[HELP] Tank NOT cycling

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prettykitty

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 25, 2010
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Canada
Hello monsterfishkeepers forum, a month ago I bought a 125 gallon tank from big al's.. I also bought a marine land c-530 canister filter
In the tank I had 2x red eared sliders.. I ran it for two weeks with the turtles in the tank and 2 bottles of stress zyme, then i put the fish in, fish were mostly tiger barbs and a few other barbs along with some pleco's, I also put a few clown loaches in.

A few weeks later I went to the store for a water test, they said that my ammonia was 4.8 ppm and that was a bit high for the fish, they told me to get ammo chips, they said it won't interfere with the cycle. Along with that I got a bottle of SeaChem Stability ( note at that time it had been 3 weeks and no signs of NITRITE what so ever, just ammonia) After about 5 days using stability and ammo chips, the ammonia level was 4ppm and no nitrite or nitrate. They told me my ammonia was probably high because I have turtles but thats fine because it needs to be a little bit high for the cycle.

The reason my fish are doing so good is because my local water is very soft, thus causing the pH level to be around 6.8 and making the ammonia mostly ammonium which by far harmless than ammonia.

Now, its been a month now i've used countless products and put my time and stuff to do water changes in my tank since they told me they don't know what's going on.
But personally i'm going to ask around first and see why my tank hasn't even gone to the second step of cycling and what i'm doing wrong.



so can someone please help me :(

okay so here are the water quality things:

nitrate: 0
nitrite : 0
hardness: .8
pH: 6.8
ammonia: 3.9-4.0

what I've done,

25% water changes 2 times every week

2x bottles of stress zyme (followed instructions)
1x BIG bottle of seachem stability (followed instructions for around 7 days now)
marineland c-530 with bio balls and ceramic things..


water clearness: very clear

in the water: 2x red eared sliders

6x tiger barbs
1x barb
1-3x clown loach
2x pleco

2x soaked and boiled for a week drift wood





can some people here tell me what im doing wrong and how can i speed up the cycle seriously it's been a whole month and I spent a lot of money on this I wanna really cycle this thing lol :cry:
 
Some of those cycling products don't contain the right kind of bacteria. It will eat your ammonia, but fail to survive leading to you needing to buy more. Stop wasting money and just let 'nature' happen in your filters. Keep up on the water changes, ammonia near 5 will impair the bacteria and stop the cycle. Shoot for 2.5 during a normal fishless cycle, but since you've already got critters in there, keep it below 1. Start with a 75% water change and see where your ammonia is after that.
 
knifegill;4318970; said:
Some of those cycling products don't contain the right kind of bacteria. It will eat your ammonia, but fail to survive leading to you needing to buy more. Stop wasting money and just let 'nature' happen in your filters. Keep up on the water changes, ammonia near 5 will impair the bacteria and stop the cycle. Shoot for 2.5 during a normal fishless cycle, but since you've already got critters in there, keep it below 1. Start with a 75% water change and see where your ammonia is after that.
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but don't ammonia levels have to spike during a cycle? it's ok if its 1? will it delay the cycle even more.. lol but i can't delay it even more, how sad is this, its been a month and all i see is ammonia.
 
get some filter media form an established tank and either add it to the canister or squeeze it over the tank. lay off the chemicals that stuff messes the cycle up the fish stores just sell it to make $$$$ dirty filter gunk is the way to go. trust me i have 13 tanks thru out my house and ive done them all the exact same way. cycled my 55 gallon in 15 days. and ditch the strips you want a master test kit and here is a cheap place to get one. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit-Fish-Aquatic-Pets/3635493. good luck and keep posting updates.
 
biohazardcustomz;4318991; said:
get some filter media form an established tank and either add it to the canister or squeeze it over the tank. lay off the chemicals that stuff messes the cycle up the fish stores just sell it to make $$$$ dirty filter gunk is the way to go. trust me i have 13 tanks thru out my house and ive done them all the exact same way. cycled my 55 gallon in 15 days. and ditch the strips you want a master test kit and here is a cheap place to get one. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Freshwater-Master-Test-Kit-Fish-Aquatic-Pets/3635493. good luck and keep posting updates.
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I don't have anyone who has an established tank, But I will go to my LFS in 2 days for a water test and buy water test kit also i'll check if they can fill a bag with gravel, some water and filter water/gunk..

but then after I do that, should I have water changes or no?
 
You will always do water changes.

Yes, the gunk method is best. I can usually cycle a tank in three days this way. The trick is to have more bacteria than ammonia. So, for a new tank, I usually add the new fish with dechlorinated tap water and filtration running. After about a day, when ammonia is just readable, I squeeze in the muck. Within hours the ammonia is gone and I never even see nitrItes. I believe this works well for me because I do it when the ammonia is in a weak enough concentration to be easily overcome.

Just buy a used filter pad from them, that's usually the simplest. They'll bag it up for you. Make sure it's from a healthy tank that hasn't been nuked lately. Then you can squeeze it out, or just drop it into the tank as-is.
 
So gunk would be water squeezed from an established filter sponge, also gravel from established tank?

I can get some from LFS but dude, its a 15 min drive from it to my house.. Will the bacteria in there live?

and also how many water changes should I be doing if I put the gunk in?
 
knifegill;4319020; said:
You will always do water changes. Don't introduce the live culture until your ammonia is at least below 3.0 ppm.

Yes, the gunk method is best. I can usually cycle a tank in three days this way.
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thats because knifegill is the mack daddy haha he has helped me so many times lol but hes way better than me. 3 days? the fastest i have was 12 but it had alot of gunk and rocks from another tank. my 55 took a little longer but i think its prob because i switched from a hob filter to a canister like halfway thru it. oh well its done now and the canister is much better.

anyway, thank you knifegill. for being so freakin awesome. :headbang2
 
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