need help with my aquariums cycle

[janeth0185]

i just dont get why my tank is taking FOREVER to cycle!!! i got my 10 gallon tank in may and well i didnt know about cycling the tank when i first got my fishes.well i had 2 goldfishes in it til the last one died sometime in july and ( yes i didnt know neither that goldfishes were supposed to be in a larger tank when i bought them) and im sure that the fishes ended up dieing because of high ammonia.well i didnt buy any more til 2 weeks after that( i did pwc and i vacumed the gravel as well) and got the water tested at a petshop,the guysaid ammonia was almost gone but not fully and that just seemed like it was about to finish cycling.he said i was able to get just 2 fish to finish cycling my tank but a week later of having these 2 new fishes ( a guppy and a three lined cory) my tank hasnt finished cycling!!! went to a different shop to test the water and the results are ph-7.6, high range ph- 7.8, ammonia-.50, nitrite 0ppm, and nitrate 5.0....lady told me to not do any water changes til 3-5 days from now and then to come back and get it tested. sorry this is a long post but i just dont get WHYYY my tank is just not cycling and ammonia hasnt gone away!! any help on what to do would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Oceangirl]

Okay

Lets see if we can bullet point this

You have the following fish
1 three line cory
2 guppies

Did the tank remain empty between the death of the goldfish and addition of new fish? Because if it did all the Beneficial bacteria most likely died lack of food so to say.

How do you clean your tank? Gravel vacuum?
Do you have sand or gravel?
How often do you change the water? You might need to up your water changes. you should be changing water EVERY week, I do 25-50 %.


I suggest getting:


a test kit API is expensive if you buy in store, but buy it online and its less. The strips don't really work, but are better than nothing.

Till you do get one, PWC every other day or daily to keep ammonia down, if it builds up it will kill your fish or cause rampant disease (fin rot, ammonia burn etc)

 

[janeth0185]

Lets see if we can bullet point this

You have the following fish
1 three line cory
2 guppies

Did the tank remain empty between the death of the goldfish and addition of new fish? Because if it did all the Beneficial bacteria most likely died lack of food so to say.

How do you clean your tank? Gravel vacuum?
Do you have sand or gravel?
How often do you change the water? You might need to up your water changes. you should be changing water EVERY week, I do 25-50 %.


I suggest getting:


a test kit API is expensive if you buy in store, but buy it online and its less. The strips don't really work, but are better than nothing.

Till you do get one, PWC every other day or daily to keep ammonia down, if it builds up it will kill your fish or cause rampant disease (fin rot, ammonia burn etc)

no i have 1 three line cory and 1 guppy. and yes after my goldfish died i had no fish.the tank was empty for like 2 weeks but i did pwc to lower the ammonia the tank had.so i got the water tested at the petshop and the guy told me ammonia was at safe levels so it had gone down.the salesguy told me the cycle should be almost thru and that i could finish cycling my tank with 2 fishes.thats when i got my guppy and the cory.but now( a week later) ammonia is still there and seems like it just isnt close to cycling.
well i clean the gravel with the gravel vacuum, since i got these 2 fishes i been doin about 25% water changes every day.but i dont get why the lady at the pet store yesterday told me to not do water changes for 3-5 days .i dont want ammonia to kill my fish..shouldnt i keep doin my daily water changes til ammonia lowers???

 

[shellieca]

no i have 1 three line cory and 1 guppy. and yes after my goldfish died i had no fish.the tank was empty for like 2 weeks but i did pwc to lower the ammonia the tank had.so i got the water tested at the petshop and the guy told me ammonia was at safe levels so it had gone down.the salesguy told me the cycle should be almost thru and that i could finish cycling my tank with 2 fishes.thats when i got my guppy and the cory.but now( a week later) ammonia is still there and seems like it just isnt close to cycling.
well i clean the gravel with the gravel vacuum, since i got these 2 fishes i been doin about 25% water changes every day.but i dont get why the lady at the pet store yesterday told me to not do water changes for 3-5 days .i dont want ammonia to kill my fish..shouldnt i keep doin my daily water changes til ammonia lowers???

You really need to get your own liquid water test so you can test your water daily & see what is going on. Employees at the stores are not always knowledgable so you can't always trust what they say. Your ammonia is not super high but still too high for fish. With your ammonia at .5, a 50% water change should drop it to 0. With your own test kit you would then test your water again an hour or so later to make sure the ammo was at 0. You would test the next day to see what your parameters are & you may or may not need to do a water change depending on the test results. I would say that because your tank sat empty for 2 wks you started the cycling process again.

 

[janeth0185]

You really need to get your own liquid water test so you can test your water daily & see what is going on. Employees at the stores are not always knowledgable so you can't always trust what they say. Your ammonia is not super high but still too high for fish. With your ammonia at .5, a 50% water change should drop it to 0. With your own test kit you would then test your water again an hour or so later to make sure the ammo was at 0. You would test the next day to see what your parameters are & you may or may not need to do a water change depending on the test results. I would say that because your tank sat empty for 2 wks you started the cycling process again.

yes im gonna look into finding the liquid water test online. im just gonna keep on with the water changes daily and wait n hope my tank cycles...i already wanna get more fishes n the cycling is just takin forever