How To Restart A Cycle?

[nike12301]

For whatever reason, I have been having trouble with my fishless cycle. Things got going but when the ammonia filters out it goes sooooo slowly (2-3 days for 2 ppm to go back to zero even a month after I started). Clearly something isn't quite right.

I'm going to start over... but what is the best way?

Will a 100% water change and complete clean/scub of the filter be enough?

Will I have to remove the substrate? It's sand, which could be a huge pain.

Instead of removing the sand, could I just empty out the tank and let it dry and sit for a week or so? This would probably be long enough to kill off whatever bacteria is in the substrate now, right?

Just trying to make this as easy as possible.

 

[Truck]

If it were me I wouldn't bother doing a fishless cycle, it's a complete waste of time in my opinion, grab some mature media, a load of decent quality plants and add fish instantly, please head to the planted section for more info.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, maybe a planted cycle will fix you right up. I'd head over to the planted section, maybe over there they'll give you some constructive help.

~~waterdrop~~