Should I start fishless cycle over?

[apr28]

I started a 5g Fluval around Jan 15th. I seeded it with media from my 29g.

I got nitrites and nitrates right away and quickly shot up. I was dosing ammonia to 2ppm everyday and bacteria was consuming that in under 24 hours.

Then it happened..the PH crash. It dropped to 6.0 and I did a 60% water change and used Prime. My faucet parameters are .25-0-0 with a 7.4PH

For 2 weeks straight now the nitrites and nitrates have become unmeasurable and the ph crashes every 24 hours. I have a feeling this is stalling my cycle.

Would I be better starting over or seeing this through with diligent water changes?

 

[cfosgate]

Sounds like something in your tank is causing problems. Unwashed or old substrate, new driftwood?

 

[apr28]

I have a small driftwood that has been boiled and soaked for 2 weeks a carpeted area of dwarf hairgrass and two planted anubias. The plants all look good.

My substrate is the Ecocomplete black sand.(This stuff will cloud your tank even after soaking it)

 

[mrvincent]

I would do a 100%WC, and just see what happen, if levels are ok, the you should be able to add fishs... This will drop nitrogens to the lowest levels, that's good to start a healty tank.

Make a good gravel vaccum while doing the WC.

Monitor parameters on day two after the WC, if everything seems fine, then go for fishs... Or maybe add a little 1ppm ammonia to see if the cycle is still stuck at nitrite spike.

Too much nitrites will stop the cycle and make huge PH drops, so that's why i advice you to remove all the nitrogen by 100%WC. Maybe, don't add ammonia, as your tap is already 0.25ppm.

Does that seems ok for you ?

 

[apr28]

After watching my water closely for a couple days, my ph is crashing in less than 12 hours. It is 7.4 from the tap and drops to 6.4 in 12 hours.

Ive done a 90% water change and the nitrites shoot back up to 5.0 and then a ph crash.

I am totally at a loss.

My 29g does not suffer from the same problem.