Can't get my tank to cycle

[Lukemitchell]

ive had my tank cycling about 6 weeks now and the ammonia has stayed at 0.25ppm and nitrite started at 0ppm now it's 0.50ppm and nitrate started at 0.20ppm and now it's about 0.80ppm I've added prime and fluval cycle but still doesn't change, could anyone give me some advice ?

 

[DN328]

Do you have fish? If that were me, Id do a WC. Keep up with Prime. You must have BB, just be patient you're on your way.

 

[Lukemitchell]

Do you have fish? If that were me, Id do a WC. Keep up with Prime. You must have BB, just be patient you're on your way.

I've been given 8 gold fish yesterday and Ye I'm going to do a big water change tomorrow and Ye I think I have some sort of BB as my k1 is fluidising properly

 

[Lukemitchell]

Do you have fish? If that were me, Id do a WC. Keep up with Prime. You must have BB, just be patient you're on your way.

Tested the water again and ammonia is at 0.25ppm and nitrite is at 0.50ppm and nitrates gone up to 160ppm which is from the gold fish I'm guessing but how do I get the ammonia and nitrite to 0ppm ?

 

[Dieselhybrid]

You have nitrate so it's just begun to cycle. Shouldn't be long. Keep adding bacteria food aka ammonia. If the BB exhaust the ammonia their food source is gone and they will start to die off. You're close. Prime can give a slight false positive in ammonia so don't be alarmed if your test always looks like a trace amount of ammonia. Nitrite test should always be blue not purple. You're close. Won't be long.

Adding test fish is great idea to keep ammonia production up. Some people use pure liquid ammonia but has to be pure no surfactants. I am lazier. I throw shrimp or fish chunks in to rot. Remove and replace every 3 or 4 days that adds a ton of ammonia to cycle. Just do massive water change before stocking so they don't go in foul water

 

[Drstrangelove]

I think you're going through a mini cycle.

1) You had 80 ppm nitrates after 6 weeks. That means there was some source of ammonia in the tank (pure ammonia, fish food+fish, etc.) 80 ppm in 6 weeks is a very small amount of ammonia. Like 2 per day.

2) Your nitrates are now at 160, but you still have ammonia and nitrites. That's because you added 8 more fish and are feeding them along with what you had in the tank before. You are now adding a large amount of ammonia. Like 20 per day.

Large increase in bio load ---> min cycle.

That's my guess since you haven't really told us what you did in the first 6 weeks. If I'm right, you have a while to go, but it's a guess, so hopefully you'll be lucky.

 

[Lukemitchell]

You have nitrate so it's just begun to cycle. Shouldn't be long. Keep adding bacteria food aka ammonia. If the BB exhaust the ammonia their food source is gone and they will start to die off. You're close. Prime can give a slight false positive in ammonia so don't be alarmed if your test always looks like a trace amount of ammonia. Nitrite test should always be blue not purple. You're close. Won't be long.

Adding test fish is great idea to keep ammonia production up. Some people use pure liquid ammonia but has to be pure no surfactants. I am lazier. I throw shrimp or fish chunks in to rot. Remove and replace every 3 or 4 days that adds a ton of ammonia to cycle. Just do massive water change before stocking so they don't go in foul water

So do you think I'm close to being cycled ? Does it normally take this long ?
And when I first did a test on week 1 ammonia was 0.25ppm and that's never changed but I did use prime when I added water to the tank and then nitrite was 0ppm and now it's 0.50ppm and nitrates have been as low as 0.10ppm all the way to 160ppm

 

[Lukemitchell]

I think you're going through a mini cycle.

1) You had 80 ppm nitrates after 6 weeks. That means there was some source of ammonia in the tank (pure ammonia, fish food+fish, etc.) 80 ppm in 6 weeks is a very small amount of ammonia. Like 2 per day.

2) Your nitrates are now at 160, but you still have ammonia and nitrites. That's because you added 8 more fish and are feeding them along with what you had in the tank before. You are now adding a large amount of ammonia. Like 20 per day.

Large increase in bio load ---> min cycle.

That's my guess since you haven't really told us what you did in the first 6 weeks. If I'm right, you have a while to go, but it's a guess, so hopefully you'll be lucky.

Would you suggest doing a 50% water change ?

 

[tlindsey]

Would you suggest doing a 50% water change ?

When was the last time you tested the parameters?

 

[Lukemitchell]

When was the last time you tested the parameters?

Last night