Trouble cycling

[Kitekat87]

Hi

I’ve been keeping fish for over 20 years so I’m not a beginner, however I’ve never experienced the trouble I’m having with my latest aquarium.

I set up a 125 litre aquarium in April. My first mistake was trusting the shop employee when she sold me some bacteria in a bottle and said stock your tank straight away with it.

So it’s been over 6 months and as far as I can tell the tank has never cycled. There is still ammonia readings constantly, there’s never been a nitrite spike and the nitrates have the faintest tint of orange. If I hadn’t compared it to tap water I would say it was zero for nitrates but there is defo a slightly different shade.

I’ve even tried moving over some media from my other tank but that doesn’t appear to have worked either. Admittedly I could only move over a small amount because that is a small tank.

All the fish are fine because the ph is neutral however I’m worried that there will one day be a nitrite spike and kill them all.

The details of the tank are below and any advice would be gratefully received.

Filtration is a Fluval U3 and Eheim Experience 150

Fish are all juveniles:
3 angelfish
1 Severum
3 black skirt tetras (mature)
1 red tail black shark

I do have the back of the tank covered with live plants

I’m fed up of the constant testing and worrying about the water. I do have a small 28 litre aquarium that I could maybe move the fluval filter to and do a fishless cycle with before moving it back?

Thanks

 

[coralbandit]

What is the ammonia reading ?
This all seems strange being 6 months old and with plants...

 

[Kitekat87]

What is the ammonia reading ?
This all seems strange being 6 months old and with plants...

That’s what I thought, none of it makes sense!

With my current test kit (nutrafin) it reads between 1.2 and 2.4. If it gets any higher than that I do a water change

 

[Kitekat87]

This is a pic so you can see the amount of plants in it

 

[ashleykw]

Hi

I’ve been keeping fish for over 20 years so I’m not a beginner, however I’ve never experienced the trouble I’m having with my latest aquarium.

I set up a 125 litre aquarium in April. My first mistake was trusting the shop employee when she sold me some bacteria in a bottle and said stock your tank straight away with it.

So it’s been over 6 months and as far as I can tell the tank has never cycled. There is still ammonia readings constantly, there’s never been a nitrite spike and the nitrates have the faintest tint of orange. If I hadn’t compared it to tap water I would say it was zero for nitrates but there is defo a slightly different shade.

I’ve even tried moving over some media from my other tank but that doesn’t appear to have worked either. Admittedly I could only move over a small amount because that is a small tank.

All the fish are fine because the ph is neutral however I’m worried that there will one day be a nitrite spike and kill them all.

The details of the tank are below and any advice would be gratefully received.

Filtration is a Fluval U3 and Eheim Experience 150

Fish are all juveniles:
3 angelfish
1 Severum
3 black skirt tetras (mature)
1 red tail black shark

I do have the back of the tank covered with live plants

I’m fed up of the constant testing and worrying about the water. I do have a small 28 litre aquarium that I could maybe move the fluval filter to and do a fishless cycle with before moving it back?

Thanks

How did you used to cycle tanks in the past? Fishless? I also started my first tank with a bacteria starter and added fish right away. Big mistake because it also took me months to cycle. Idk why it took so long, I regularly kept adding the bacteria supplement and followed all directions and advice I could find, it still took what seemed like forever. But I DO remember never catching a spike of nitrites, just a gradual increase in nitrates. Just keep doing what your doing, took me forever too with the fish-in cycle and I lost 1 fish.

 

[Kitekat87]

I’ve always done fish in cycles in the past just because it’s hard to find the right ammonia in the uk. However I am starting another new tank soon so was gonna try my first fishless cycle for that after buying some ammonia on amazon.

 

[Nostromo]

I am new but I was having similar problems to you I am currently on my fishless cycle, I put in Dr.Tims one and only into my 55 gallon tank plus his pure ammonia, I wasn't getting anywhere no nitrites at all, so I went and got seachem stability followed the instructions on the label I put this in on day 12 and on day 18 I got my first nitrite reading , now my nitrites are sky high!!!, I am still using Dr.Tims ammonia , but the seachem stability fixed my cycle, so I am now going to stay with seachem products, this was what worked for me if that's any help

 

[Toad]

Even with juveniles I'd say you sound overstocked, which might be why the levels are always high.

 

[Kitekat87]

Really? That sucks because I used that aqa advisers everyone recommends and that says it’s only just overstocked when they are all adults. When I put in their juvenile size it says there’s plenty of space/filtration. [emoji17]