Cycling a 60 gallon freshwater

[Greg5530]

Hello all,

So I am trying to do a fish less cycle with my 60 gallon. Have been waiting for about 2 months now and the ammonia is stuck at 1-2 ppm. Initially the ammonia came down pretty quickly but when I dosed back up it has fallen very little and has been stable at 1-2 ppm for about 2 weeks now. I did a fish less cycle on my 20 gallon which took about 6 weeks. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Greg5530]

Anybody have any response?

 

[phishfriend]

Really need some more info:

What are your other lvl's?
What temp is the tank at? You should be in the 80-82f the BB like it hot!
Are you dosing everyday?
have you done any water changes?

 

[Fresh2o]

If your 20g is still running and healthy, you might try seeding/reseeding the BB in your 60G filter with some contents from the filter in the 20g

 

[jlk]

What is your ph? Have you done any water changes in the past 2mths?

 

[Greg5530]

Ph is at about 7.4, I have added some water but no water change water temp is at 80. 20 gallon is healthy and I have 2 filters running on the 20 so I took one of the filters from the 20 and put it in the 60 in the beginning. I doesed up to about 4 ppm of ammonia and a couple of weeks went by and my nitrites started to show up and then got really high and dropped down to 0 then nitrates showed up I I kept dosing ammonia to about 1-2 and now the ammonia levels are stuck there.

 

[librarygirl]

Your PH seems ok. It's possible that the buffers and minerals in the water have been used up and need to be replenished. Do a full water change then dose back up to 2 and let's see what happens. If nitrites rose then fell, you should be cycled but something stalled the process; I'm suspecting it's the water but a water change will let us know for sure.

Also is this a second tank or an upgrade to the 20 gal? If you're upgrading, you can just pull the filters off the 20, add them to the 60 (or just pull the media from the filters and put them in the 60 gal filter if it'll fit) then move the fish over. If the 20 is cycled, adding the same amount of media to the 60 will instantly cycle it for the fish you have now.

 

[Greg5530]

No not an upgrade and additional tank I want to get some freshwater sharks possibly. For the FULL water change you talking like 50 gallons

 

[librarygirl]

Yep, if you're going to do a water change anyway may as well make it a large one to restore enough minerals etc to see if that kickstarts the cycle again. If you don't have one already I'd suggest investing in an automatic water changer, like the Aqueon; you hook it up to your faucet and drain and refill right from there so no need to lug buckets around. Also FYI a 60 gal is a little on the smaller side for a group of full-grown sharks and some, like red tailed sharks, will go after their own kind so you could only have one.

 

[corynut]

i use stability to cycle my tank have never lost a fish yet using this i am in the process of setting up a 60 gal tank today just follow the instructions on the bottle and you will have no problems also i use Special Blend to help keep down the ammonia in the tank