Refuses to Cycle???

[countrygirl]

Hi There;
I have a 250 gallon aquarium that I have had set up and fully stocked since March 15th so we are talking about almost 4 months here. This tank refuses to cycle. The Amonia has been zero since the beginning of April the Nitrites range right now between 0.1 and 0.3, they stay mostly at 0.1 and the Nitrates vary quite broadly from the bottom of the scale to the top of the scale. Never do the Nitrites drop to zero. I have not added any new fish in probably 2 months. Is it because of the live plants that I have had in there since day one or what? I don't get it. This tank has a wet dry filtration system.

 

[poikilotherm]

Hmmmm... i don't know why that would be. A couple of thoughts:
Have you tried a different nitrite test kit? It's possible that yours is old or "broken" somehow.
Have you had to treat the tank with any medications that may have hurt your Nitrospira.
Does your tap water have any ammonia or nitrites?

The fact that it is stable at that level suggests the test kit or something "chronic" with your water, filter, bacteria, or testing. Live plants shouldn't drive your nitrite levels up.

What's your maintenance schedule? Do you vacuum the gravel?

Sounds like a nice tank, what do you have in it?

 

[countrygirl]

This is my second Nitrite test kit so I am not sure if that is the problem. We have added various tank clearing agents over the first two months or so but have not added anything like that in quite a while. The tap water measures 0 on ammonia and Nitrites. We have been water changing and gravel vaccing at the same time once a week.

It is an awesome tank I love it, just a little frustrated with it though. This tank contains:

1 leopoldi stingray
1 motoro stingray
1 Elephant nose
2 blue acara
2 blue gourami
2 moonlight gourami
2 fire eels
2 boesemani rainbows
2 red irian rainbows
2 Brichardii
3 bala sharks
5 congo tetras

 

[TankGirl]

What tank cleaning agents? I smell a rat.....

Sounds like an awesome tank, BTW - are the rays going to eat the other fish?

 

[countrygirl]

CLEARING agents

We have used:
Clear
Clean Sweep
A combination of Aquasafe, aquarium salt, and Quick Cure (Advised by an online fish talkshow)
Cycle
A small sqeeze bottle of something from Walmart not sure what it was called

All these items were specified to clear cloudy water by professionals and like I said we have not used anything in over a month.

The rays don't eat any of the other fish the small ones are all quick and agile or keep to the top

 

[countrygirl]

I feed the rays frozen shrimp and blood worms they are quite content, they eat better than I do lol

 

[Overstocker]

Aquasafe will give false readings. Put it tap water then read it from there for any false readings.

 

[TankGirl]

At least until this situation resolves itself I would say avoid water clearing agents completely. These do not get to the root of the problem, but may/may not temporarily treat the symptom, not the cause. If you have water that is not clear then there are many sources that will either resolve on their own or are dealt with in a definitive manner. It could very well be that the extremly sluggish cycle has to do with the use of these products, which bind the nitrifying/denitrifying agents or their food source, slowing the process.

Keep us posted-

 

[countrygirl]

which I have done and not used any clearing agents in over a month and it is still cycling

 

[TankGirl]

Allright then, that's good - you are obviously not understocked so unless the fish are showing signs of stress, I would put this on the back burner.

There is nothing obvious here, you are doing all the right things and handling this properly so keep on with your routine and it should resolve itself. I wish I had something more helpful to offer! :?

 

[poppab02]

The usual agents that cause these problems can be ruled out thus I would so you probably need to look closer what you have in the tank or filter.

Is there any way that something from the air or elsewhere is getting into the tank or filter and causing this?
That sounds odd but I've heard the craziest things---cats dropping food amongst other things in the filter and tank, a leaky roof, etc. which were the cause of wacky readings
What about decorations, obviously plastic ones won't be causing it but do you have any rocks or other stuff that could be causing the readings?
If I were to hazard a guess I would think it was this. I would guess something in that tank is slowly releasing something that is causing your nitrite levels to stay high

I could be your test kit as earlier stated. I would take a sample of water up to petco, petsmart or whatever lfs and ask them to test and see if there are any nitrites in the tank water just to be sure---make sure to specify that you want to know whether or not there are any, not just if it is at a safe level

Basically something weird is going on in that tank. You just have to figure out what it is.

BTW I am extremely jealous of your rays---I have Ray Envy.

 

[TankGirl]

Your post gives me an idea, poppab02 - check any hollow decorations or other structures for any dead fish that could be rotting slowly and fouling the water params. Your fish list leads me to assume that you would know if you had a missing fish, but I am grasping at straws, and someone else reading with similar problems might benefit from a search in the hidey holes.

 

[countrygirl]

WEll I have gravel substrate bought from Petland and it was thoroughly cleaned before putting it in. I have a large piece of driftwood that is 8 years old with plants growing out of it and I have a slate cave built in the center which is large enough for the rays to swim through. I was advised that all of these things would be ok for the fish. We also have several live plants and two fake ones

 

[poikilotherm]

Until you get this resolved, I have read that salt can lower nitrite toxicity- do you add any salt to your water? 1 tbs per 10 gallons is common. Probably not very helpful, but if your fish start to look stressed, it may help. Check that your fish species will tolerate the salt first.

 

[countrygirl]

yes we have been adding salt

 

[countrygirl]

I just retested PH 7.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.3 Nitrate 20 KH 30 GH 60

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!