Cycling 2 Tanks At Once, Is There An End In Sight?

[FishWishDish]

We have 2 tanks -- a 10 gal w/ 4 small fancy goldfish and a small pleco and a 5 gal with a lone betta fish. Unfortunately didn't learn about fishless cycling till after we got the fish. They really should post this info in pet stores, but I guess they want us to think it's easy to take care of fish...

The 10 gal had a nitrite spike about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The test strips showed it over 10ppm, but when I got an API liquid test it never tested > 5 so I'm wondering how accurate the test strips are. I used a 4x dose of Prime when it was high just in case, and always add a regular does of prime to the distilled or purified water, and stress coat to new water as well. All the fish are still alive and they haven't really shown any signs of distress, so I assume they're OK probably because the Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrites (thank God). Frequent 30% water changes (2/day the first day or two, now once every day or two) have gotten the nitrites down to .5, and non-toxic ammonia ranges from .5-2. Been adding Cycle as directed for 2 weeks now, doesn't seem to be making anything happen any faster. The nitrAtes were around 40 when I first noticed the nitrite spike, but since have been <20, and recently <10. I do fast them one day a week (skip breakfast) and am trying to live with the guilt inherent to lighter feedings in general. How much longer should it take?? Anything I can do to finish the cycle quicker???

The 5 gal tank isn't cycling at ALL. It has a bio-wheel filter that appears to be useless, because the nitrites and nitrates are 0 (ammonia stays < .5 from semi-weekly water changes and is detox-ed by the Prime) and it's been set up longer than the 10 gal. Will one betta in 5 gallons ever cause a tank to cycle? Used the bio-bugs in that tank too, (Stress-Zyme and Top Fin and Cycle) and nothing...

Thanks in advance for responses!

 

[rdd1952]

The fish you have in the 10 gallon are big waste producers (you need to look at upgrading to a much larger tank or rehoming fish very soon as you need a minimum of 50 gallons for the fish you have in there) so it will take a while longer for the tank to cycle. Two and a half weeks probably sin't long enough. I really think that the ammonia and nirite locking (or detoxifying) products slow the process some too even though the manfacturers say it doesn't. I would do water changes to try to keep the ammonia under .5 ppm and do daily water changes to. Keep in mind that adding the Prime when you do a water change will detoxify the ammonia and nitrite that are present at the time but won't have any effect on ammonia or nitrite that are produced from then on. So if you do a water change and then do another one 2 days later, you have 2 days worth of toxic ammonia and nitrite in the tank along with the non-toxic forms.

Since the 5 gallon only has a single betta, you probably won't ever see high levels of ammonia or nitrite as the betta really won't ever produce lot of waste.

And as you seem to be finding out, the non-refrigerated bacteria in a bottle products are pretty much useless.

 

[Musho3210]

gonna need more than 50 gallons for those fish, mainly the pleco....