.25ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite, .20-.40ppm nitrate, 4 weeks fish-in cycling

[Meowza]

I have a 40 gallon rectangular acrylic tank with 1 fantail goldfish and am doing a fish-in cycle. My goldfish is happy, swims around, eats fine, all good. I stated the tank 4 weeks ago, used Seachem Stability and Prime. I had been doing 20% PWC daily, sometimes 2x daily and adding Prime every other day. I have nitrates (.20-.40 ppm, it's hard to tell) and it has been well over a week since I had a nitrite reading of .25 ppm. Nitrite had not spiked any higher than that. My ammonia readings (taken 2-3x daily w/API liquid test) had been 80% at .25 ppm and a few times .50ppm. I have not been able to get the ammonia down, not sure how much of a water change to do. I am waiting to see if the bacteria will feed on the ammonia and it will go down by itself, but I'm afraid to not dose the tank with Prime and affect my fish. I have an external canister filter (Sunsun 304b)with 2 trays of biohome ultimate biological media and mechanical media pads, some bio balls and I had put in filter starter balls in it from the good folks at Great Wave Engineering.

My questions are how can I get this ammonia down and should I not dose with Prime and see if it's just the Prime releasing ammonia and making the reading continue at .25ppm???

Thanks!

 

[Delapool]

Have you tested the tap water?


Sometimes I've found that last little bit of ammonia will take time to go as the tank matures. Prime is very safe to use though.

 

[V227]

Sounds like you are doing a awesome job, but maybe over doing things a bit. The daily WC's might be impeding the development of the benificial bacterial. Consider doing a small WC once every third day. Don't feed your fish very much, and rely on your daily observations of the fish's behavior rather than tedious water testing. If the spikes become too extreme your fish will either Hoover near the top or become lethargic on the bottom. Chances are with careful feeding and the noted WC recomendation your fish will act in a normal manner through out the process.

 

[Meowza]

Hi Delapool, yes, I did test the tap water for ammonia and it definitely looks yellow in comparison to the light green and sometimes darker .50 ppm green I'm getting. I was so hoping I'd see a bit of green in regular tap to give a base line. As an update, still getting the ammonia reading, but I've cut the water changes down to see if the beneficial bacteria will work on the ammonia.

 

[Meowza]

Hi V227, yes, I totally thought I was impeding the natural process by too much water change, particularly when it wasn't doing too much anyway. I do think I'm over feeding though. I had been feeding 2x a day, only of course what he can eat. I'm going to cut to once a day. There are plants inside, I've got 2 large amazon swords and i just bought some duck weed and the fish is totally eating that too. Picking up green poop with the turkey baster like crazy. LOL! It will now be 5 weeks on Sunday, I'm testing the water 2x per day, every morning and evening. Cut the water changes to every 2 days. Using Prime to buffer any direct affects. Patience is a virtue in this case. Thank you for your response!