Hi, folks.
About a month and a half ago, I tore down and rebuilt my 29 gallon aquarium. I went from an undergravel filter and an el-cheapo Whisper filter to no undergravel filter and a Penguin 350 BioWheel filter (350 gallons per hour).
My last setup had zero ammonia, zero nitrite... I had a pretty bad nitrate problem that would not go away, which I suspect was a very impacted undergravel filter (it was pretty much mud under there... which is the reason I tore my aquarium down).
Anyway, I fix up the aquarium, and add my fish back. I totally expected a new cycle, because all of my biological filtration went right out the door with the tear-down and rebuild.
But, here I am 6 weeks later, and I still have a serious ammonia problem... gets up near 5ppm every week... hasn't been less than 2ppm in about 3 weeks.
I have dosed with BioSpira *twice*. I do 25% water changes at least once per week to keep the ammonia levels down to about 3ppm.
I have a little nitrite, but not very much, which tells me my cycle is almost there, but geez... 6 weeks and still no nitrate!
What in the world is wrong?
I know I'm probably overstocked (see below), but I had the number of fish before in my previous setup, and had zero ammonia and zero nitrite in about a month.
Any suggestions on how to get my cycle going?
Stock:
7 rosy barbs
2 emerald corys
2 glass catfish
2 upside down catfish
1 tiger barb
1 neon tetra
About a month and a half ago, I tore down and rebuilt my 29 gallon aquarium. I went from an undergravel filter and an el-cheapo Whisper filter to no undergravel filter and a Penguin 350 BioWheel filter (350 gallons per hour).
My last setup had zero ammonia, zero nitrite... I had a pretty bad nitrate problem that would not go away, which I suspect was a very impacted undergravel filter (it was pretty much mud under there... which is the reason I tore my aquarium down).
Anyway, I fix up the aquarium, and add my fish back. I totally expected a new cycle, because all of my biological filtration went right out the door with the tear-down and rebuild.
But, here I am 6 weeks later, and I still have a serious ammonia problem... gets up near 5ppm every week... hasn't been less than 2ppm in about 3 weeks.
I have dosed with BioSpira *twice*. I do 25% water changes at least once per week to keep the ammonia levels down to about 3ppm.
I have a little nitrite, but not very much, which tells me my cycle is almost there, but geez... 6 weeks and still no nitrate!
What in the world is wrong?
I know I'm probably overstocked (see below), but I had the number of fish before in my previous setup, and had zero ammonia and zero nitrite in about a month.
Any suggestions on how to get my cycle going?
Stock:
7 rosy barbs
2 emerald corys
2 glass catfish
2 upside down catfish
1 tiger barb
1 neon tetra