Need Help

[bigbadfish711]

you know what I keep thinking about this, and I'm still stumped as to why my cycling bucket hasn't started yet. It's been at 4 ppm's since january, and it hasn't started either. Anyone have any ideas on why? I put some crushed coral in the bucket to help the low ph, and presumably the low gh/kh, but i honestly know very little about gh/kh

You said you have a sponge filter on the bucket right. Do you have an air pump on the sponge filter?

I would say that the BB was either dead when you put it in or died after you put it in.

 

[carsona246]

theres no airpump in the sponge filter, it's one of those "internal filters" that has a sponge inside for bio media. The bucket cycling sponge hadn't been seeded, but it has been in a bucket of water with 4 ppm's of ammonia for over 2 months now, and the cycling process hasn't even gotten to nitrites yet.
Thanks again for all your ideas big fish, I really appreciate your brain storming.

 

[bigbadfish711]

theres no airpump in the sponge filter, it's one of those "internal filters" that has a sponge inside for bio media. The bucket cycling sponge hadn't been seeded, but it has been in a bucket of water with 4 ppm's of ammonia for over 2 months now, and the cycling process hasn't even gotten to nitrites yet.
Thanks again for all your ideas big fish, I really appreciate your brain storming.

Thats what I was thinking. Your bucket doesn't have any BB in it to start the cycle. I would ditch the bucket and concentrate on your tank. What is your ammonia at now? Got any Nitrites or Nitrates yet?

 

[carsona246]

The point of the bucket is so that I can cycle seperatly from my tank which already has livestock in it. I can safetly keep the bucket at 4 ppm's of ammonia, while I have to change my water every time I reach 1 ppm of ammonia in my tank, and I prefer to keep ammonia lower than that. once I get some bb in my bucket, I can just move the sponge filter that's in the bucket to the 40 breeder, and hope it stays alive. I might be missing something here, but doesn't the beneficial bacteria grow wherever there is ammonia? So in my mind cycling in the bucket would be the most effective way to cycle quickly. Raising my ammonia level in my tank could potentially harm my axolotls, which I would prefer to avoid.
Still no nitrite/nitrate, but I have about .5 ppm's of ammonia today. I did skip a waterchange yesterday, but nobodies looking super stressed so I might just wait till tommorrow to do another waterchange.

 

[JamesF]

Have you cleaned your filters at all while this has been going on?

 

[carsona246]

I switched out the mechanical filtration once I think, but the ceramic rings/bio balls havn't been touched. I always stick them in old tank water, and put them back in the canister filter.