Hey guys. Tl;dr my tank refuses to cycle.
Setup: 10 gallon tank
Fluval 20 aquaclear filter
Heater maintaining a temp of about 78
2 airstones
Marineland hidden LED light
Course rock substrate w/ bunch of decorations
Water is a 50/50 mix of RO water and dechlorinated tap water (with stress coat). Tap water is high in hardness, pH, and alkalinity, and the RO water puts it in perfect range. pH is about 7.8-8.
I tried doing a fishless cycle at first, using Tetra SafeStart and Dr. Tim's ammonia chloride drops. My ammonia would drop sporadically with no rise in nitrite and nitrate would rise. Figuring it's not working right I got API quick start and used that too. Still sporadic ammonia drop, no nitrite rise. After a month I figured, whatever, I want to get Glofish Danios and they're supposed to be hardy so should be able to survive a mini-cycle. I did a large water change and added 5 danios (petco wouldn't let me just get 1). I wound up getting 2 more because one of the danios was being a bully and I wanted to increase the school. 3 days later I added Dr. Tim's one and only after it came in the mail. Water clouded again. Ammonia stayed around 0 after that, but then nitrite started rising to 1. Never went over 1.
2 of my fish died. I had them replaced. Then I realized they were dying because of nitrite and stopped replacing them. I started doing aggressive daily water changes (20% or more once or twice a day), adding aquarium salt, and Seachem's Prime. I also added another filter for about 2 weeks. The fish were dying 1 a day. I even tried giving some a salt bath but it didn't help. Now I'm down to 1 small danio. My last death was 5 days ago. This last one is starting to show bad signs (hovering near the top of the water and getting pushed by water currents more).
I noticed adding prime that my ammonia would go up to 0.25. It's hard to tell what effect it has on the nitrite and nitrate levels because they don't even know why it gets reduced. I started using Seachem's Stability in another desperate attempt to get bacteria established.
I haven't used Prime or done a water change in several days but my ammonia is rising slowly and the nitrite will not hit 0. Nitrate is also around 0. This makes me think that the cycle just decided to stop completely. I took my second filter off and put it on a 2 gallon bucket to do a fishless cycle without water changes but it has not had any drop in ammonia since I put it on.
Right now I am feeding the last guy 1 flake a day and making sure he eats it all (if he doesn't, i kick it up from the substrate and he finishes it).
Not sure what else I can do at this point. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Setup: 10 gallon tank
Fluval 20 aquaclear filter
Heater maintaining a temp of about 78
2 airstones
Marineland hidden LED light
Course rock substrate w/ bunch of decorations
Water is a 50/50 mix of RO water and dechlorinated tap water (with stress coat). Tap water is high in hardness, pH, and alkalinity, and the RO water puts it in perfect range. pH is about 7.8-8.
I tried doing a fishless cycle at first, using Tetra SafeStart and Dr. Tim's ammonia chloride drops. My ammonia would drop sporadically with no rise in nitrite and nitrate would rise. Figuring it's not working right I got API quick start and used that too. Still sporadic ammonia drop, no nitrite rise. After a month I figured, whatever, I want to get Glofish Danios and they're supposed to be hardy so should be able to survive a mini-cycle. I did a large water change and added 5 danios (petco wouldn't let me just get 1). I wound up getting 2 more because one of the danios was being a bully and I wanted to increase the school. 3 days later I added Dr. Tim's one and only after it came in the mail. Water clouded again. Ammonia stayed around 0 after that, but then nitrite started rising to 1. Never went over 1.
2 of my fish died. I had them replaced. Then I realized they were dying because of nitrite and stopped replacing them. I started doing aggressive daily water changes (20% or more once or twice a day), adding aquarium salt, and Seachem's Prime. I also added another filter for about 2 weeks. The fish were dying 1 a day. I even tried giving some a salt bath but it didn't help. Now I'm down to 1 small danio. My last death was 5 days ago. This last one is starting to show bad signs (hovering near the top of the water and getting pushed by water currents more).
I noticed adding prime that my ammonia would go up to 0.25. It's hard to tell what effect it has on the nitrite and nitrate levels because they don't even know why it gets reduced. I started using Seachem's Stability in another desperate attempt to get bacteria established.
I haven't used Prime or done a water change in several days but my ammonia is rising slowly and the nitrite will not hit 0. Nitrate is also around 0. This makes me think that the cycle just decided to stop completely. I took my second filter off and put it on a 2 gallon bucket to do a fishless cycle without water changes but it has not had any drop in ammonia since I put it on.
Right now I am feeding the last guy 1 flake a day and making sure he eats it all (if he doesn't, i kick it up from the substrate and he finishes it).
Not sure what else I can do at this point. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.