Cycling - again. *sighs*

[jessibell]

Okay, so I have been cycling a five gallon for a month, and in the past week the nitrites have not decreased at all (at 0.8 right now) ammonia has been zero for some time. The nitrites were plumetting but now they are stuck.

I did a 75% water change and am continueing to add a medium sized pinch of fish food every day, but i want to switch it to a sponge filter from a HOB. I have had the sponge filter running for a week in there now and have just turned off the HOB now. I am guessing I will see an ammonia spike again and kinda start from scratch

Any thoughts or ideas on how to help the cycle to completion?

 

[neilanh]

Yeah, you likely will see another ammonia spike. If you can leave the 2 filters running in parallel for a few more weeks this will eliminate the additional ammonia spike. The new sponge filter needs about a month to really adequately get seeded with bacteria.

 

[jessibell]

Well, when i set up the sponge filter I put inside it a half inch of gravel from my established 10 gal and a chunk of foam that I was keeping in the ten's biofilter for several weeks, along with some new foam and polywool. Hopefully that will speed it up a bit. I don't really mind if there is an ammonia spike, I'm not in too much of a hurry with this tank. I'm mostly wondering why the nitrite stopped dropping all of a sudden, and if i can avoid it doing that again?