using the above method.
The following method I've done almost 10 times and it works every time.
I raise the ammonia level to around 5ppm using 100% pure ammonia. Then I stick a bit of already established filter media in the new filter, and usually within 5 days, the ammonia levels are back down to 0ppm. Now 2 weeks later the ammonia is still at 5ppm and I never got the milky white bacterial bloom that I'm use to seeing. Is this temperature related? When I normally cycle a tank its around 78F, this tank, due to not having a heater, is around 68F. I'm more then willing to buy a new heater if its needed, and I'll probably buy one anyways for the fishes sake (he'd probably like 75F a lot better then 68F?)
But that aside, I'm really curious as to why the tank isn't cycling. I've been fish keeping for over 15 years and have never had a cold water tank, nor have I ever seen a tank not cycle using the above method.