Still not cycling

[Jeeves]

Ok, I've had the tank 6 weeks. Used Prime and Stability per earlier advice. Have fish. Ammonia has never changed over to nitrites or later to nitrates. Ammonia daily between .25 and .5 ppm. I do water changes to make fish more comfortable every two days. This is getting irritating. Just not cycling.
20 gal
Aquaclear 30 filter
Sand
3 cories 3 Mickey Mouse platys, 1 bumblebee catfish. Fake plants. Lots of hiding spots

Advice to make this tank cycle already.

 

[BlazedSaint]

Ok, I've had the tank 6 weeks. Used Prime and Stability per earlier advice. Have fish. Ammonia has never changed over to nitrites or later to nitrates. Ammonia daily between .25 and .5 ppm. I do water changes to make fish more comfortable every two days. This is getting irritating. Just not cycling.
20 gal
Aquaclear 30 filter
Sand
3 cories 3 Mickey Mouse platys, 1 bumblebee catfish. Fake plants. Lots of hiding spots

Advice to make this tank cycle already.

You have quite a few fish in your tank for cycle there for it will take more time for you biological filter to catch up , and doing water changes every other day is absolutly great for your fish! however removing the toxins from your tank(diluting them) will also slow the process, not to mention cycling can take quite awhile sometimes, patience is the virtue here

how much water do u change when u do a water change, how much do u feed and how ofter also what are you feeding

also Live Plants can help keep your levels lower in the tank as plants use ammonia and nitrate to help them grow, so perhaps check into adding some plants : )

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Have you been testing your pH regularly? Has it been stable? What is it now?

 

[Jeeves]

Which fish should I return? Will that make it cycle? I'd like to keep at least the catfish. I feed 4-5 pellets and a pinch of flakes 1x a day. 25-50% water changes with buckets. It's in the basement ugg. Ph has been neutral or nearly neutral.

 

[BlazedSaint]

Which fish should I return? Will that make it cycle? I'd like to keep at least the catfish. I feed 4-5 pellets and a pinch of flakes 1x a day. 25-50% water changes with buckets. It's in the basement ugg. Ph has been neutral or nearly neutral.

As i said id check into some live plants, they will help. and im not saying return fish as long as your not breaking the old 1 in per gallon of water rule(guide line)
just give it more time is all itll happen, just hang tight!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Which fish should I return? Will that make it cycle? I'd like to keep at least the catfish. I feed 4-5 pellets and a pinch of flakes 1x a day. 25-50% water changes with buckets. It's in the basement ugg. Ph has been neutral or nearly neutral.

There's not too many fish IMO. Are you testing nitrAte? Do you add anything to change the pH or does it sit around 7 on its own? What media are you using in the filter?

 

[Jeeves]

I don't add anything to change the ph. It maintains well.

 

[Jeeves]

Media. This confuses me. I have the sponge, rinsed once. I have carbon and a bio bag. I asked for old media at the store and they said no. One of my cories has ammonia burn, part of tail missing and one platy has lost a fin.

 

[BlazedSaint]

Media. This confuses me. I have the sponge, rinsed once. I have carbon and a bio bag. I asked for old media at the store and they said no. One of my cories has ammonia burn, part of tail missing and one platy has lost a fin.

That Sounds Like Fighting, Have you noticed any of them chasing or nipping each other? could be happening wen the lights are off too. also are fake plants silk or plastic

 

[Jeeves]

That Sounds Like Fighting, Have you noticed any of them chasing or nipping each other? could be happening wen the lights are off too. also are fake plants silk or plastic

The platys do nip each other. All are male. The plants are fake. I have no idea what happened to the cory.

 

[Jeeves]

Sorry. The plants are plastic.

 

[BlazedSaint]

ya man i had the same issue with my platys, i got 3 at first and didnt check gender and i got 2 males and 1 female, males fought like crazy, added 3 females, and they immediately stopped fighting, so if u want to avoid breeding id stick to females, otherwise u gotta keep a 1:3 male/females ratio on that playts, so the fin could have gotten nipped, also plastic plants can sometimes scratch fish so that could be it, as for the ammonia burn, that could be him gettin nipped at the gills, or it could be ammonia burn either way the water changes are good to prevent that so keep that up when u have ammonia or nitrite

 

[Mumma.of.two]

What are you using to test?

 

[BlazedSaint]

What are you using to test?

Hrm indeed! u do need to be using an actual test kit, i tried the strips and the kit and the strips are fairly inaccurate

 

[Jeeves]

Using the API master test kit.

 

[BlazedSaint]

Using the API master test kit.

That is a good good kit, its what most of us use

 

[Jeeves]

My poor cories. I now only have one emerald and one panda cat cory. The other emerald passed away I believe from ammonia. His back fin was partially gone. I did a 60% water change and used Prime today. That's the largest water change I have ever done. The remaining two cories stay in the same place all day and night and do not eat.

The two remaining platys are seemingly fine. They eat and swim about. The bumblebee catfish seems well, too.

After my water change today my amm reading was .25. I do test every day and change water every day or every other.

I placed a question on the forum about changing out the components of the AquaClear filter. Any advice? Maybe that will help. I do wish I had never purchased these sweet cories before my tank cycled. Any and all advice appreciated.

 

[gilpi]

Common mistake we all make, I used to not wait for the tank to cycle when I first started years ago, losing many fish in the process.
Let me ask you, is there a way you can get some filter media from an established tank?
You need to introduce some bacteria into your filter, the dirty brown stuff and then let it do its job.

 

[BlazedSaint]

My poor cories. I now only have one emerald and one panda cat cory. The other emerald passed away I believe from ammonia. His back fin was partially gone. I did a 60% water change and used Prime today. That's the largest water change I have ever done. The remaining two cories stay in the same place all day and night and do not eat.

The two remaining platys are seemingly fine. They eat and swim about. The bumblebee catfish seems well, too.

After my water change today my amm reading was .25. I do test every day and change water every day or every other.

I placed a question on the forum about changing out the components of the AquaClear filter. Any advice? Maybe that will help. I do wish I had never purchased these sweet cories before my tank cycled. Any and all advice appreciated.

Hrm, This is kind of a long shot, im dealing with a cycle crash(had to re-do my substrate) i got a bottle of Tetra SafeStart, and i have 6 platys in my tank, im going to try to safestart help my tank re-cycle and to attempt to keep my fish safe, i might recommend u try this, there are alot of good reviews, also im sorry for your lose, it sucks losing fish u really like, dont get discouraged, just try just daily, if u have ammonia and nitrite, do a water change to dilute toxins, but just be patient, maybe try the tetra safestart of seachem stability, much past that its all about patience

 

[Jeeves]

Common mistake we all make, I used to not wait for the tank to cycle when I first started years ago, losing many fish in the process.
Let me ask you, is there a way you can get some filter media from an established tank?
You need to introduce some bacteria into your filter, the dirty brown stuff and then let it do its job.

I have asked at Petsmart and Petco, but they won't lend me any. I've tried Stability for the first four weeks. I am going to replace the activated carbon, as the directions in the AquaClear Filter directions say to do.

Thanks for all the advice.