I've been trying to cycle for 16 days now with not a single budge in ammo. I measured it out to 4ppm and confirmed with api master. pH is about 7.8 and temp is kept at 86 degrees.
Question is, would a PWC and redosing to 4ppm help kick start the cycle? I only say this because I used an old tank, old gravel, etc. that had been sitting for at least 2 years. My thought is that even though I rinsed a whole heck of a lot, some contaminates may have still been in the gravel and such. After letting it run for over two weeks, some of those contaminates might be in the water prohibiting the bacteria from growing where it needs to. I used SafeStart to try and help since I do not have any seeding material and that did absolutely nothing.
Question is, would a PWC and redosing to 4ppm help kick start the cycle? I only say this because I used an old tank, old gravel, etc. that had been sitting for at least 2 years. My thought is that even though I rinsed a whole heck of a lot, some contaminates may have still been in the gravel and such. After letting it run for over two weeks, some of those contaminates might be in the water prohibiting the bacteria from growing where it needs to. I used SafeStart to try and help since I do not have any seeding material and that did absolutely nothing.