My fish tank refuses to cycle

[Lone-Racher]

Hi, fairly new to the hobby (I kept cold water fish many moons ago), and I’m convinced that something is preventing bacterial growth in my tank.
I have a 112ltr tank, and I’ve rebooted twice already after trying to cycle for about 4 months now. Originally I had a sump type filter which resulted in standing water at the rear of the tank which wasn’t helping matters... so cut a long story short and for easier reading I’ll start from my latest attempt which began about 5 or 6wks ago.
So... I now have an external canister filter filled to the brim with biohome ultimate, biohome sponges, and eheim biomechanical media. It’s overly large for my tank but I figured overdoing it was better than under doing it. (No chemical media)
Ph has been steady at 7.4-7.6
Temp always between 26-30Celcius
Dechlorinated with prime
Currently 2ppm ammonia (dr.tims)
Never have I had any nitrites or nitrates in all the months of trying!!!
I’ve previously used dr tims one and only, seachem stability, bacterial balls, and another good one but I can’t remember the name now. (I get some brief water cloudiness from the bacteria which soon disappears)
I have had minor drops in ammonia and topped back up between 2-4ppm
I haven’t done any water changes, only topped up with dechlorinated water as evaporation can drop levels quite a bit.
I did clean everything with a 10% bleach solution prior to this attempt, I thoroughly rinsed and air dried everything for 2 days before refilling.
I also have a good air pump and two large air stones in the tank on constantly.
I’m using api test kit (I have tried another Brand to verify results)
There must be something seriously wrong for no cycling to happen through all three attempts over the last 4months... Facebook forums can’t help me, can anyone on here shed some light???
(Also it’s not planted and doesn’t contain any driftwood/bogwood, only plastic plants and resin type ornaments on a fine sand substrate)

I can’t believe I’ve had a fish tank for over 4months and not one fish!!

 

[Autumnsky]

Here is a start.

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling/

My first thought is not enough ammonia.

But reviewing the above article will help step by step in case you may have missed something and the one below might just get it to cycle faster!

https://www.aquariumadvice.com/tips-and-tricks-for-your-fastest-fishless-cycle/

 

[Lone-Racher]

Thanks for that, I’ve had a read through and I’ve scoured the internet for answers without getting anywhere. I’ve previously tried keeping at @ 4ppm ammonia which made no difference, it’s currently at 2ppm, but can top it up if needs be. There’s nothing happening in the tank so I figured it wouldn’t make much difference as long as it was processing 4ppm/24hrs by the end of it?

 

[Delapool]

Should still work.

I assume other people have tanks on same tap(?) water?

 

[Aiken Drum]

What are you using as an ammonia source?

Edit: Sorry just found it. DrTims Ammonium Chloride.

If you really arent getting anywhere, have you considered fish in cycle?

 

[Lone-Racher]

Thanks for the replies, regarding other tanks, I don’t have any others myself and I have friends who have tanks using tap water (but they are a few miles away)
Yes, I have used dr.tims ammonia, I guess I could do a fish in cycle but I’d be afraid of still not getting it to cycle and being stuck with heavy water changes everyday which I don’t always have time for. Will that make a difference?

 

[Aiken Drum]

I have read people saying that prime significantly slows down a cycle. Whether you believe seachems claims that it locks ammonia while still making it available to cycle, or the claim that it is nothing more than a simple dechlorinator and has no affect on ammonia at all, might be worth trying a different dechlorinator. Probably a long shot, but its time to try something different.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Also, if you have friends with tanks, would they give you some established media to seed your filter? Even an old sponge would be a big help.

 

[Lone-Racher]

I have tried API tap water conditioner initially, and that made no difference, hence the change to prime, I could go back to using it though as I have loads left. Unfortunately my friends aren’t in the position to give me any used media... I’m considering looking online for some, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. I just found a water report online, the water here is soft, not sure if that makes much of difference.
Like I said, I’ve had everyone stumped with this one, it’s the bane of my life!

 

[Lone-Racher]

Does anyone out there have any ideas??

 

[Autumnsky]

Test for nitrite again and nitrates.

 

[Lone-Racher]

Still at zero, I tested a couple of hours ago

 

[charliebankston]

How often do you test your ammonia? Is it dropping to zero often?

 

[Autumnsky]

My experiences have done only one official fishless cycle for my SW. Seemed like it took a month or more too long! Usually mine done the old way of adding a few fish at a time gradually, Now just use other media from my tanks.

If your water which is dosed with ammonia say at 2ppm the next day is down to 0 ammonia or less than a half, means it is cycled. 6 weeks is a good start of building BB.

So the only thing I wonder is if you increase the pH with some calcium, will it help. Try getting it up to 8.

Did you happen to notice if there was any magnesium in the water report?

You might try adding a teaspoon per gallon of plain no additives Epsom salts, dissolved (in hot or warm water) then added to the tank!

Alternatively, if the water seems to process the added ammonia to the next day, I think it is processing 1-2 ppm in one day and the whole 4ppm in 2ish days.

My understanding of the 4ppm is it is much higher than a normal fish load.

You might try "fish-in" with a smaller bioload and gradually in appx. 2 week increments, then, increase the fish load if all stays in what would be a cycled tank scenario.

Using Prime will assist in binding bad stuff if it pops up and you are in a pinch and can not do the pwc.

With a small starting fish bioload the BB ramps up with the fish as they are added.

In doing that, you start out when adding the new group with lighter feeding, and in smaller portions so the fish eat it all up, waste less.

 

[Lone-Racher]

My apologies for the last reply... I did not realise I had further comments. So today I did a 75% water change just because I didn’t know what else to do. The ammonia has been sitting firm at around 2ppm with no change, and obviously still no nitrites or nitrates.
I have then seen your comments above and will take them into consideration. So, if I were to do a fish in cycle will I need to completely rid my tank of all ammonia first? Is there a much better chance of bb growing this way?
Thanks in advance

 

[Lone-Racher]

There does seem to be magnesium in the water according to the report, does this make a difference? An average of 2.71mg MG/l
Also, what does the Epsom salts do? Thanks

 

[snowfrill]

there is an ammonia remover sponge that u can put in your filter made by fluval i found this out due to a bad ammonia spike i had in an established tank, i found that it was due to the sand in my tank but can also could be due to gravel it takes approximately 28days for it to remove the ammonia but i highly recommend it as it sounds like ikt is in your sand which u will need to remove it 100% n sift it to clean it 100% this will solve your proplem ive been there so know what im talking bout and ive even removed my sand so now have a bare bottom tank and get no spikes what so ever

 

[charliebankston]

It's necessary to have some ammonia to grow the bacteria for nitification. My thought was the same as someone earlier in the post, not enough ammonia. Or if it drops to zero and there's not a constant source the the bacteria will basically starve off and die, causing you to start over

 

[charliebankston]

Epsom salt will add magnesium to your water, raising your hardness and ph a little. It does other things medicinally, but won't do anything to help cycle your tank. Also, it doesn't actually contain salt, NaCl

 

[Lone-Racher]

Ok, so I’ve been putting off a fish in cycle for a long time, I’ve tested my water after doing a 75% water change and I’ve got between 0.25-0.5ppm ammonia still in there, ph has dropped to around 6.8-7.
I will check it again tomorrow after it’s all fully circulated... does anyone think it’s worth going for the fish in cycle or shall I try for a fourth time with the ammonia?
I’ve read up on the prime method of fish in cycling and I know there’s lots of water changes ahead etc... but I’m about ready to scrap the whole lot at this stage