Stupid Tanks Won't Cycle

[The Equillibrium]

I have been trying to cycle me angel tanks for about 6-7 weeks now. They won't work.


I strated with a small $5 bottle of stability. I used it all, and then it sat for a week untouched. I figured out that the cycle is probably dead, so I got some ammonia put it in, and killed the cycle.

I emptied the tanks and then recycled with a $10 bottle of stability, and for a reason I can't remember, it didn't work...

Again, i get another $10 bottle of Stabilty, cycled it while adding a load of fish food to feed the cycle. It worked for a while. i tested every 3 days for about 12 days. Each time, i had a dying ammonia or nitrite spike. That looked good so I kept going. Then, the ammonia stayed a 0. I then tested nitrite, and it was at 2 ppm. I let it go by for a few days, and its still 2 ppm w/ no ammonia. After this, I stopped testingammonia and stopped adding food. Over the next ten days(the 10th being yesterday), I tested daily for nitrite. Its still a solid 2 ppm. I remebered the ammonia bacteria needed food and added some food at about the 7th of those 10 days.

No luck.

Yesterday, i took my 2.5 year old 10 gallon filter cartridge and put it behind the cartridge of the 29 I was trying to cycle(I am doing a 29 and a 50 long)for a few hours. Then I removed it, shook it up in the water of both tanks releasing loads of crap. The next day,...2 ppm nitrite.


What could be wrong here?!

 

[xoedusk]

I would suggeste following the cycling method in the pinned topics in Beginners Questions. That's what I did.. took only a couple weeks.

Here are a few quetions that might clarify what is happening:

I'm not familiar with this "stability" product -- what is it suppoesed to do?

It seems to be the concensus here that ammonia-eating bacteria die after 12 hours without food. Are you only using fish food flakes? Have you tried pure ammonia?

What test kit are you using?

What is the temperature of your tank?

What is the pH? Cycling will take forever if it's too low.

What are the chemical parameters of your tap water?

 

[The Equillibrium]

Stability is a cycling product by Seachem. I have used it about 5 times before with success.

Temp is 81 using a visi-ther, fully subersible.

7.2 PH , hardness is gh-7 and kh-5

I cannot find pure ammonia where ever I go. I found some with ammonium hydroxide and surfacant, didnt know what the latter was so i didnt get it.

API test kit. I tested my established 46 to see if my test kit was screwing up, and it showed 0 nitrite, so thats not a problem.

My water parameters are pretty normalas I have a beautiful 46 bow and a 10 with no problems\

I want to gt this over with and breed my angels, but these tanks are not starting. Has anyone had any success with bio-spira? It contains live bacteria(refridgerated). I need to find that stuff.

Natural cycling without meds has never worked for me.

 

[xoedusk]

Read http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=1307701 for a similar problem PA_fishlover was having with his API test cards and nitrites. I also had a similar problem... stuck at 2 ppm. See http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=1315301 for mine.

Check out Wal-Mart for pure ammonia. Personally I used one with a surfacant and it cycled just fine. Of course I had a carbon filter and did two 100% water changes before adding fishies.

As far as cycling products, many seem to think Bio-Spira is the only one that works. But of course there are those who swear by others.

You are dechlorinating your water?

What is your nitrate reading? This will tell you if your nitrites are stuck at 2 ppm because they are being produced just as fast as they are turned into nitrate.

 

[The Equillibrium]

So I'll just wait as PA_fishlover did. Doy ou think if I start adding ammonia within a few days, the ammonia bacteria will get up again with the nitrite bacteria? It depends whan I go to Wal-mart.


Thanks

 

[xoedusk]

Not sure I understand you when you say "get up again with the nitrite" regarding the ammonia-eating bacteria. If they have all died off (no source of ammonia), you'll have to re-establish them. But the good news is that you still have nitrite in your tank, so those nitrite-eating bacteria are probably still alive. Is that what you're asking?