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Thanks everyone. I am going to go with two 200 watt heaters, just for the redundancy that a few others mentioned. The tank has platys and danios in it, and they were in 60° F water for at least a day, maybe more. I put a borrowed heater in the tank and let it bring the temp up to 74° - the...

My 55 gallon freshwater tank is in a mostly unheated basement that can get down to around 50° F in the winter. I previously had a 300 watt Marineland Stealth Pro heater that Marineland recalled last year and replaced with a 300 watt Visi-Therm heater. The Visi-Therm heater just died (the...

The filter is an Aquaclear 200 with sponge, charcoal and bio module inserts. The platies are 1 male and 2 females (that is the ratio the store recommended, and that is if they sexed them correctly - I cannot really tell them apart). The platies have only been in the tank since last week, and...

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll start with more plants. and see how that goes. I like the idea of going from 6 to 12 neon tetras just to get them moving, and for the effect of a larger grouip, but it seems like that 20 gallon tank will then be awfully crowded.

Thanks for the reply. The five cory cats are peppered cory cats.

I have a 20 gallon long tank with a sand bottom. It's mostly open with one decent sized Anubias plant in the back and a couple of aquarium ornaments. The tank has six neon tetras, five Cory cats, and three red velvet platys. Is this too big a load for this tank? The platys are a recent...

Thanks for the advice. I will just stick with rinsing the media and if needed, replacing the mesh pads. The AquaClear 110 also includes a media called BioMax that looks similar in appearance to the Eheim Mech "tube-like in appearance". It also has a foam component that I rinse, but do not...

I have an Eheim 2028 filter in a 55 gallon tank. I also am running an AquaClear 110 filter on this tank. It had previously housed 3 gold fish, it currently has 7 platys in it. What is the recommended maintenance schedule for replacing the media in this filter? The Maintenance section of the...

I've checked my tapwater a couple of times, and each time the test showed zero nitrates.

Garfunkel, the cycle hasn't completed - I'm still holding with ammonia being processed and nitrites remaining at high levels. I add ammonia once each day to get the ammonia up to 2 ppm, and that is processed to zero within 12 hours. Nitrites are still "off the chart" according to the API test...

Thanks for the advice. The tank is processing ammonia, only now I add enough ammonia each day to get to 2 ppm instead of the 4 ppm that I was doig a few weeks ago. I added a pinch of fish food and put a sponge filter from an established tank. The API nitrite test solution turns purple as...

Here is where I am now. The tank is processing ammonia. It goes from 4 ppm to 0 ppm in 24 hours. Nitrite level is still high. API test kit turns purple as soon as the drops are added. Nitrate is at 20 ppm According to the fishless cycling directions I am following, I am to keep adding...

I am away for five days. I guessed and added a "pinch" before I left. The nitrite processing portion of the cycle seemed to stall last week, with a high nitrite level over several days, and then eventually a halt to ammonia being processed. When the tank was drained and refilled the ammonia...

ammonia is .25 not 25 OK, so don't add ammonia, add fish food. Since the ammonia was nearly zero, (it probably is by now) should I add some fish food now since I'm not going to be around after tonight to add ammonia once it zeros out? And if so, how much fish food are we talking about?

After 24 hours: Ammonia: 25 ppm Nitrite: 5 ppm (supposed to be a false reading, see excerpt from the directions I am following below) Nitrate: 5.0 ppm So ammonia is being processed, but the nitrites are not yet being processed - which is where I was earlier in the week when the ammonia all of a...

The instructions I followed were from here Fishless Cycling - Tropical Fish Forums Sorry for any confusion. I will go back and see if I can edit the post that had the wrong link.

I tested the water after I drained the 55 gallon tank down to nearly nothing except for the 2 gallons of water that remained in the canister filter. Ammonia 0 ppm Nitrite 2 ppm Nitrate 20 ppm PH 7.6 After such a large water change, I am surprised nitrite and nitrate were not also at zero..

William - yes, when the ammonia was processed down to zero, I added more ammonia to get it back up to 4 ppm. Based on your comments, that was too much. These are the directions I was following that recommended maintaining the ammonia at 4 ppm...

The tank is covered and does have lights. Do I leave the lights on or off, or on a certain number of hours per day. Kenn

OK, so it sounds like I am back to square one with cyclng this tank. I will be out of town for 5 days. Do I just wait on the water change until I return and can monitor the cycling process again (since it apears the ammonia eating bacteria are dead anyway) then start the process again, or...

Logansmomma I read the directions in the link you provided:: The directions you followed stated: "After the ammonia reading drops to zero, start adding just a little bit more ammonia again every day, just a teaspoon or so...not enough to force the reading above zero again, but just enough to...

What does "ph crashed" mean? I tested and came up with a value of 6.4. Actually, Tetra test strips read 6.4; the API kit has two tests: one for PH low and one for PH high. The PH low solution read 6.4, sames as the test strip. The PH high reading was 7.4. I am not sure how to interpret the PH...

OK, I will do a water change. Since there are no fish in the tank I suppose I can change 80 - 90% off the water to get the levels down. The instructions for fishless cycling that I was following said to keep adding ammonia to feed the bacteria, which would cause the nitrite to keep rising. The...

I have been fishless cycling a 55 gallon tank for the past 6 weeks. As of early in week six, my tank showed the following: Ammonia: processing 4 ppm of ammonia down to zero in 12 hours Nitrite: holding at very high levels, not measurable by the API test kit (The author of the cycling...

It sounds like I should have tested the water in the 3 gallon tank to get a baseline of what water conditions the fish were accustomed to before moving them. I am going to cycle the tank and try again with a couple of fish to see how it goes. Thanks to all for the information and suggestions.