[HELP] Tank not cycling

[prettykitty]

Hello monsterfishkeepers forum, a month ago I bought a 125 gallon tank from big al's.. I also bought a marine land c-530 canister filter
In the tank I had 2x red eared sliders.. I ran it for two weeks with the turtles in the tank and 2 bottles of stress zyme, then i put the fish in, fish were mostly tiger barbs and a few other barbs along with some pleco's, I also put a few clown loaches in.

A few weeks later I went to the store for a water test, they said that my ammonia was 4.8 ppm and that was a bit high for the fish, they told me to get ammo chips, they said it won't interfere with the cycle. Along with that I got a bottle of SeaChem Stability ( note at that time it had been 3 weeks and no signs of NITRITE what so ever, just ammonia) After about 5 days using stability and ammo chips, the ammonia level was 4ppm and no nitrite or nitrate. They told me my ammonia was probably high because I have turtles but thats fine because it needs to be a little bit high for the cycle.

The reason my fish are doing so good is because my local water is very soft, thus causing the pH level to be around 6.8 and making the ammonia mostly ammonium which by far harmless than ammonia.

Now, its been a month now i've used countless products and put my time and stuff to do water changes in my tank since they told me they don't know what's going on.
But personally i'm going to ask around first and see why my tank hasn't even gone to the second step of cycling and what i'm doing wrong.



so can someone please help me

okay so here are the water quality things:

nitrate: 0
nitrite : 0
hardness: .8
pH: 6.8
ammonia: 3.9-4.0

what I've done,

25% water changes 2 times every week

2x bottles of stress zyme (followed instructions)
1x BIG bottle of seachem stability (followed instructions for around 7 days now)
marineland c-530 with bio balls and ceramic things..


water clearness: very clear

in the water: 2x red eared sliders

6x tiger barbs
1x barb
1-3x clown loach
2x pleco

2x soaked and boiled for a week drift wood





can some people here tell me what im doing wrong and how can i speed up the cycle seriously it's been a whole month and I spent a lot of money on this I wanna really cycle this thing lol

 

[krap101]

Okay, either don't ever go back to that pet store, or if you do, never listen to them again.. ><

Either they were using a strip kit for the ammonia, or you have immortal fish. Prolonged 4.8ppm ammonia (I'd say a few minutes up to 10 minutes) is basically instant death for fish.

Ammo chips remove ammonia entirely from your water, so it will stall your cycle if all the ammonia is removed.

First off, I'd find a lfs with an accurate test kit, or buy your own liquid kit. The lowest price is around $18 shipped, so that's always a good place to start.

Walmart.com: Freshwater Master Test Kit: Fish

Fish won't do well in high ammonia water, no matter what your pH and hardness is for your water. True ammonium is less toxic, but 4ppm is outrageous

 

[prettykitty]

ok, i'll buy drip water test API kits and get established filter gunk or gravel from an established tank..

I did put ammo chips in there, but the ammonia is still 4, maybe because I have turtles, so should I just do water changes like every other day then?

 

[krap101]

Either the ammo chips have been used up or you have a faulty kit, or both.