Tank will not cycle

[tomsk14]

I have read MANY MANY posts and topics about this and had fish for a long time, so please consider a response other than the standard.

I set up, 7 weeks ago, a 22 gallon tank. I used gravel and fake plants which were already in it ( i emptied the tank about 18 months ago and it had been sitting dormant until 7 weeks ago).....

I put a little pair of cichlids in to get the cycle going. The ammonia was super high, as was the nitrite on the first time of testing (about 1 week in).

I decided on week 2 to return the cichlids to the shop and get some more suitable fish for cycling, so I got 4 zebra danio and 2 paradise fish.
Tested the water, high ammonia and no nitrites. ****.

I have tried a few things, sure start by tetra but have tried to mess around as little as possible. On week 4, baring in mind all progress seemed to have stopped, I switched the gravel for sand as I plan on having a puffer eventually.
I might add, none of the fish died or have died since, they all 'bloomed' with colour and looked particularly well.
Week 5, still very high ammonia, no nitrites. So on week 5 I began doing daily water changes of 2 buckets at a time ( Id imagine this is about a 25% water change daily) and reduced the feeding down to a few flakes every few days. I took the Paradise fish out on week 6 and took them to my tank at my parents, they have settled in fine. I wondered if it was too overloaded to cycle. Now it has been almost 2 weeks since that point, and the ammonia has been at about 2-4ppm (rather than 8) ever since Ive been doing the water changes and feeding less. So,

Why did the cycle appear to start in week 1/2 and then stop altogether when I switched fishes in the tank?

Why is NOTHING happening? The ammonia has only come down as a result of water changes, not because of the bacteria are changing it into nitrite, which is still zero as is nitrate. I appreciate changing the substrate would not have helped, but nothing was happening before nor since I did that.

I am getting really fed up, Ive tried using water from my old established tank, a plant (The tanks are 150 miles apart, not in the same room so any further use of that tank is out of the question).

PLEASE.... this is week 7 and nothing is happening, tell me what to do!!!

Thank you all.

[earwig999]

First thing to do is calm down. lol

For a 22G tank I would think 2 buckets is a bit less than 25%.

TBH you should aim to get your Ammonia down to at least 0.25, that means partial water changes 2 sometimes 3 times a day!

Like you I made the mistake of putting fish in rather than waiting to cycle and have now paid the price as I will have to do a lot more water changes and it will take a lot longer.

I had 4 Danios and they are hardy fish but I lost two the other morning just due to the stress I had put them through with the cycling process. They swam quite happily but if you looked closley you could see very red gills, burnt with ammonia.

If you can change at least 50% of the water twice a day and test each day you should start to see some NitrItes rising and dropping the ammonia, after that keep on with water changes and you will eventually start to see NitrAtes being produced, just keep going with the changes.

The key seems to be (for fish in cycle) keeping the ammonia down to 0.25 or below.

[tomsk14]

There seems to be a lot of contradictory information on whether water changes and big or small ones are the right thing to do to sort this out. Hmmmm further thoughts welcomed......

[LyndaB]

Originally Posted by tomsk14

I have read MANY MANY posts and topics about this and had fish for a long time, so please consider a response other than the standard.

Wow, not often you see some kind of "rules" for advice accepted.

It sounds like you started doing a fish-in cycle, then got impatient and added Tetra Safe Start, which means the TSS directions were not followed correctly. Am I correct so far?

[tomsk14]

Dont be silly those arent rules! Just that Ive read so much and I dont want you kind people to waste your time giving me advice for me to say ' I know that/ Ive heard that/ Ive tried that'

I added 2 bottles, on week 4 and week 6 directly to the filter.... So yes that is the story so far.... Any further things you can tell me! x (see, Im not that feisty!)

[tomsk14]

Im also wondering why there WAS nitrite readings at first and have been none since?

[jetajockey]

What are you using to test the water with? And what is your pH? I'm guessing it's pretty low pH water but just a guess at this point.

[LyndaB]

Originally Posted by tomsk14

Dont be silly those arent rules! Just that Ive read so much and I dont want you kind people to waste your time giving me advice for me to say ' I know that/ Ive heard that/ Ive tried that'

I added 2 bottles, on week 4 and week 6 directly to the filter.... So yes that is the story so far.... Any further things you can tell me! x (see, Im not that feisty!)

Ok, feisty one.....

If you don't use a product correctly, how do you expect things to go as they should? I'm not slammin' you here, I'm just sayin'.....

If you added TSS that late in the game, wouldn't it make things go wonky? I personally don't believe in bacteria in a bottle, so have no personal experience with that stuff, but it also seems to me that by week 4, you should've been proceeding nicely. I think my first tank (cycled w/fish as I was so poorly informed back then) took 4-6 weeks to cycle with no hocus pocus. Nothing but the API test kit, Prime and water changes.

[tomsk14]

LOL thank you....
My water is about 7.9ph.... and quite hard,as is all our water in the south east of england..... I see what you mean and I normally dont agree with the bottle stuff either but it sounded like if I had NO bacteria then it would at least get things going. Its driving me mad :-(

[tomsk14]

Oh and yes Im using the API master kit to test the water.
What are your thoughts on many many many water changes to bring the ammonia down and therefore kick start the cycle, as suggested by the first response?

[librarygirl]

I agree with Jeta, what is your pH? Very low PH can stall/inhibit a cycle.

In my opinion, if you are going to cycle with fish then you should do water changes as needed to keep the toxins from hurting the fish (the amount and frequency of which are determined by your test kit). If you aren't prepared to do that, return the fish and do a fishless cycle.

I know your other tank is so far away; do you know anyone else with a tank who can spare some seeded media? If not, you could try an "active" filter from here. Some members here have had good luck with them (me included). They are pre-seeded filters; just get one that says "active" or else it's just a plain unseeded filter.

[LyndaB]

At this point, if it were my tank, I would definitely do 2-3 water changes per week, probably 50%, until the tank was cycled.

I think you also did yourself a disservice by swapping out the fish you were using to cycle. Just when the little bacteria that you had were acclimating to a set bioload, you changed it. They got confused and slit their little throats. It's been downhill ever since.

Patience is a virtue when it comes to cycling, whichever method you choose. That said, I think when you choose one method, you really need to stick with that one method in order to have things to smoothly. Change horses midstream and you're likely to go over the falls.