My 10 gallon tank still hasn't cycled

[Zoilus68]

Bought a 10 gallon starter set from petsmart on September 7th along with 2 male black mollies and 1 male tequila sunrise guppy. Didn't really test anything (or understand much about cycling a tank) until 1 of the mollies became listless and died within 3-4 days (from ammonia poisoning I think) on October 15th. I had just added a female guppy to the tank the night before (the 14th), and she had two fry immediately.

When we woke up and figured out we had two fry, and that one of our mollies was dead, I bought an API test kit and figured out that my ammonia was around 2.0 ppm (if memory serves me correct--I didn't start writing any of this down until this week). We then bought a 20 gal tank, put the m and f guppies in it along with the surviving molly and left the fry alone in the 10 gal tank.

I began doing 25% water changes pretty regularly, and testing the 10 gallon tank, but the ammonia levels continue to be too high. I finally moved the fry into the big tank with the adults (they're two weeks old now), and am cycling the 10 gallon tank fishless.

What am I doing wrong with the 10 gallon tank? Is it normal for it to take this long to cycle? Have been vacuuming the gravel and not overfeeding the fry (when they were in there), so I'm not sure why the cycling hasn't completed yet.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Cycling a tank can take 4-6 weeks from scratch, it's not something that happens overnight.

There is a complete guide to both types of cycles. It's the stickies in the getting started section.

Test daily, on the fish in daily water changes will likely be required.

For the safety of the fish experiencing the fish in cycle try not to let ammonia exceed 1ppm and nitrite above 0.50ppm as both of these are toxic to fish.


Caleb

 

[Zoilus68]

Yeah I figured

So just keep at it with 25% water changes daily until it fully cycles? Both with fish and without?

I also have a sick black molly. I put it in a goldfish bowl of conditioned water for now. Is that bad?

 

[ImACoolguy]

So just keep at it with 25% water changes daily until it fully cycles? Both with fish and without?



I also have a sick black molly. I put it in a goldfish bowl of conditioned water for now. Is that bad?

Depends on the illness. Either way I bowl is pretty small though.

Fishless there is no need to do water changes till it is completed.

Fish in do however much you need to keep those levels low as said above. If that means changing 75% do it


Caleb

 

[Zoilus68]

so fishless just let it complete on its own

But keep those levels low in the tank with fish. Got it.

The molly seems to be suffering from ammonia toxicity, and has rebounded somewhat after four hours in the goldfish bowl. May get one of those desktop tanks to serve as a sick bay if you think that would be a better solution. Obviously once the 10 gallon gets on track then I would use it as my alternate tank.

 

[gilpi]

With a couple of mollies in a ten gallon, keep your feeding to a minimum while cycling and do frequent water changes to keep ammonia down. Keep your filter running and do not touch it, you should cycle withing 4-6 weeks as others have mentioned.
Remember, that the cycling is done in your filter, not so much your tank.

 

[Zoilus68]

OH! In the filter!

Well that explains a lot! lol

I changed my initial filter in my 10 gallon after buying the 20 gallon tank. That's probably why it's taking so much longer for it to cycle.