3 1/2 month cycle... what could be wrong??

[Xanthochroid]

well, i had planned on doing a fishless cycle but the local fish store didn't know anything about it, so i took their advice and bought 8 barbs, two of which are now dead and 3 1/2 months later the ammonia level is at 8 and has been for a week... i'm not sure what to do now! also, what types of fish would you recommend putting with barbs?? I've been looking online at compatibility charts and they all seem to say different things. I have a 55 gallon tank with a few castles my aunty gave me and some glow in the dark plants

Oh, i also noticed a few brownish patches on the glass and on the fake plants... is that bad?

 

[rohnds]

It is possible to cycle a tank using fish. Matter of fact I used tiger barbs to cycle our first 65 gallon tank. They are hardy fishes that can tolerate the cycling process espcially in a large tank. The normal cycling process for any tank is around 8 to 9 weeks.

Have you being doing you regular water changes? Try doing about 20% to 23% water change every day for the next four or five days and see if your NH3 will come down.

The brown patches are are diatomic algea. They are common in a new tank. The cause of this could be high NO3 level in your tank.

What are you NH3, NO3, NO3, pH and GH levels?

Rohn

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Yup, just do water changes to lower the ammonia. The bigger the change you can do right now, the better.

For now, you don't want to add any fish until your ammonia and nitrite are both down (the tank is cycled). Do you know what type of barbs?

 

[Xanthochroid]

Thanks for the help! i did the recommended water change and managed to make quite a mess (the local fish store said not to do any water/cleaning until after the tank was cycled so it was my first attempt at it). hmmm. before i did the water change the nitrate was at 5.0 and the nitrite was at .25. the ph has been off the scale for some time now so i didn't bother checking it and i don't know what GH means. Are products like ammolock helpful??

as for the barbs, there are two tiger, two greens, and two yellow ones with a black dot towards their tails and a red dot towards their heads (i can't remember the name) they all seem to be much happier now that the water is cleaner, thanks again for the help

 

[rohnds]

the local fish store said not to do any water/cleaning until after the tank was cycled

If I were you I would take any more their advice seriously. You need to do water change even during the cycling, except that you must not clean the gravel since this prevent the bacterial colony from growing as they residue attached to the gravcel.

Now that you brought down your NH3 level to 0.25, do weekly water changes until your cycling is complete.

Rohn

 

[Acei]

This may be a dumb question, but you are dechlorinating the water aren't you. If not the chlorine and chloramine in the water will prevent the bacteria that cycles the tank from establishing. Aslo what sort of filtration system are you using. Some are better then others for bio filtration. 3.5 months is an awful long time to cycle the tank...

 

[Shaunna]

you aren't supoosed to do gravel vacs during a cycle?

 

[Xanthochroid]

I am dechlorinating the water, and i have a top fin power filter 60 that came with the acquarium kit my aunt bought, shoud i be doing something else for filtration?

 

[TitanWarrior]

you aren't supoosed to do gravel vacs during a cycle?

I've never heard that one before

 

[FroggyFox]

I Believe Rohnds meand that you shouldn't take your lfs's word for it anymore...believe he left a word out.

I would disagree with Rohnds on the not cleaning the gravel thing...with the exception of if you have an undergravel filter as your main filter then I might only do light gravel vacs while you're cycling, as that gravel is your filter media. In all other tanks where the filtration is a sponge or a power filter or a canister filter etc, the majority of your bacteria is wherever the oxygen and water flow is highest, meaning on your filter. There is SOME bacteria all over every porus surface in your tank (including the gravel and all of your decorations and plants etc), but NOT cleaning the tank would lead to pesky levels of nitrite hanging around after your tank would have otherwise dropped to 0.

Xanthochroid - ammolock can be helpful in an emergency and if you're not sure why you're having an ammonia spike etc. Just beware that it might give false positive readings after you use it. Due to the fact that you have ammonia, nitrite and nitrates already in your tank I would say you are very close to being completely cycled. I would keep up with those water changes as prescribed and try to keep the water quality as good as you can. As far as the top fin 60 for a 55 gallon tank...I'm not entirely sure, you might check to see if you can find a gph rating for it (gallons per hour) because for a 55 I'd think you'd want to be sure its at least 500 gph if not more.

 

[Xanthochroid]

the box for the power filter says it is for up to 60 gallons but it only pumps 300 gph, is that a problem?

also, i think the two yellow barbs are rosy barbs... i was thinking about getting 3 bala sharks, a loach, and angelfish after the tank is cycled but i'm not sure if they are compatible, any suggestions?