I SUCK! (I'm whining and complaining here)

[Twoapennything]

I should warn people that I'm talking about the various ways my fish have kicked it. Just so you know.

I really suck at this aquarist thing. I'm frustrated and feeling like a moron about everything having to do with fish right now.

I cannot get my tank to cycle. I have followed 7Enigma's directions and I have wildly fluctuating levels of EVERYTHING, all the time. I haven't had a single 24 hour period where the levels remained consistent, except when ammonia was up and everything else stayed at zero FOREVER AND EVER. grr. For example, this morning? My levels were: ammonia 5, nitrites 1.5, nitrates 80, pH 7.8. Eleven hours later? I have: ammonia 0.25, nitrites 0.25, nitrates 0.0, pH 8.2. I'm really, really frustrated.

I want to get my 40 gallon tank cycled! The 10 gallon QT is beginning to resemble a clown car.

My two 10 gallon tanks seem to have stalled cycles - everything is just zero. No nitrates at all. Low pH. It's just so stagnant. I do PWCs several times per week to try and alleviate the low pH, but it just keeps crashing in all of my tanks.

And then yesterday I bought 4 little neons, because I know neons are schooling fish and I only had one - well, Lady my goldfish ate them. >.< I also bought a little black and white guppy so my yellow guppy Lemons could have a friend (my orange guppy died), and when I went to find Lemons, I couldn't find him . . . and then his dead body just popped up out of nowhere, and of course Lady had eaten his fins off - it was like that horrible scene from Jaws when that guy's head comes rolling out of the hull of the boat. UGH.

My betta has fin rot.

My snail won't stay out of the uptake tube of the filter.

My black molly has . . . I don't even know what he has. I've treated him for everything involving white spots, but he still has them. None of the other fish have gotten the spots, though, as far as I know.

And I was so sad because I thought one of my African frogs had died - he'd been sickly for over a week, wouldn't eat, wouldn't swim, wouldn't move unless poked . . . he just floated up at the top of the tank with his legs hanging down. Well, he finally died . . . except not. Which I discovered as I was flushing him and he reacted to the cold water. I couldn't save him I feel soooooooo guilty about this. I would never ever flush a live fish or frog.

I really love this hobby, but I'm not getting the hang of anything, it feels like. Please tell me that I am not alone, and that one day I will be knowledgeable about and successful with my aquariums!

Thanks for letting me emote! I appreciate it.

Is there a thread dedicated solely to complaining about how one's fishless cycle is just made of fail, and it's just not working? I notice it's not an uncommon topic -.-

 

[DragonFish71]

Try using some Seachem Stability or Nutrafin Cycle, a few raw shrimp and some seed gravel in pieces of new pantyhose. I cycle my tanks this way.

 

[William470]

To the original poster.

I feel your pain. Techinally I'm on going on my fifth week of fishless cycling. First three weeks I tried with clear ammonia and never seen any nitrites appear. I feel I might have put in to much ammonia and stalled the cycle. Second attempt I did a 90% water change. Got ammonia levels down to 1.5 - 2 ppm. Added enough ammonia to get it back to around 3 - 4 ppm. Getting really close to the second week and still no nitrites.

I am getting frustrated with myself. I know I can do this.

I keep asking myself what is wrong. Is it the media in my filter? Is it my substrate (purchased from walmart)? What is wrong with my water? Do I start over?

I will keep being patient.

Bill

 

[Twoapennything]

I forgot to mention that I'm already using Nutrafin Cycle. But, where do you put the shrimp? Do you just dump them in the tank, or do they need to go on top of the filter material?

 

[Twoapennything]

I will keep being patient.

I keep telling myself the same thing. It just gets so frustrating when there is no pattern and no rhyme nor reason for how the ammonia, nitrites, and nitrate levels fluctuate and spike. If there was more consistency in the levels, I wouldn't feel so inept! I keep thinking, geez, is my tank going to take a year to cycle or something? Thanks for the encouragement

 

[DragonFish71]

I put them in a piece of pantyhose so once they get all nasty I can remove them easier> I just bury it under the substrate.

 

[chickenkev]

Are you using a good quality liquid test kit? Are you really anal about following the instructions? The high nitrites will interfere with the nitrate assay, so this will be unreliable. Also if you allow the ammonia to get too high it will kill off the bacteria you're trying to seed and the cycle will restart. Are you cycling with pure ammonia?
I'm not sure about the fluctuating pH, large fluctuations in ammonia could do this I suppose but ammonia is basic so when high, pH should be up, not the other way around. There are loads of folks on here who know what they're talking about though, so...

 

[mgamer20o0]

my thought is the same as chickenkev. reading the ops post it seems to be all over the place i am not sure what is where and what tanks are having problems.... i would list out the tanks one by one with all the info and whats going wrong in each to figure out whats going on take by tank.

 

[William470]

To chickenkev, dragonfish and mgamer

Sorry to piggyback on this thread just looking for advice. But I am at a loss as to what I'm doing. My post above explains some of what I have done.

I test my water everyday during the week when I get home from work between 2:00 and 3:00 pm. On weekends I check as soon as I wake and then later during the day.

I use the API Freshwater test kit. Some bottles are labeled with a lot date of 2010. Ammonia level readings are what I believe to be between 3 and 4 ppm. Nitrite at 0 ppm and to just to check 0 pmm Nitrate. This morning I checked my pH and high pH. pH went right to 7.6 (light blue) when I add the drops. High pH readings were around 7.6 to 8.0.

I tried finding a GH and KH test kit and only could find the KH. It took 5 drops to get a yellow reading. Sorry I cannot remember the conversion.

My tank and equipment:

aqueon 29 gallon tank
aquaclear 70 filter that I got from big al's on the deal they had on them for 19.99
media in the filter is the foam sponge (came with filter) and biomax (purchased from petsmart)
1 1/2 - 2 inches of gravel substrate purchased at walmart
various fake plants
digital thermometer

I do have a Tetra air pump and a bubble wand. It did not seem to produce the bubbles like it should. I tried using a push pin but did not help. I went to petsmart and got these airstones that are about 6" in length. But I get more bubbles from the tubing and the connector then the airstone.

I'm wondering if having no aeration or circulation, other then my filter, is effecting my cycling?

At this point I honestly don't know what to do.

Bill

 

[DragonFish71]

Not having used the ammonia method for cycling, I can't answer well enough, hopefully someone who knows that method can.

The method I use is one I've haven't had a problem with yet. No fish get harmed and it takes me about 3 weeks and constant water monitering. Seachem Stability states on the bottle you can add fish right away using their product and following the directions. I have read of people having great success using it, which prompted me to use it. Except I didn't use live fish, I used dead feeders from the LFS. When we had to re-do our 40, I also used Stability and raw shrimp. When we set up our 120 I used Nutrafin Cycle and dead feeders. It wasn't cycling well so I bought some Stability and wham, got my cycle in full gear. Out of both products, I strongly suggest Stability. I also use seed material from one of our other established tanks in both the filter and the new tank itself.

We're in the process of setting up 2 115g tanks ( if the fiance will EVER finish my stands ughhh), but we have to custom fit parts for the filters. As soon as that is done, I will have those filters seeding on an established tank and ready for the new ones.

 

[FLFishFanatic]

@ Twoapennything,

You are not alone. When I first started up an aquarium, no one told me I couldn't leave the lights on all the time (I'm 14 now, and this was years ago). So after a couple of months, the only thing living in my tank was some monster algae. I had to nuke my whole tank and start over.

As for your fish: You're going to have to make the move to larger fish if you wish to keep your goldfish.

As for the cycling: It takes patience. The worst thing you can do is rush ahead.

 

[Twoapennything]

I should tantrum more often:

 

[lionheart]

unsure as to what tank is what from your post
looking at them pics
the water readings thats not good
deffo not cycled
looking at ammonia pic looks like 1ppm 2ppm max
i would add ammonia up to 4ppm
keep it at 4ppm adding as needed
if your saying it gets down too 2ppm then stops
then i am unsure but could it be a case you went over 4ppm and caused it to stall
if thats a possibility
i would do 50% water change twice then
start adding ammonia back to 4ppm
i can see from test you have nitrates
so its cycling or it was at some stage

what level do you let the ammonia drop too before you add more ?

 

[Twoapennything]

LOL, I didn't mean to imply by my pics that I had fully cycled my tank. What I meant was, that these readings are better than seeing: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 6.0. It just means something is happening. I should have clarified that, sorry.

 

[TCool]

I'm definitely not an expert on cycling, but I think I've been learning a little over the past month with my attempt to recycle my fully (actually prolly slightly over) stocked tank. I took the advice that when doing water changes it is ok to put in the dechlor first and add the water straight to the tank. However, I think this was the source of my problems.

I screwed up my cycle over a month ago now, and I just finally started seeing something happen. I was doing at least a 50% water change every other day to try to keep my ammonia levels below 1 PPM. But, I think since I had virtually no bacteria to begin with those water changes, and the little bit of chlorine in the water before the dechlor got it, were destroying any small colonies of bacteria.

Just a week ago I decided to take a new strategy (I know this wouldn't be advised) and stopped doing the water changes. I decided to just keep a really close eye on my fish to watch for problems (literally sat there for hours a day watching them) and now I'm getting results.

Anyway, here is the point I'm getting at. I think adding untreated water to the tank (even with dechlor added to the tank first) is a bad idea when you are first cycling the tank. But, so many others seem to have no problem doing this with fully established tanks, so my guess is the dechlor doesn't act quick enough and will kill off small amounts of bacteria. And, if you only have small amounts it can cause major problems, but with established tanks I'm guessing that small amount is no big deal.

I don't know how you're doing water changes, but perhaps that could be an issue because it certainly seemed like an issue with me. And, perhaps some more experienced people can comment on that. Perhaps what happened to me is a fluke, but who knows.

 

[William470]

I want to ask a question to TCool post.

I purchased a Python No Spill and Fill. Reading the instructions is it my understanding that this product aerates the water to remove the chlorine? Inwill still add tap water conditioner.

Sorry to ask this question here but having a tough time getting my cycling started.

Bill

 

[DragonFish71]

I want to ask a question to TCool post.

I purchased a Python No Spill and Fill. Reading the instructions is it my understanding that this product aerates the water to remove the chlorine? Inwill still add tap water conditioner.

Sorry to ask this question here but having a tough time getting my cycling started.

Bill

A python does help aerate the water. Once you fill you will see tons of tiny bubbles everywhere, but you still need to use dechlor. The rule of thumb when filling that way is dose dechlor for the size of the tank, not for the amount you have removed. Example, I use my python to change all my tanks, so lets pick my 120g. I do 50% water changes on that tank weekly (I have big pooping fish) When I refill I use Prime for the whole tank volume. So I'm dechloring for 120g. Hope that makes sense.

 

[DragonFish71]

I'm definitely not an expert on cycling, but I think I've been learning a little over the past month with my attempt to recycle my fully (actually prolly slightly over) stocked tank. I took the advice that when doing water changes it is ok to put in the dechlor first and add the water straight to the tank. However, I think this was the source of my problems.

I screwed up my cycle over a month ago now, and I just finally started seeing something happen. I was doing at least a 50% water change every other day to try to keep my ammonia levels below 1 PPM. But, I think since I had virtually no bacteria to begin with those water changes, and the little bit of chlorine in the water before the dechlor got it, were destroying any small colonies of bacteria.

Just a week ago I decided to take a new strategy (I know this wouldn't be advised) and stopped doing the water changes. I decided to just keep a really close eye on my fish to watch for problems (literally sat there for hours a day watching them) and now I'm getting results.

Anyway, here is the point I'm getting at. I think adding untreated water to the tank (even with dechlor added to the tank first) is a bad idea when you are first cycling the tank. But, so many others seem to have no problem doing this with fully established tanks, so my guess is the dechlor doesn't act quick enough and will kill off small amounts of bacteria. And, if you only have small amounts it can cause major problems, but with established tanks I'm guessing that small amount is no big deal.

I don't know how you're doing water changes, but perhaps that could be an issue because it certainly seemed like an issue with me. And, perhaps some more experienced people can comment on that. Perhaps what happened to me is a fluke, but who knows.

You are correct. Adding untreated water does kill off the bacteria. That is why water treatment adds the chlorine. To kill off all the crud in water so it's safe to drink. Now, when I do my water changes, I use a python, it's a direct fill from the tap. I dechlor for the tank volume, not what I removed and have not had problems cycling. And yes, I have cycled with fish before. Well, it was an accident really. I had used a bacterial suppliment when I did my weekly water changes that sent my tanks into cycles again. So in effect I was cycling with fish. If you treat for the volume you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[TCool]

Well, if dechloring for the whole tank volume before adding in water (which is what I did) works good enough to not stop the cycle then I wonder what my issue was.

Do you use a HOB filter and turn it off when you do the water changes? From a previous post of mine it sounded like a lot of people did that. I wonder if it seems to work for others because of that and not for me because my main filter is internal.

@Twoapennything: Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I think while cycling, it may be better to use buckets and treat the water before hand... i never do this, but all my tanks are cycled. I'm sure there is some amount of bacteria that is killed by the chlorine before the dechlor has time to render it safe. That being said, i could be totally wrong, thats just my opinion