Bruna75
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2012
- Messages
- 134
So I am going through another frustrating fish less cycle. I got a fluval spec (5 gallon) the day after thanksgiving, as soon as I got home I opened the box and put the media in my fully cycled 75s filter , then I wrapped my tank and put it under the tree where it belonged until Christmas, so the day after Christmas I put it together, pulled my yucky media from the 75 and put it in the foam block and plugged it in, I dosed ammonia to 3 and when I tested the next day things seemed to be going good, the ammonia was down to 1 , there was a trace of nitrite and a trace of nitrate, when the ammonia fell to 0 I dosed it back up to 3 , after 4 days the nitrites were off the chart, and they have stayed there since:/, the cause of my frustration!!! Last week I did 7 50% water changes within 2 days, and finally got them to a readable level, oh and I stopped dosing ammonia for 10 days hoping to give it time to go down, also my nitrates have been off the charts too, so I know it is processing. Finally 2 days ago it the nitrite was down to .25 so I dosed ammonia again, only to 2 this time, and when I tested the water yesterday ammonia was 0 and nitrites again off the charts, tested today , still off the charts, what now? Do I really need to do more water changes? I know it's only 5 gallons, but it is a pain because I put a path of white sand in black sand so it takes a steady careful hand to get the water in without disturbing it, and that is also why I do 50 % instead of more, stupid tank took me an hour to fill when I first filled it trying not to disturb it, I am ready to just give up on my pretty path! I just don't understand how it is taking so long for the nitrites to go down compared to the ammonia, especially since I started with seeded media. :/ any suggestions?