frustrating cycle..

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I

Iron Cat

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 7, 2015
65
10
8
Hello.so I've been trying to cycle a 75 gal. I thought I had it covered by purchasing a seeded sponge filter(appx 5x5 square sponge). Well its been 26 days and I have yet to get a nitrite or nitrate reading above 0. A few times ive got a reading of .25 ammonia and once a reading of almost .50,( I check the water every other day) anytime I see a reading at all ill do a 25-40 percent water change as I'm treating for internal parasites and it coincides with the directions (25% water change 48 hours) as well as I don't want to expose my fish to any ammonia. 5 days ago I added some bottled BB from Foster Smith in an attempt to help the situation along but nothing has changed. The tank only has 1- 2 1/2" buttikoferi. He seems to be creating a fare amount of feces as I feed him 2 or 3 times day. For my filtering system I diy'd a quiet one pump (997 gph) in the aquarium to pull through the corner flow wall with roughly 2 1/2 gallons of sponge material on the other side of the corner flow wall.(bulkheads capped off). Too much flow? I really thought I had all my bases covered, however with receiving parasite ridden fish and receiving an apparently no so seeded filter, this has become extremely frustrating to sat the least. What gives? What am I doing wrong or not doing? too much flow throught the filter? Am I doing too many water changes? AAAARGGGGGGGG!!!
Thank you in advance for any help..
 
buy a bottle of seachem stability, and a bottle of seachem prime. get your fish, dump them and the stability in, watch your water params over the next week or two and have the prime on standby incase your ammo/nitrites go high. cycling isn't worth the trouble anymore with the advancement of bottled bacteria/ammo and nitrite nullifiers. If you have to use the prime, do so but also make sure to get a 50% water change in there too, but more than likely youll be quite happy with the results of the stability.
 
spiff44 said:
or its already cycled...
Click to expand...
if he has no nitrate readings? I would understand no nitrite as I've missed that part of a quick cycle on tanks before because of the use of bottled bacteria, but there will always be nitrate lol.
 
thank you for the replies. No nitrite or nitrate,only a small reading of ammonia every 2 or 3 days. I'm using an API liquid test kit.
 
Spiff, thank you for the reply,if it was cycled, wouldn't there be a nitrate reading?
Tbrown, I fear exposing the fish to ammonia if I don't change out any water.
 
Yes, I smack it on the table a few times and shake it like I'm trying to destroy it.
 
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