Fish-In Cycle Taking a Long Time?

[NamelessPharaoh]

We have a 15 gallon Fluval tank that's been set up for about a month now. Ever since we got it, we have not yet had it shift through the nitrogen cycle. About a week and a half ago the water got extremely cloudy, and the ammonia has been sitting at a steady .25-.50 ppm, but nothing has converted to nitrite yet. Everything online is saying the cloudiness should clear within a few days and it's been over a week. What is going on?

Tank currently consists of
7x neon tetras
2x male guppies
2x Corydoras
3x ghost shrimp
3x small moss balls

And the parameters are reading
.25-.50 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
7.6 pH

We were doing water changes once a week for the first two weeks, then stopped last week so the bacteria had a chance to cycle properly, but it never did. We were also using Seachem's Stability in the beginning but have since stopped.

 

[Aiken Drum]

How long have you been doing your cycle? 3 weeks?

How are you testing the water? Which test kit?

You have very heavy stocking to be doing a fish in cycle. Safe practice is to start 1 small fish/10 gallons. Im actually surprised your ammonia isnt off the charts with an uncycled tank and that heavy a bioload while doing minimal water changes.

Its possible the moss balls are absorbing some ammonia and nitrate.

Every cycle is different. Dont expect it to run to a timescale.

Test your water everyday. If your combined ammonia + nitrite is 0.5ppm then do 25% water change.

 

[NamelessPharaoh]

How long have you been doing your cycle? 3 weeks?

How are you testing the water? Which test kit?

You have very heavy stocking to be doing a fish in cycle. Safe practice is to start 1 small fish/10 gallons. Im actually surprised your ammonia isnt off the charts with an uncycled tank and that heavy a bioload while doing minimal water changes.

Its possible the moss balls are absorbing some ammonia and nitrate.

Every cycle is different. Dont expect it to run to a timescale.

Test your water everyday. If your combined ammonia + nitrite is 0.5ppm then do 25% water change.

We are testing using the API Freshwater Master Kit.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I would double check your nitrate. Make sure to follow the instructions precisely. Shake the heck out of bottle #2.

If you are positive you have 0 nitrite + nitrate your cycle hasnt started yet. You have a heavy stocking though, so the ammonia must be going somewhere. Some will be being taken out through your water changes, some will be going into your moss balls.

As previous post, do water change when your ammonia + nitrite combined is 0.5ppm. When you are consistently seeing 0ppm ammonia and nitrite and your nitrate us rising you are cycled.

To speed up the process, best option is some filter media or sponge from an established filter. Perhaps you have a friend who keeps fish who could let you have some. Otherwise some bacteria in a bottle might help. Seachem stability is one brand of this, ive never used that brand but heard some bad reviews. Bottled bacteria can be very hit and miss dependingon how it is stored and transported. If you arent having luck with stability consider a different brand or supplier.

 

[NamelessPharaoh]

Thank you! I've been testing daily and it's always been 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate. That's why I'm not sure what's going on. I did notice our bottles expired in October so I purchased new ones and it's still reading the same. We do have a 55 gallon at home that's not using RO water. We took some water and media from that but it didn't seem to do anything.

We'll keep testing and doing water changes and hopefully something starts moving here soon.

EDIT to add: We are aware of how notorious nitrate #2 bottle is! We make sure to shake the heck out of it each time!