more cycling questions

[iceywater101]

I have a 20 gal tank with an over the top power filter water temp is 78 and ph is 6.8 I have 5 zebra danios and have been trying to cycle my tank for over a month and my ammonia test kit has been reading 4 mg/la and I cant get it to go down if anyone has any idea why please help if more info is needed please ask

 

[Zagz]

How often are you doing water changes and how much each time?

 

[azn_fishy55]

what is your test kit brand,maybe your kit is messed up,try bringing it to the LFS to have it tested.

 

[iceywater101]

I have been doing 25% water changes every week and the number has stayed the same I asked the lfs guy and he suggested not doing a water change until the cycle has finished

 

[Tolak]

What brand of dechlorinator are you using? Also, are there any nitrites present?

 

[iceywater101]

I am using aquasafe by tetra aqua when I do water changes I use a 5 gallon bucket and add the declorinator in the bucket before I add the water back to the tank I also dont have a nitrite test kit I was told its not nessacay

 

[rich311k]

The aquasafe can give false ammonia readings. You may want to change to Prime. I would get a nitrite and nitrate kit if I were you. Very handy things to have.

 

[iceywater101]

thanks I ll take that advice hopefully that is the problem because my fish do look healhty no typical signs of possioning I just dont want to add more fish until it finishes cycling

 

[Zagz]

As well as what Rich has suggested you might want to do a couple of more water changes per week, don't gravel vac though, just wave the gravel vac over your substrate to remove excess food etc.

 

[iceywater101]

alright so I got paid and bought the no3 and no2 test kits I am gonna go run all my test and post results in a bit

 

[iceywater101]

ok so here are the results nh3/nh4 is 4.0 ppm no2 in 5.0 ppm and my no3 is 160 ppm I am going to do a water change right now then come back and check suggestions

 

[rich311k]

Change your water 35-50% everyday for the next few days at least. Keep an eye on those levels, they need to come down. Did you get a new dechlor?

 

[iceywater101]

yes I took your suggestion and got prime the guy at the fish store confirmed what you had told me yesterday that nh3 fuses to it which would give an untrue reading I just completed a 30% pwc and I am going to take the readings again in a few mins and repost once again thanks for the help rich

 

[iceywater101]

ok just checked the levels again ph7 nh3/nh4 2 ppm no3 10 ppm no2 .25 ppm it really seems that prime has really helped in addition to daily water changes I am also thinking about only feeding my fish once a day instead of twice as per norm if anyone has any suggestions on this please let me know

 

[rich311k]

Thats a lot better set of readings. Do another change tomorrow and the day after. Feed your fish less than they will eat in a minute. You can divide it up or do it all at once.

 

[iceywater101]

alright test results for this morning ph 6.8 nh3/nh4 1.5 ppm no2 .5 ppm no3 5 ppm would anyone recommend doing a pwc now or wait until tonight and test again

 

[iceywater101]

I did a pwc and here are the readings ph7 nh3/nh4 1 ppm no2 .25 ppm no3 10 ppm it seems the cycle process is now taking off hopefully by next weekend I ll be able to post my fish list that I have been thinki ng about for awhile but for now I just want to stick with getting the cycle completed