Cycle struggles

[Kuriuskitten]

Backstory: 29g, sand substrate, moderately planted.

Started cycling with seachem stability. One week fishless. 2nd week with 5 danios. 3rd week added 2 opaline gourami and 6 ghost shrimp.

Up until I added the gourami my water parameters were looking good. I had no nitrates and very low nitrites. That's why I added gourami.

Now it's like a bomb dropped. My nitrates are way up, still under 40ppm, but nitrites are sky high. I started doing large water changed. 50-75% every other day. No changes. So I bought some seachem safe and different bacteria starter.

Slowly all ghost shrimp have died, but everyone else seems fine.

What do I do? Keep dosing Safe and let cycling catch up? Keep trying water changes with little result? Both?

 

[fishwonder]

Here is information on how to cycle your Aquarium filter/tank. Please read all the links.

 

[Kuriuskitten]

So I read the link. I guess I should mention I'm not unfamiliar to the nitrogen cycle, and have had several tanks. I just never had one behave like this.

Also article says NOT to do large water changes to solve high nitrites, which is totally against everything I've known. It also says that basically all seachem products are garbage and don't do what they claim... I am paraphrasing...but that's the impression I got.

 

[fishwonder]

Depends if you are doing a fishless or fish in cycle. You will have to do a fish-in-cycle and follow those instructions. You mention no nitrite number.

 

[Kuriuskitten]

5-10+ ppm nitrites.

Fishwonder, are you also of the opinion that Seachem and other branded products don't work to help cycle aquariums?

 

[fishwonder]

Follow the Fish in cycling page.

It states: Just keep going with no water changes unless gaseous ammonia (Seachem Alert test) hits 0.2 ppm, ammonia and ammonium (API test) hit 2 or nitrite hits 2 ppm (at 7.6 pH). So yes, you need to do some water changes.

 

[fishwonder]

5-10+ ppm nitrites.

Fishwonder, are you also of the opinion that Seachem and other branded products don't work to help cycle aquariums?

Seachem has nothing to prove that their products work. No test, no independent studies, no government test. All manufactures lie because they are allowed to. It's all sales to them. Just email them and ask for any test that can show you results. As you can see, there are test that prove this stuff ( Seachem and others) does not work and you can do the test yourself. Simple.

 

[Kuriuskitten]

New insight

I've done some more digging into what could be going on and I think the pH may be affecting the cycling.
I'm at under 7ph probably 6-6.5. My tap isn't that low, so I think the few driftwood pieces with moss I have are doing it.
I'm still having high nitrites and nitrates, so I'm going to move fish in bucket. Do a 90%water change, take out driftwood. Added crushed coral into hob filter yesterday.

Think this will help. Hopefully it doesn't bother fish or plants too much, but swimming in a toxic soup can't be good either.

Sound like a good plan? Any other input?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Low pH could be causing your cycle to not progress how it should. But, you are seeing nitrate so your cycle is there.

Whats probably happening is your ammonia producing bacteria is going well (i assume, you havent mentioned ammonia) and converting all of it to nitrite, but your nitrite consuming bacteria isnt as strong and cant process it all into nitrate. That's normal. The ammonia > nitrite stage generally establishes much quicker than the nitrite > nitrate stage.

Nitrite at 5ppm + is way too high. Keep up with water changes to get it down.

Seachem stability is notorius for producing nitrite but not helping with producung nitrate. Changing to a different brand might help.

 

[fishwonder]

I've done some more digging into what could be going on and I think the pH may be affecting the cycling.
I'm at under 7ph probably 6-6.5.

This is good data from you. You need to get your pH to over 7. A pH of 6 will inhibit your bacteria so no ammonia oxidation will occur. A pH of 6.5 means 90% of your ammonia oxidation is inhibited. Adding Crushed coral in your HOB is great. This should get your pH to over 7 in a day or so.

 

[Kuriuskitten]

UPDATE

After vacuuming substrate, another 50%water change, increasing water temp 2degrees, and getting pH above 7, I am finally cycled.

Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, nitrates 20ppm. pH 7
Happy fish, happy fish momma. Thanks Everyone.
Hope this thread helps someone else having struggles.