Still Have Ammonia Problems!

[muelleh]

30 gal tank - at least 3 years

2 angels
8 tetras
5 corys
2 siamese algae eaters
snails

Briefly, I apparently over-cleaned my tank prior to going on vacation and threw it into a mini cycle (at least I hope that's all it is...)

Despite water changes every 12 hours (between 30-50% each time) for about 10 days, the ammonia level continues to return to .25 (I am still feeding though not as much). Nitrites 0 and barely any nitrates (between 0 - 5). I am getting desperate...so got a bottle of Prime and called Seachem. This is what they recommended:

Change water again this evening and treat entire tank with correct dosage of Prime. Wait 48 hours and repeat. Continue doing this until ammonia problem is resolved. Several questions:

1. Is there a way to know this without having to buy their ammonia test kit (will have to order it on-line). I have the API freshwater/saltwater ammonia test kit and have read that if I test immediately after a water change I can get an accurate reading. Is that true?

2. Does the presence of any nitrate at all mean that I haven't crashed my cycle? I am starting to be concerned that rather than being in a minicycle, I am in a full-blown cycle (so I keep testing for nitrites).

3. I am on well water so don't have to worry about what might be going on with my water source.

Seachem Rep also said to add Stability, yet I have read conflicting info about adding it/TSS/Biozyme during any kind of cycling issues.

Any help would be appreciate. I am all "googled" out from trying to figure this out myself!

 

[Defiance]

Hiya,

Sounds like a mini cycle

I would just keep on with the water changes but just that, no other added elements except dechlorinator (i've always used it, and being pond sized it's cheap)

Had a tank, one of my moms to be exact, i started to clean the filter, had to go out sharpish, left her instructions, she was over zealous with the cleaning

I just called in each evening to do a 50% or larger water changes til all was well

So for me it's just gonna take water changes and a while longer unfortunately

No doubt someone will reply with a more in-depth response

Cheers

Tony

Edit : Honestly i am having a bad day at replying .........

1: Try it as it's better than nothing

2: As long as the nitrate doesn't plummit suddenly then i'd say no complete crashing as of yet (this maybe in itself shows that while the goodies (bacteria) have been damaged they are still working like good uns just at a lesser rate at the moment

3: See my ramblings above lol

 

[ellena]

Don't see why you should buy their ammonia test kit. As I understand, it can distinguish between the 2 types of ammonia, but don't see why you need that. You want to know how long it's taking for the levels to get back up to 0.25ppm again as that's when you need to change, so no point really doing it after a water change?
I'd keep up with the water changes, using prime as the conditioner, as it makes low levels of ammonia less harmful, so will help the fish through this period.
I'd test for nitrate in your water from the tap/well. 0-5 is low, but could be from water changes rather than lack of bacterial activity.