Input on my cycling troubles

[Sauce]

Hi All,

Just looking to get some more input of my fish tank cycling as I'm not really seeing any improvements. I'll try to sum it up quickly as possible then ill leave the new tank details below.

As previous stated on other posts I got into the fish keeping hobby about 7 weeks ago now. I bought a 20 gallon tank and got fish before learning about nitrogen cycle. I joined this forum as i started to notice my fish getting stressed out. I lost a tetra and a cory cat as I learned my 20 gallon was too overstocked and the cycle was taking longer because of it so i went out and bought a 37 gallon tank. After learning a few things from fellow people on here I was told i could just move everything over including my fish i had left into my new tank and just use the filter i had on my 20 gallon and the one that came with the 37 gallon kit and I even got established filter media from local pet store to put into the filter.

So its been about 9 days now in the new tank and I'm wondering if its normal to take this long to cycle. (8 weeks now between the 2 tanks). I understand i made a lot of mistakes in the beginning... (overfed, deep vacuum the gravel, cleaned decorations, and most importantly overstocked) but i have tried to lower the amount of things i used during water change. I feed twice a day small amounts, only vacuum the surface with water changes when i do them about every 2 days now instead of daily like i was doing with the 20 gallon and currently only use prime during water changes. I used TetraSafeStart as recommended by a moderator when i first started the 37 gallon tank as well.

Tank Details and Questions

Tank Size - 37 gallon
Fish - 7 glofish tetras, 3 cory cats.
Temp- 79 degrees
Filter - Aqueon Quietflow 20 (which only supports up to 30 gallons) and the one that came with the TopFin 37 gallon set.
Has Heater, Thermometer, and Air Stone underneath volcano decoration.

Water (as of this morning before water change)
PH 6.8-7.0
Ammonia-1.0-2.0 ppm
Nitrite- 0 ppm
Nitrate 5.0 ppm
I monitor the fish behavior and i noticed them being nippy towards each other so I did a water change. I'm just worried because even in my 20 gallon tank the nitrates were higher about 10-20 ppm. The only difference really is i'm doing water changes on this 37 gallon every 2-3 days instead of daily like the 20 gallon.

A few questions...
1. Am i doing something incorrectly thats slowing down the cycle now? (besides for having fish)
2. Are two filters causing any issues and also the Aqueon doesn't have anything to control the water flow so is that a problem for the tank at all?
3. Now that i'm not deep vacuuming the gravel and cleaning decorations i'm noticing a white substance on some of the decorations. I'm assuming its waste? I will provide picture of it on my volcano decoration. What do i do about it?

Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[gilpi]

For the filtering, you need something that holds lots of filter media and its good to be on the over filtering side of things rather than under. Never replace the media, just rinse it in aquarium water (out of the tank). This media will hold the bacteria needed for the biological filtration once the filter/tank cycles. My "personal" preference for cycling is to get a couple of hardy fish and just carry on with feeding and water changes but do not overfeed and without the addition of any additives that claim to "speed" up the process. I have cycled tanks with different cichlids since they are my favorite fish and very hardy. Again, this is how I would do it if I had to start all over again, has always worked fine for me.
Assuming you're properly setup, patience is key, it will workout for you.
I hope this bit of information can help you.

 

[Sauce]

okay thank you. do u have any input about the white stuff growing on my decorations? I'm thinking the white cloudy stuff is just result of too much food/waste and its just growing on the decorations but i could be totally wrong. If you look at the picture of my volcano u can see exactly what im talking about in the far left side

 

[gilpi]

okay thank you. do u have any input about the white stuff growing on my decorations? I'm thinking the white cloudy stuff is just result of too much food/waste and its just growing on the decorations but i could be totally wrong. If you look at the picture of my volcano u can see exactly what im talking about in the far left side

I really couldn't answer that one for you. If there's uneaten food after a feeding, you are most likely overfeeding. Why do you feel you're overfeeding?

 

[Sauce]

When i started with the 20 gallon i was told if food fell to the bottom it meant i was overfeeding so that's just what i considered overfeeding and that was part of the reason my cycle was taking so long. I then tried to make sure very little got the bottom while feeding. Since i moved over to the new 37 gallon tank 9 days ago, I tried really hard to not overfeed anymore and i just cant figure out whats causing it this white stuff. When i tried to clean it the tank gets covered in like white cloudy specs and some goes into the filter but alot just floats around then just sinks back to the bottom.

 

[Autumnsky]

Try Purigen for the white stuff.