Please tell me what I could be doing wrong with this cycling process?

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ashleykw

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 31, 2017
Messages
59
Location
Arizona
I bought a 10 gallon in the middle of February. It had 5lbs substrate, a 10-gallon filter w carbon filter media, heater, bubbler, stocked with a platy, molly, and 2 African dwarf frogs. I have literally gone through two whole bottles of "bacteria" (SeaChem stability and API QuickStart) trying to cycle this thing. I've been using SeaChem prime with each water change. I've been checking the parameters regularly, the ammonia seems to fluctuate between 0.25-1ppm, and I only have ever noticed the nitrites elevate ONCE. Recently, I started getting nitrates reading between 0-5ppm (it's hard to tell exactly). I moved the aquarium today into my new apartment, saved 5gallons of the water and have it all set up (plus finally added an additional 5lbs gravel substrate). Checked the parameters and ammonia is 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate still looks to be between 0-5. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Just heads up, 10-gallon is all I can have, believe me I would love a 20gal but just not anytime in the near future. I haven't lost a single fish or frog yet, and I really hope they all survive. But this cycling thing is taking WAY longer than anticipated. I was thinking 4-5 weeks, not 2 months!

PS I feed them every 2-3 days and do a 25% PWC after every feeding.

Any tips on strategies to speed cycling or suggest what I could be doing wrong would be greatly appreciated! When I'm done cycling I'd like to get one more molly and one more platy.
 
ash...

A 10 gallon tank is very small and will be a challenge to cycle. A 20 gallon would be much easier to keep. I'd avoid using bacteria starters or any similar chemical. These may leave you with a less than stable water chemistry. If you cycle a tank slowly with a hardy fish species like Platys or Danios, you can cycle the tank in a month or a bit longer.

Below are the steps I took to cycle my first tank:

Once the tank is set up and running, add some individual stems of a floating plant like Hornwort, Water sprite and/or Anacharis to help steady the water chemistry between water changes. Add 3 to 4 small to medium sized fish for every 10 gallons of water you want to cycle. Guppies, Platys, Danios and Rasboras will tolerate the cycling process. Feed the fish just a little every couple of days. They don’t need much during the cycling period. The dissolving fish waste (ammonia) combines with oxygen from the outside air and begins to grow the bacteria colony. Test the water daily for traces of ammonia and nitrite. If you have a positive test, remove a quarter (25 percent) of the tank water and replace it with tap water treated with an additive that removes chlorine and chloramine and detoxifies the three forms of nitrogen. Don’t remove more water, you’ll starve the bacteria and slow the process. Test every day and remove and replace the water when needed. When several daily tests show no traces of ammonia or nitrite, the tank is cycled. Once cycled, in a month or so, you change out half or more of the tank water every few days to maintain good water conditions.

B
 
Also, fish really should be fed everyday. We eat every day, so should they. Once your tank is cycled, they'll be no need to do water changes after every feeding. Once a week should be fine.
 
Also, fish really should be fed everyday. We eat every day, so should they. Once your tank is cycled, they'll be no need to do water changes after every feeding. Once a week should be fine.

I agree. Feed them and get it over with. You need some amount of ammonia production to simulate the bio-load you will have in the end or you aren't really preparing the tank for what is to come later when you stock it for real. If you do a cycle with fish you are going to stress the fish some. That's just how is is. If that isn't acceptable remove the fish and cycle without fish and feed it some liquid ammonia.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice! I followed your advice on feeding them every day. Also got some live plants. Had an ammonia spike and unfortunately my molly passed away, but my nitrates are currently higher now more than ever before (5.0ppm) and my ammonia is slowly reducing, almost looks like it might be below 0.25ppm! Thanks again :)
 
Once cycled, in a month or so, you change out half or more of the tank water every few days to maintain good water conditions.

B

Change 50+% every few days?

Can I ask why?

Isn't this enough to cause a mini crash?

Shouldn't how much and how often be determined by him testing how long it takes his tank to build nitrates and how much of a change it takes to bring it back down?

Every tank is different, after all.
 
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