Ive Almost Had Enough

[soundteaser]

Stop the 50-70% daily water changes. All you are doing is giving the bacteria nothing to work on and your tank will take forever to cycle. If you can get some mature media as others have said, do so. If not, get some Nutrafin cycle or similar and use that. It does work.

this does slightly conflict with what already has been said, if i stop the daily water changes the couple of fish i have will die, i am doing a fish in cycle, i believe my cycle is slow because my water has bearly no PH level, although i might be wrong, also i have read that the cycle start products dont work

Hi, I understand your worry. I can only speak of my personal experience with Nutrafin cycle and i have had good results with it. I had a power cut during the summer and the my filters were not running for 24 hours; I put some cycle in and didn't have any problems. With reference to you Ammonia readings and PH; I wouldn't worry too much about your reading, because with your low PH the ammonia will turn to ammonium, which isn't as harmfull. I think those massive water changes are stressing your fish and doing more harm than good. I hope all goes well. By the way my API test kit always gives a slight ammonia reading, even though my tank is mature and has plenty of filtration. Yours may be reading slightly out also.

 

[phoenixgsd]

i'd probably find a bucket, fill with water, stick a filter in it (one of your two), dose it with ammonia and leave it, checking the ammonia levels every other day (keep it at 3/4ppm). It can sit in the garage, or shed, if you got power. Its quite warm now, so i wouldn't bother heating it. This way you can fishless cycle one filter, while the other filter continues in the tank. One of them has to "start moving" soon.

ok, yesterday i did this and added ammonia up to 4ppm today its 1ppm, should it be that quick, or is that normal, i will add more to bring it back up to 2ppm, or is it because the filter was in my tank for quite some time before hand?

 

[phoenixgsd]

if the above readings are normal for a part cycled filter, does this mean it should be cycled really quickly or am i wrong?

 

[Tizer]

if its processed it down to 1ppm, then great, it should be bringing it down to zero though, so test again a little later, whats the nitrite at?

 

[phoenixgsd]

ammonia droped right down, nitrites were 0.25ppm so added a bit more ammonia, is that right? i havnt tested it since as ive been decorating dawn till dusk

 

[Tizer]

yeh keep feeding some ammonia, but no more than 3ppm, sounds like progress!

 

[phoenixgsd]

its stopped again ammonia 2.0ppm and no nitrites at all, do i still add more ammonia or wait untill it does drop and where did my nitrites go?

 

[Tizer]

empty the bucket, refill, dechlorinate and fresh dose ammonia

 

[phoenixgsd]

empty the bucket, refill, dechlorinate and fresh dose ammonia

will do, thanks for being patient with me, i am so blonde

 

[BETTY BOO]

its very frustrating i know.just keep at it.with the help here you will get there.

 

[phoenixgsd]

empty the bucket, refill, dechlorinate and fresh dose ammonia

did this and been checking regulary, i dont understand whats gone wrong now, i think i overdosed the ammonia as it went really high 4ppm so emptied and refilled, now its over 8ppm with no nitrites, i have to say my fish in cycle has been way more easier than the fishless one, even thats a pain in the #14###, im really getting fed up with this

 

[phoenixgsd]

i have emptied 70% and refilled again but didnt add any ammonia just dechlorinator, is this ok?

 

[phoenixgsd]

anyone?

 

[Juggler75]

Yeah if it was 8ppm your 70% change should have brought it down to 2.5ppm or thereabouts, check again in morning and redose back up to 4ppm if neccessary.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Stop the 50-70% daily water changes. All you are doing is giving the bacteria nothing to work on and your tank will take forever to cycle. If you can get some mature media as others have said, do so. If not, get some Nutrafin cycle or similar and use that. It does work.

this does slightly conflict with what already has been said, if i stop the daily water changes the couple of fish i have will die, i am doing a fish in cycle, i believe my cycle is slow because my water has bearly no PH level, although i might be wrong, also i have read that the cycle start products dont work

Mate, what the hell are you doing adding ammonia to the tank if you have fish in there!