My fish tank refuses to cycle

[charliebankston]

I personally would do the fish in cycle. Get something cheap and hardy like danios, I think you'll find you don't have to do water changes as often as you think. Start with maybe 6, and check your parameters daily or twice daily. I always add a starter bacteria and do a fish in cycle and always have good luck with it

 

[charliebankston]

Most starter bacteria bottles give the directions for a 7 day dose, so buy enough you can treat for the manufactures' recommended time

 

[charliebankston]

Also, alot of mom and pop fish stores will give or sell cheaply, so used filter media to put in your filter to seed the bacteria. Jump start sorta. Still check water tho

 

[Lone-Racher]

Hey, thanks for the advice, I think I will do that... I’ve spent a small fortune on this tank and to not even have one fish after 4months is crazy. Fish-in cycle it is... i was having a look on the internet and I know danios are usually the first choice but I can’t say I’m particularly taken with them. I was hoping for a little shoal of tetras and saw that the x-ray tetras are a hardy choice. Do you think they would be suitable for cycling? I eventually wanted to end up with some dwarf cichlids if everything goes to plan... obviously I’m trying think in advance too as to which mix well.
I have seachem prime to help along the way and a bottle of api stress coat that seems to have bacteria in it, as well as bacterial balls... although I don’t think the bacterial balls are of much use tbh. I could look into getting some seeded media, although I’m not sure I could trust it to be ‘clean’ from the places round here.
I was also wondering if an easy maintenance floating plant might help with the cycling? Although I’m not very informed on aquarium plants & I don’t want to introduce more trouble before I start.
Thanks again

 

[charliebankston]

Hope I helped. Your right about the use media. Have to be careful. Tetras are generally pretty hardy, some species are more so then others. Lots of info online tho. I'm not much help on plants, most of my tanks are cichlids who like to tear stuff up and eat plants. I know it's frustrating to not have fish yet, but your doing good. Api stress coat is just dechlorinator and aloe. Api stress zyme is the bacteria one. I use it, but i also use seachem stability and fluval cycle. Both are a little cheaper. Api also makes one called Quick start

 

[tlindsey]

I personally would toss a raw shrimp in the aquarium and cycle the aquarium that way instead of live fish.

 

[charliebankston]

I personally would toss a raw shrimp in the aquarium and cycle the aquarium that way instead of live fish.

That'll do it too. Good idea!

 

[Lone-Racher]

Sorry I meant to say stress zyme not stress coat...�� thanks for the help guys, much appreciated
When I checked my canister filter yesterday I snapped the spindle inside the impeller... unless it was already like that from new, I’ve ordered a replacement but the water seems to be flowing through ok anyway... I wonder if this may have been part of the problem. I also had pretty much rammed it with good media, so I removed some as I’m not sure how much water flow I was getting through it all. I’ve used stability before as well dr tims one and only, and safe start etc... the most I got was a bloom for an hour and then it disappeared.
I’m gonna check my parameters again this morning and see where I’m at for trying a fish in cycle. Cheers

 

[charliebankston]

Good luck!