FishFixation
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
My little tank is torturing me with its strangeness.
I set it up nearly a month ago, on December 28th, and I began officially trying to cycle it about a week later (I had some botched attempts that caused me to start over). I got my ammonia up to about 2ppm with pure ammonia, and for a while I was getting low nitrite readings and low nitrate readings, Then I got distracted and didn't check the tank for a few days. When I checked it again, the ammonia had dropped to 0.25, and my nitrites AND nitrate were both zero.
Since then, I've been feeding the tank daily, but it's stagnant. Every day I add a drop of ammonia to get it back up to ~2ppm, but my nitrites and nitrates remain at zero. I wonder if the ammonia is just evaporating off.
It's been doing this for a week and a half now, with no signs of progress. What can I do to kick-start it? I tried some stuff called stability that claims to help establish the cycle, but it doesn't seem to be helping any. I've heard good things about bio-spira... This is so frustrating.
Any other thoughts about what would cause a tank to just not cycle at all? I'm tired of looking at my "silk plants and slimy piece of driftwood tank." I want a fishy!
I set it up nearly a month ago, on December 28th, and I began officially trying to cycle it about a week later (I had some botched attempts that caused me to start over). I got my ammonia up to about 2ppm with pure ammonia, and for a while I was getting low nitrite readings and low nitrate readings, Then I got distracted and didn't check the tank for a few days. When I checked it again, the ammonia had dropped to 0.25, and my nitrites AND nitrate were both zero.
Since then, I've been feeding the tank daily, but it's stagnant. Every day I add a drop of ammonia to get it back up to ~2ppm, but my nitrites and nitrates remain at zero. I wonder if the ammonia is just evaporating off.
It's been doing this for a week and a half now, with no signs of progress. What can I do to kick-start it? I tried some stuff called stability that claims to help establish the cycle, but it doesn't seem to be helping any. I've heard good things about bio-spira... This is so frustrating.
Any other thoughts about what would cause a tank to just not cycle at all? I'm tired of looking at my "silk plants and slimy piece of driftwood tank." I want a fishy!