Where do I go from here

[spfdfish]

I did a fish in cycle have been following advice from my original thread. Tank has been up 3 months or so. Haven't lost any fish, but I can't seem to get the readings everyone talks about when referring to a cycled tank.

Attached one pic of tubes and another picture that if you haven't seen it may make your day

 

[Haileyjade]

Hmm... Odd that your nitrites are as high as they are...what's your tank size and stock?

Mission accomplished, that pic is way too cute!

 

[spfdfish]

My tank size is 10g with an aquaclear 30 filter. I have 5 tetras (2 black phantom, 2 black skirts, 1 glo) 4 Corys (2 Agassiz and 2 panda). 2 of the Cory's are new.

 

[Haileyjade]

I don't know much about tetras as I don't keep them... But it doesn't seem as of you are overstocked. What is you water change schedule?

 

[spfdfish]

I was starting to think maybe the ceramic cichlid stones I have are the problem. Stuff gets stuck in them when I turn them upside down a lot of gunk falls out. I have a giant fake tree stump showing up to replace them. I dose with prime and change 40-50% wc a day. I've just done everything people have recommend and am just lost. 3 months in seems too long to have not cycled and not lost any fish.

 

[Haileyjade]

That could very well be the culprit. Maybe try testing them when your stump arrives? Is ot possible you have been over feeding?

 

[spfdfish]

I am on the upper limits of stock for my tank size. I think since I'm slightly over filtered and have a mix of bottom dwellers with mid tank twellers and my frequency of wc it could be ok. The plan is to upgrade to a 40g end of this year. So hopefully the Agassiz Cory don't outgrow the 10g by then. I have heard that bigger tanks are actually easier once set up but if I can't handle a 10g makes me uneasy about an upgrade. I could have had a 40 with everything I have thrown at this 10. Of course I found these forums after I started or I would have went fishless.

 

[spfdfish]

Not sure about overfeeding the food is gone after a couple mins. I have to make the cories come out since the tetras pluck the food off the bottom. I did some algae wafers today but took them out after awhile as suggested

 

[spfdfish]

Yea my tree stump should be here next week I have removed half the stones already but want the Cory's to have some hiding spots and not just an open tank. I have no plants besides some fake ones. I've heard plants can be frustrating and I'm already got my hands full with the cycling. But if it would help i would try live plants.

 

[librarygirl]

Have these test results changed at all over the past three months? Has ammonia dropped, or nitrites risen, etc? Or are these consistent results? Have you tried testing your tap water for nitrite, ammonia and nitrite? As you said you are at full capacity for a 10 gal; upgrading to a larger tank will actually be easier as the larger volume of water will help dissipate the toxins. Have you changed the filter or filter media or cleaned the filter at all? The manufacturers recommend changing the filter media every so often but that's actually NOT what you want to do as you're preventing the beneficial bacteria from being able to grow on the filter.

 

[spfdfish]

Ammonia has leveled off at the light green tint use to struggle with higher levels there. Nitrite levels have come down as well. And presence of nitrate obviously showed up at some point where as early tests had none. Tap tests 0 ammonia pretty sure the other 2 numbers wouldn't show up in tap but I can test if it's possible. I rinse out the filter media in the tank water I pull out during wc. I have went though several filters but have always transferred the filter media. I currently have a giant sponge some biomax(newly added) and then an older sponge that was used in the first filter that I just kind of shoved into the new filter. There has been progress but correct me if I am wrong that ammonia and nitrite should be 0 and there should be some presence of nitrate in a cycled tank.