High ammonia, no nitrites.

[suprdave]

New tank, still cycling. I am new to aquariums. This is a 36 gallon bow front, fresh water.

For two weeks now my tank has been experiencing very high ammonia, but I can't seem to get "tipped" over into the next phase where the nitrite levels get going. A couple of days ago I experienced apparently what is called a biological bloom with very cloudy looking water that has since cleared itself up with no intervention on my part.

I cannot seem to figure out why I can't get over into the next phase of the cycle. I live in Houston, could we perhaps have something in the water that would be causing issues? If needed I can go out and purchase spring water and re-fill the tank with that instead.

Before I fully understood how the cycling phase worked there have been many chemicals put into this water, "pH Down", Stress Coat, and Ammo Lock. This was done about a week or two ago, and the water has since had 30-50% changes several times to try to keep my fish alive through the high ammonia. Also, this tank is heavily planted with live Cabomba and MoneyWort. Both plants are thriving.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

My levels:

Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 75 (soft)
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: > 300 (High)
pH: > 8.4 (High)

Ammonia: 4.0

 

[TraceyB4602]

This is my advice.

You need to do more water changes. With fish you really need to keep your ammonia level at or below .25. Anything above can stress and eve kill your fish. This might mean doing 2-3 50% PWC per day. As for your other levels, cycling a tank can take up to 8 weeks. Sometimes even longer especially cycling with fish. Seeing that the water cleared by itself I say you bacterias are forming. Just be patient and watch your levels and keep up the water changes.

As for the chemicals you really shouldn't use them they can slow down or even stall your cycle. Can you test your tap water foe us? How high is your taps ph and ammonia levels?

As for bottled water unless your PH is way high I don't think you would need it. You have a water conditioner right? If your PH is really high what you can try doing is letting your water sit over night and see your levels then. Usually when the water sits the PH goes down.

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[fort384]

Since you are cycling with fish, you need to do bigger water changes, more often. 4.0ppm ammonia is way too high. You need to perform PWCs to get the ammonia below 0.25ppm.

Two weeks is not all that long. It can take several weeks to grow enough nitrobacter to convert all of your ammonia over to nitrite, and then a few weeks more for the nitrosoma bacteria to grow to convert the nitrite to nitrate. Any time the ammonia or nitrite tests over 0.25, a PWC is in order.

Check out this thread from HN1 if you haven't already--it may offer some additional insight to what is needed to cycle with fish:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ady-have-fish-what-now-116287.html#post983258

Your pH is awfully high as well... it says greater than 8.4... and your alkalinity is also pretty high. Do you have the high range test kit for pH? I would want to know exactly what the value is. You are right on the edge of it being a little too high for comfort. If it is 8.5, I would probably not mess with it. If it is much higher than that, you may need to start looking at some options to lower it safely (not by adding pH down chemicals).

 

[suprdave]

Thanks!

Yes, the water has been conditioned with Stress Coat. I just tested my tap water and its alkalinity and pH are also very high (interesting). Looks like it would be an uphill battle to try to get those down if it was necessary.

The most I can do is daily water changes (I work all day ). I will start doing that to try to get the Ammonia levels back down. Will become much easier when this 25 foot water changer tube gets to me from Amazon.

 

[ejaramillo01]

Agree the Ammolock could be delaying your cycle, the best bet is to keep doing PWC.

 

[Katorin]

Some tanks can take over a month or two to cycle, so be patient, something that is necessary in this hobby.