Cycle problems

[Rumor]

Ok so long story short I bought the fish and the tank same day, I had no clue about cycling until it was too late, Now i have had the tank with fish in it for a month to six weeks and seems as if my tank never cycled.
I had one NH3 spike at the begging and then all the readings NH3/NO2/NO3 dropped to 0 and have stayed that way, I was told there should be atleast some readings on the NO3 but there are none, Does this mean my tank is not cycled?
And if so how could that be? I do frequent 30% water changes, is it possible that i'm putting the new water in too soon for the declorinator to work so it is killing off the bacteria in my filter before it is formed?
10 gal tank
1 betta
1 shark
50W heater
pH - 6.5-7
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
HOB elite hush 10 filter

 

[jeremyblevins]

What kind of shark is it I think a 10 gallon may be too small. And you should at least be seeing ammonia. Do you have any live plants?

 

[Rumor]

It is an albino shark and yeah 10 gal is way too small, it is a temporary home till I get a bigger tank, and yeah I just ran all the tests again and all readings are still 0. And no live plants, I haven't gotten that far yet, not gonna add anything else to the tank until i get this issue fixed.


EDIT:Would it be a bad idea to try that shrimp thing now?
Not sure since there are fish in there atm.

 

[jeremyblevins]

How often are you doing the water changes?

 

[Rumor]

I do 30% changes everyother day, at one point I was doing them everyday because I read that the fish love it and it wouldn't do any harm, i'm questioning that now.

 

[jeremyblevins]

Personally I would wait a couple of days on water changes to see if any levels start to rise. But I'm sure more experienced people will be on here to give you more experienced advice.

 

[jeremyblevins]

Are you using prime with an API master test kit?

 

[Rumor]

Not sure what prime is, I use Aquafin water conditioner and an aquafin mini master liquid test kit. expiry date of 2014.

 

[jeremyblevins]

prime is a water conditioner that can bind nitrates so it could've been interfering with the test results but i guess not.

 

[MarkA123]

I would stop doing water changes until you see ammonia and make sure your using dechlorinator if your not the chlorine will kill both your fish and bacteria but you should still see ammonia how are you feeding your fish?

 

[Rumor]

well i'm gonna stop doing changes to see if i can get some readings, for water conditioning i use nutrafin aqua plus which says it dechloinats, and i feed them nutrafin max complete flake food for all tropical fish.

Also as a side note, i messed up, in all my post i have been calling the products aquafin, it is actually nutrafin. thats for my conditioner/food/test kit.

 

[Rumor]

I must have some magic water or something, its been 3 days with no water change and my water readings are still 0 across the board, has anyone ever run into this? it seems strange given that there have been fish in there for a month +.


EDIT:Is there a way to test your test kits? eg. could i use tap water with some NH3 mixed it just to see if its working?

 

[jeremyblevins]

Yes you can buy janitorial strength ammonia from ace hardware

 

[taylorodw]

Yep...

Rumor, did you add anything else to the aquarium? Zeolite rocks? Anything that mentions ammonia?

 

[Rumor]

The only things in the tank are marina gravel, a little bridge we got at the pet store for them to hide under, a couple small fake plants, and some river stones.

 

[MarkA123]

Go to your local pet store or anywhere that will test your water and if it still shows up zero it's not your test kit it's something In your tank. Do you have live plants? And also if it's ok with someone who has an aquarium or pet shop you could bring your test kit there and test their water and if it shows up zero it's your test kit. You could also get bottled water or another water source and try putting pure ammonia in it than testing for ammonia to see if it's your test kit. Just try testing different stuff or test your water with something different. Eventually you'll find the problem.

 

[jeremyblevins]

update?

 

[swankyspoon]

Sorry if I missed it, but what kind of test kit are you using? Liquid tests are much more reliable for measuring Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. I am still new to this, but I do not understand how a month can go by with no signs of Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Your tank could cycle in four weeks, but there would still be nitrates, no?

 

[jeremyblevins]

in one of his post he says he's using the nutrafin master liquid test kit