Cycling my tank 29 gallon fish tank

[chiii]

Hello,

I currently have a 29-gallon fish tank with 2 ranchu goldfish.
I have 2 Marineland penguin filters running with 2 big sponge filters with no substrate at the bottom. Inside the filter, I put bio media to hold the good bacteria but It seems like I am having a hard time getting my good bacteria to grow to sustain my fish tank.
There is a small ammonia spike which is at roughly around 0.50~1.0 ppm, Nitrite is 0.25ppm, and Nitrate is at 10 ppm. I've been doing 50% water change for the past 3 days and the ammonia doesn't seem to go away. Also, after the water change, I added Seachem Prime and Stability.

My question is, should I still continue to do the 50 daily water change til the ammonia goes away or should I just dose prime and stability every 24 hours and wait til the bacteria grows?



Thank you!

[Aiken Drum]

The only surefire way to deal with ammonia is water changes. If you arent changing water the ammonia is just going to build up to levels where products like prime isnt to help.

Target should be sufficient water changes to keep ammonia + nitrite combined no higher than 0.5ppm. Prime should just be an extra safety measure over and above your water changes. Dont rely on it as your only measure to deal with ammonia. And dont rely on it all for dealing with nitrite/ nitrate. Seachems own FAQ admits they really have idea how it detoxifies nitrite/ nitrate and they are relying 100% on anecdotal claims that it does. They have no evidence at all that it detoxifies nitrite/ nitrate.

How long have you been cycling your tank?