So, basic question here, but I feel like I'm in the weeds with this thing and I'm currently too stupid to find my way back out.
I crashed my cycle back in June and I still haven't been able to get it back. I know there's some level of bacteria colony because I've been getting low amounts of nitrate the entire time and it's not coming from my tap. It's just not enough to keep up with the ammonia.
I've been letting the ammonia sit between .5 and 1ppm and doing a water change when it spikes at 2ppm, but nothing is improving at all. I've obviously been dosing with Prime and I added a bottle of Frtiz a couple of weeks ago.
My water spiked at 2ppm today and my instinct is to do a water change, but have I been keeping it too low for the cycle to finish? Should I let it sit at 2ppm instead? I really don't want to lose any fish, but something has to give at some point. My pH is 7.0-7.5 and I just did a double dose of Prime. Is that safe enough?
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it. I bought a angle plus filter that was supposed to been loaded with beneficial bacteria...however after 2 days in my well planted tank the ammonia levels was off the chart...it killed 2 fish...so my point is...this filter arrived DOA...I'm sure from the hot UPS truck and 5 days shipping that was I payed 2 days shipping ..the filter caused very bad situation on my tank...I removed the filter after 2 weeks or so and 50% water change and my tank begain to recover with BB from one of my other filter from another cycled tank...so here's the deal...dont order this stuff by mail to help your tank...it will make matters worse...get locally medium from your aquarium stores that I fine out are very helpful people if you go to a well organized aquarium store business only....now if you order this stuff through mail...I'm sure fine if its received by 2 days or less... oxygen has to be present to survive these sponges by mail and without that they die off very fast and will pollute your tank....my advise to you is do a 50% water change and add filters from another tank that's well cycled..best of luck.