I have been cycling my tank now for 4 months. I am having the hardest time getting my amonia level down to zero. I have a 55 gal and 15 small fish. My water was cloudy for a week then went clear and it has been beautiful since. My fish are doing fine, they are eating and swimming well. I do 20% water changes every other day and once a week I do a 50% water change. Each time I do a big change the amonia levels goes down some but it stays there until a do another big change again. I am frustrated regarding this. My pH is at 7.8, I have hard water from a well and I have heard that that it is hard for the good bacteria that eats amonia to survive in a higher pH level. Is this my problem? I have also heard that it is best not to mess with pH levels. Are they connected? The last time I set up a tank it only took about 5 weeks to cycle what is going wrong this time?
Cycling problem
- Thread starter Chickenlady
- Start date
7.8 is just fine on PH, my tanks cycle quite quickly and i am in that range
umm well first what kind of test kit do you have? the strips are inaccurate as all get out, so if you don't have them you need the API master test kit.
15 fish are not your problem in a 55g as that's a pretty low stocking order.
something may be dead in there, or you may have a ton of rotting food, your test kit could be bad, ummm I don't know.
What are your readings for the tank?
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
PH
Hardness
what are the 15 fish? got any plants? can you send photos of the tank and anything in there that you don't know the name of (fish or plants)?
umm well first what kind of test kit do you have? the strips are inaccurate as all get out, so if you don't have them you need the API master test kit.
15 fish are not your problem in a 55g as that's a pretty low stocking order.
something may be dead in there, or you may have a ton of rotting food, your test kit could be bad, ummm I don't know.
What are your readings for the tank?
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
PH
Hardness
what are the 15 fish? got any plants? can you send photos of the tank and anything in there that you don't know the name of (fish or plants)?
more information
In answer I do have a API test kit that have been using for several years now.
Today the ammonia reading is 0.50 ppm. My nitrate is zero and I do not have a test kit for hardiness or nitrates, so I am unsure of their levels.
My fish are 3 Dalmation mollies, 3 Mickey mouse platies, 3 black skirt tetras, 1 Honey gourami (2 died within two days of bringing them home) 2 Sunburst platy (the other is a small single tank she was not doing so well so I took her out of the big tank) and one common Pleco.
I have no no live plants in my tank they are all fake. I am not ready to try to have live plants yet.
I vaccum my gravel every weekend. I have nothing dead in my tank. I have also cut my fish feeding down to a very small amount once a day to try and reduce the ammonia.
I have sucessfuly had a 20 gal and a 10 gal tanks before. This is my first large tank and I have never had this much trouble before and I just do not know what to do other than just keep doing what I am doing and eventually it will come down.
In answer I do have a API test kit that have been using for several years now.
Today the ammonia reading is 0.50 ppm. My nitrate is zero and I do not have a test kit for hardiness or nitrates, so I am unsure of their levels.
My fish are 3 Dalmation mollies, 3 Mickey mouse platies, 3 black skirt tetras, 1 Honey gourami (2 died within two days of bringing them home) 2 Sunburst platy (the other is a small single tank she was not doing so well so I took her out of the big tank) and one common Pleco.
I have no no live plants in my tank they are all fake. I am not ready to try to have live plants yet.
I vaccum my gravel every weekend. I have nothing dead in my tank. I have also cut my fish feeding down to a very small amount once a day to try and reduce the ammonia.
I have sucessfuly had a 20 gal and a 10 gal tanks before. This is my first large tank and I have never had this much trouble before and I just do not know what to do other than just keep doing what I am doing and eventually it will come down.
large tanks are generally easier to cycle... so this seems strange to me.
feeding once a day is plenty and unless you are keeping certain types of fish that need frequent feedings you really shouldn't feed more often then that.
Ammonia test kits do expire, so it could be expired and giving false results
have you added any chemicals to your tank other then dechlor? ammonia binders? medicine? etc?
maybe someone else has ideas
feeding once a day is plenty and unless you are keeping certain types of fish that need frequent feedings you really shouldn't feed more often then that.
Ammonia test kits do expire, so it could be expired and giving false results
have you added any chemicals to your tank other then dechlor? ammonia binders? medicine? etc?
maybe someone else has ideas
What do you use for a dechlorinator?
What kind of filter do you have, what do you keep in it, and how do you/how often do you clean it?
You should probably stop vacuuming your gravel so often. That's an important bacterial bed, and shouldn't be disturbed much, especially as you're trying to cycle. Perhaps every month to every other week do an extremely shallow vacuum, making motions over the gravel to stir up the gunk without disturbing the deep parts.
What kind of filter do you have, what do you keep in it, and how do you/how often do you clean it?
You should probably stop vacuuming your gravel so often. That's an important bacterial bed, and shouldn't be disturbed much, especially as you're trying to cycle. Perhaps every month to every other week do an extremely shallow vacuum, making motions over the gravel to stir up the gunk without disturbing the deep parts.
I will be keeping an eye on this thread for sure. Daily water changes, ammo chips and API Ammolock seem to be keeping my fish alive (I haven't lost one despite almost 2 weeks of ammonia issues). I feel your frustration ...First of all thank you for all the replys! I am new to forum life.
I do not need to use chemicals to dechlorinate my water. I am on a well, as I live out in the country. I have not used any chemicals to try and treat the ammonia, as I have read that they just mask the problem and you will still get a high reading even if it is not harmful ammonia anymore and they starve the good bacteria because you kill all their food. I want to cycle my tank as naturally as possible.
I will back off on deep cleaning my gravel. I was just trying to get rid of any old food and fish poo that could be keeping my ammonia up. I will go back to once a month. I had lots of goldfish before in my 20g and they were so messy I got used to doing a lot of cleaning.
My filter is a Whisper brand double cartridge with two biowheels I am unsure of the model at this momemt.
This is the first week that my water has been under 1 ppm. I have hovered in the 1 to 1.5 range for the last month. I was glad to see after this later water change that it has come down to 0.5 and so far today it has stayed there.
My test kit is about 3-4 years old and it could be expired. That will be next purchase is a new test kit.
Maybe I should just stick with raising my chickens and Turkeys. I love fish and having an aquarium but this is crazy, thing doing water changes almost on a daily basis just to keep my beautiful fish alive and well.
I do not need to use chemicals to dechlorinate my water. I am on a well, as I live out in the country. I have not used any chemicals to try and treat the ammonia, as I have read that they just mask the problem and you will still get a high reading even if it is not harmful ammonia anymore and they starve the good bacteria because you kill all their food. I want to cycle my tank as naturally as possible.
I will back off on deep cleaning my gravel. I was just trying to get rid of any old food and fish poo that could be keeping my ammonia up. I will go back to once a month. I had lots of goldfish before in my 20g and they were so messy I got used to doing a lot of cleaning.
My filter is a Whisper brand double cartridge with two biowheels I am unsure of the model at this momemt.
This is the first week that my water has been under 1 ppm. I have hovered in the 1 to 1.5 range for the last month. I was glad to see after this later water change that it has come down to 0.5 and so far today it has stayed there.
My test kit is about 3-4 years old and it could be expired. That will be next purchase is a new test kit.
Maybe I should just stick with raising my chickens and Turkeys. I love fish and having an aquarium but this is crazy, thing doing water changes almost on a daily basis just to keep my beautiful fish alive and well.
On this point, modern dechlorinators do more than remove chlorine and if they bind ammonia to make it non-toxic to your fish, the ammonia is still able to be used by the biofilter (the good bacteria). It will, however, as you pointed out, still show as high ammonia on most aquarium test kits since they show 'total ammonia' and not just 'free ammonia' (toxic only).
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I've not used either (I have been using Seachem's products for 30+ years, starting in saltwater tanks).
AmQuel Plus
This product seems to do the same thing as Seachem's Prime. If you have that available, you can use it to detoxify the ammonia until the biofilter catches up. Their website states that the bonding it does to ammonia does not prevent it from being used by the biofilter, so it will not interfer with the cycling process.
AmQuel Plus
This product seems to do the same thing as Seachem's Prime. If you have that available, you can use it to detoxify the ammonia until the biofilter catches up. Their website states that the bonding it does to ammonia does not prevent it from being used by the biofilter, so it will not interfer with the cycling process.
Sorry my old filter was a Whisper I have a Penguin Biowheel 350 and yes my test kit is past its prime and expired. My tank is probably okay but I am going to be purchasing an new kit in the near future.
Again thank you for all of your help! I have had tanks before but still consider myself a newbe when it comes to the art of keeping aquariums. My experience is quite limited.
Again thank you for all of your help! I have had tanks before but still consider myself a newbe when it comes to the art of keeping aquariums. My experience is quite limited.