Over 2 months and cycling is still only a half way through??

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newhobbist

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Mar 13, 2005
Messages
177
Location
Brooklyn NY
I have 72g and added 4 gouramis 2 months ago. About two weeks after that I added Bolivian Ram. After my twoo dwarf gouramis were killed by a blue one :cry: , I added a golden gourami and two small crabs.
Amonia started to rise on third week has been slowly rising since then (current level is 1.2). Nitrite is still "0". Is there something wrong with my tank? I've heard that cycling takes 8 weeks in the worst scenarios. At this pace, my tank's cycling will take 3-4 months!!!
 
You are working with a larger tank. It takes longer for the tank to cycle. When you do water changes, are you cleaning the filter, changing pads, or vacing the gravel?
 
Since I heard that it is not a good idea to change water during cycling, I did it only once about a week ago. I cleaned everything (had to get rid of brown algae covering everything in the tank) and vacuumed gravel. Strangely, after that water become soooo cloudy :( . Also, brown algae reclaimed its positions in several days.
 
Brown algae (also known as diatoms) usually occurs during or immediately after a tank has been cycled. The cloudiness may have been a combination of detrius and a bacterial bloom. The fact that you have it does show you have plenty of nutrients in the tank, including nitrate (NO3).

What type of tests are you using? I would recommend the re-agent kits. They are far more accurate. Have you tested for NO3 as yet?
 
Don't do gravel vacs during the cycling process. All it does is suck up the good bacteria. Instead, just suck out water. You should be testing your water every day to every other day. If the ammonia gets above 1, do an immediate water change. You should be doing them on an every other day to every two day basis. It just depends on what your test results show. Also, don't touch the filters. Don't even rinse them.

Many times the water will become cloudy after water changes during cycling. It means that you are farther in the cycle. What are your complete water test results? BTW- Nitrites should be at 0. Nitrates is where you should be showing readings.
 
I recommend SeaChem Stability to speed up the process, worked great for me.
 
My readings:
pH - 7.4. pH of tap water is 7.1 and I don't know what can rise pH since I'm using only artificial decorations and plants bought in Petsmart.
amonia-1.3
nitrite - always "0"
nitrate - always "0" (or very close to "0").

I use Aquarium Farmaceuticals "Freshwater Test Kit", so the readings should be accurate.
 
As much as you may hate hearing this...

Patience my young Padawan...

I have a very small tank compared to yours and it took forever..

When it starts to cycle you'll know. Believe me. I think mine took about 2 months to start cycling, and almost an additional month went by before it completed.
 
I'll bet your tap water has a slightly higher pH after it sits out for a day or so, so don't worry about that.

I agree with what's been recommended above. You do need to keep the ammonia at 0.5ppm or under, so water changes are important for the health of the fish, but do not disturb the gravel or wipe anything off, or clean your filter.

Make sure your temperature is at least 78F and stable, and also remove any ammonia-removing media that might be in your filter.
 
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