paytertot
Aquarium Advice Addict
I'm getting really frustrated here. I've been fishless cycling my 36 gallon for just over two months now. I added seeded media and it didn't even help! How?? Why is it taking so long?! I want fish
Brox said:Do you have things in your tank so the BB can live on? Gravel rocks ect
tamtam said:oh what a pain. Sounds like that time away crashed your cycle.
It couldn't be anyhing with my water, I have a 55 gallon discus tank that I've had for almost a year and a half. I use tap with it too.
Oh and the temp is like 76 or 78.
librarygirl said:Is the heater adjustable (if it has one)? If so try bumping it up to 86.
librarygirl said:What temp is the tank? What dechlorinator are you using? What water source (tap, well, RO, etc)?
Sounds like something stalled it but not sure what if the PH is ok and you didn't overdose ammonia and keep it in there for long. Do you know if your municipality uses chlorine or chloramines and how much? It's possible your water has more than the standard amount of dechlorinator can detoxify but that's just a wild guess.
You could do one of two things here:
1. Do a massive water change, double dose dechlorinator, wait an hour and test ammonia. If it's anything except 0, keep it there, don't dose more. If it's higher than 4, do another water change (and then we would have found the reason for the stall lol). If it's 0, don't dose for 24 hours. Then after 24 hours, only dose to 1-2 if it's lower than that. Keep it there for a few days, dose if it gets to <.5, if not then leave it. Then hopefully within a few days or so it'll start eating through that 1-2 ppms of ammonia and you can raise it slowly.
2. Or, you can do a massive water change, drop down the temp if it's high, make sure there isn't ammonia in there and nitrates are <10 and start adding some fish. I think you'd be safe to add a few small fish (depending on what you're planning on getting); they wouldn't produce that much ammonia and if your tank can process some then you should be able to proceed with a fish-in cycle without too much bother. It's up to you.
I feel your pain.....my fishless cycle took about 7 months (don't ask).