Tank won't cycle (I think?)

[sjbeauchamp]

So... I got a 29 gal Marineland kit and followed LFS advice. Filled with conditioned water, gravel, plants, etc and SmartStart bacteria and waited two weeks. Then went back and got 6 platys. They didn't tell me to test the water until I got the fish and then they sold me nitrite and ammonia tests only. So I kept testing and waiting - ammonia has always been around 1 and no traces of nitrites. I started changing 4-5 gallons every few days because I didn't want to poison the fish. It's now been a month since I added the fish and same ammonia problem and no nitrites whatsoever. I got a complete test kit and it shows PH is about 8. Also no nitrates. LFS says ammonia is high due to the water changes which does not make sense to me. I did dump in some Perfect PH 7.0 which I now read that I shouldn't have done as it seems a mistake to use chemicals to control PH (oops). The PH is consistent with my tap water (from a well, with a water softener - but the pre-softened water is also around 8.0), it isn't happening in the tank. Anybody have any more ideas on what to do??? I am afraid for my poor little platys in that ammonia (although they seem perfectly fine and no worse for the wear). We'd like to get some neon tetras (my 5 year old wants the pink and purple fish) but not until I am convinced this tank is cycling properly. I am thinking that it isn't cycling?? Should mention I have gone down to only feeding a very small amount every other day - they eat it quite quickly - so I don't think overfeeding is the problem.

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi.
Firstly check your source water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to see what you are adding to your tank. If all are negligible then fine.
Secondly, dilute the ammonia to 0.25 as a max level. Unfortunately this will slow down your cycling because the beneficial bacteria will have little food. But this is the down side of cycling a tank with fish in the tank. For fishless cycling you would raise the ammonia to 2-4 speeding up the cycling time.
Having a nitrite reading is bad for the fish and should be diluted but in a cycled tank it is often the case that you see a drop in ammonia and a rise in nitrates without seeing a significant nitrite reading.
At the moment your tank is not cycled as ammonia is not falling and more significantly your nitrates are not rising.
With 'fish in' your only option is to continue to WC to drop ammonia levels and wait for nature and bacteria to take its course.
It would help significantly if you could get some bacteria laden filter media from a friends tank to seed your filter. This can help kick start the bacteria colony. I've not heard many good reports of kick starting the cycle with over the counter bacteria cultures.
If the worst happens and you lose your fish, and I hope you don't, then consider doing a fishless cycle and only add fish when 2ppm of ammonia is reduced to zero, nitrites to zero and a rise in nitrates is seen in 24 hrs. Then you can do a significant water change and introduce some fish. Don't overload the tank too quickly and only add additional stock when the tank is coping reliably with the current stock.
Do ensure that all water added to the tank is treated to rid it of chlorines etc as this will kill existing bacteria.
I hope this helps a bit. Good luck with your fish and tank.


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[sjbeauchamp]

Thanks! Appreciate it. I will keep water changes going to keep the ammonia down. I forgot to say that I tested my tap water for everything and aside from PH being high there, no ammonia/nitrate/nitrite detected. I even tested using the buckets and water conditioner that i use for my water changes and it's not coming from there either. Should I be cleaning any of the gravel? I was for a while but I stopped after reading thats where the bacteria are. I assume I should not change the blue floss filter either? I have space to add a second filter, is there anything I could put in there (other than an already-cycled filter?)