Did this kill my cycle?

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dulcisveteranus

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 1, 2015
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110
The ammonia in my 55 gallon tank won't go down lately. It has been established for a month now, all the fish seem to be fine except for one neon tetra who won't school and is inactive. The ammonia in my tank was 4 ppm 2 days ago and I did a 60% water change and it went down to 2 ppm. I added stress zhyme, sludge destroyer, and ammo-lock. the next day i did a 30% water change and the ammonia was still at 2 ppm. I started underfeeding a lot and it still won't go down. Changes that i made lately was me switching from API carbon to tetra carbon since it was cheaper. I rinsed it to get the carbon dust out and it made the water cloudy in the tank. The cloudiness cleared up in 2 days. I also added in 2 juvenile Angelfish 3 days ago that are about the size of a dollar coin. Could this have caused a mini-cycle? Please help, I am worried about my fish.

Water parameters - 2ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 5 ppm nitrate
Ph - 6.8

Tank is semi planted with driftwood.
 
  1. Skip the carbon. It isn't necessary
  2. Skip all the chemicals. All you need is a good water conditioner and a healthy water change schedule. I recommend seachem Prime
  3. Don't change out your filter media. That's what the bacteria is growing on and switching it out gets rid of all of it.
  4. More water changes. Any time your ammonia is above 0.25ppm do a 50% water change. Test the water in a few hours and if it's still above 0.25ppm do another one
  5. Angels are really not suited to be in a cycling tank. They are fairly fragile fish and usually die when a tank is cycling. I would rehome them.
 
I don't change my filter media. I wash it in aquarium water.Also myy aquarium was fully cycled a week ago.
 
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