stoneydee
Aquarium Advice Freak
I've got a 37 gallon goldfish tank that has been set up for almost three months now, and it still hasn't cycled. Nitrite readings are always very low, and nitrate is zero. I do twice weekly water changes to keep ahead of the ammonia, which stays stubbornly between .25 and 1 ppm.
The substrate is 3/4 inch gravel (I read an article about goldfish getting smaller gravel stuck in their mouths - I work about 9-10 hours a day, and it just horrified me to think I could have a fish at home with a rock in its mouth for that long. . . ), which I've been told is still small enough for bacteria to colonize on.
My tank has an Eclipse 3 hood on it with a bio-wheel, and I've just bought an in-tank canister filter on eBay - the mechanical filters in the Eclipse get just putrid looking after about 3-4 days, with water cascading over them not really touching before winging onto the bio-wheel. They are incredibly difficult to scrub off to put back in the filter chamber, since they are attached to the little carbon holder. I thought maybe the sponge in the canister filter would have a greater chance of building up the nitrifying bacteria I'm obviously missing.
Is this common to have a nearly 3 month old "new" tank? (I haven't had this problem with my other tanks, which all have tropical fish in them.)
The substrate is 3/4 inch gravel (I read an article about goldfish getting smaller gravel stuck in their mouths - I work about 9-10 hours a day, and it just horrified me to think I could have a fish at home with a rock in its mouth for that long. . . ), which I've been told is still small enough for bacteria to colonize on.
My tank has an Eclipse 3 hood on it with a bio-wheel, and I've just bought an in-tank canister filter on eBay - the mechanical filters in the Eclipse get just putrid looking after about 3-4 days, with water cascading over them not really touching before winging onto the bio-wheel. They are incredibly difficult to scrub off to put back in the filter chamber, since they are attached to the little carbon holder. I thought maybe the sponge in the canister filter would have a greater chance of building up the nitrifying bacteria I'm obviously missing.
Is this common to have a nearly 3 month old "new" tank? (I haven't had this problem with my other tanks, which all have tropical fish in them.)