10g won't complete cycling

[shellieca]

UGH! This tank is driving me CRAZY! 10g non-planted, sponge filter, 1 male Betta, 1 Mystery snail, temp 78-80F, API Master test kit. Tank was set up 2-3 months ago can't remember for sure, started with a wrongly made DIY sponge filter, corrected problem in early March. Two days in a row this week tested no ammonia & very little nitrites, last water change was Saturday ~50%, today ammonia back up to .5 & no nitrites. When I test nitrates they've been barely readable if any. This has been the pattern & I don't know what to do, I just want it done. The only difference between this & my other tanks is that it doesn't have real plants. I haven't tested the Ph but with such frequent water changes I can't imagine it's crashing.

 

[shellieca]

Still having ammonia & back to no nitrites!! Anyone? Anyone have tanks that run on strictly a sponge filter? This is driving me crazy. I have two tanks; a 10g & a 5g that refuse to cycle. They each have a sponge filter, the 10g has one rated for a 15g, the 5g has one for a 10g. Neither tank has real plants, the 5g only has a male Betta, the 10g has a male Betta & a mystery snail. I was under the impression that a sponge filter would cycle, is that wrong? I really don't want HOB's or internal filters but if I have to I will.

 

[Guppygulp]

I'm having the same problem with my 55 gallon tanks. One has goldfish the other has african cichlids in it. In an effort to get things balanced, I'm switching to external filters for 100 gallon tanks. I don't know if this will work. But I'm doing 25% water changes every four days to save my fish. When this happened in my 10 gallon, I bought a packet of ammonia remover rocks from another filter brand on amazon and put it in my filter behind the cartridge and that worked so did putting in ceramic beads. You might want to try that. It really stabilized things. But it didn't work in my 55 gallon tanks!