# Freshwater Aquariums > General Freshwater Topics > Tropical Chit Chat >  Tank will not begin to cycle

## paulypaul182

Hi, Im new here.

I have been trying to cycle my tank now since the beginning of August 
To give a approx timeline, this is what I did:

6/8/2011 Bought tank (Rio 125). Filled it with 15kg of washed playsand. Put in washed fake plant and 3 pieces washed and soaked bogwood. Set temp to 30 degrees. Added Tetra holiday food. 

8/8/2011 Began testing water. Had readings for Amm Trites and Trates. Ph 7.3

15/8/2011 Added two small caves which have fake plants attached. Water tests still showing ammonia, trite and trates traces.

19/8/2011 Removed old holiday food and replaced with new holiday food. Went on holiday.

26/8/2011 Came home from holiday. Water stats about the same as when I went on holiday.

30/8/2011 Removed Holiday food and used normal flake food. Readings were all over the place. Ammonia stopped falling and trates and trites read 0 for a week.

6/9/2011 Removed 50% of water, put dechlor in the water left in the tank, waited 20 mins and then filled tank up with water direct from hose. Tested water, 0.25 amm and zero for trites and trates. Added BioMature. Tested water, 4ppm ammonia. Added pottery vase thing with holes for caves and a fake medium cave, both washed, to tank. Both bought from LFS.

7/9 to 19/9 Ammonia has not budged from colour reading for 1 and a half weeks. I noticed black 'burn' marks on pottery vase and on sand directly beneath all or most bits of decor. Removed 50% of water, removed all decor, removed all filter media, stirred sand so most of what was on top is now underneath. Dechlored tank, filled with water. Then syphoned 50% of water out again, added freshly washed (in dechlored water) decor, dechlored water, refilled tank added freshly washed filter media along with friends mature media. Added 25ml of BioMature and 30ml API bacteria stuff (sorry Ive forgotten the name of it). Ammonia reading 4ppm. 

20/9 - Still no fall in ammonia. ph 7. Was advised to drop a teaspoon of bicarb in which I did. Was told I should see a drop the following day

23/9 - Again, no Ammonia drop, decided to wait a little longer.

27/9 - No ammonia drop. Jelly like substance getting pretty bad. Found something on the internet called Columnaris. I figured I could have a problem as all symptoms in tank corresponded with the article I read. I decided to go gung ho and completely drained the tank, bleached it, rinsed it throughly, added new substrate (black Hagen Marina Gravel), new filter sponges etc. Bogwood and other decorations have been left out to be cleaned at a later date. Filter was also throughly cleaned and rinsed. New media added correctly. Filled with dechlored water. Temp set at 28 degrees. Intial water readings read zero across the board and Ph 7.6. Dosed with 9.5% Homebase Ammonia, reading 4ppm. Added API Stress Zyme.

28/9  Went to LFS and got a big bag of matured media. I cant remember what they are called but it looked like lots of small white plastic cogs. I removed the media baskets from my filter, added a handful to the bottom, inserted one media basket, added half a handful on top of that basket, inserted the second basket and added the rest to the top of the filter. Turned filter back on.
29/9  Water was cloudy overnight, was told it could be a bacteria bloom. Ammonia still 4ppm
30/9  Bought 6 plants (1x Amazon Sword, 5 x Australis) and planted them into gravel. Tested water Ammonia still at 4ppm but Ph has gone down to 6.8. Lights on now for 10 hours everyday to accommodate plants. 
1/10  Bought Gh and Kh test kits, both by API. Water sitting at 4 dKH.
2/10  Still no change in Ammonia. Ph 6.8. Water still cloudy but no where near as bad as a few days ago. Bought seaschem Ph buffer. As per their instructions, added 1 level tablespoon. Trying to raise the ph to 7.5. Will test tomorrow to see if there is any change. I just went out to buy another API ammonia test because I was thinking that maybe my test kit is old. Unfortunately I got the same result.


What I dont understand is why the ammonia hasnt gone down slightly due to the plants using it. I have 6 plants in there at the moment. 


So basically my tank has not eaten any Ammonia since last Tuesday, even though I added lots of mature media on Wednesday and got a bacteria bloom and added plants on Friday. Im at a complete loss.

----------


## Thesergeantmajor

Wow Just reading that gave me a headache, god knows what it must be like for you.

Am I getting this right? Your ammonia went up, followed by nitrite, then nitrate. since then, the nitrites and nitrates have dropped to 0 but the ammonia has dropped a little but ceased to fall to 0?

First I would go to your lfs and have them test your ammonia with a differant brand. the Tetra brand are easy enough.  The fact you had positive tests for nitrite and nitrate means your tank is cycling. Lay off the big water changes, if there isn't anystock in there just leave it, you may be fighting the cycle And stop banging dechlorinater in the main tank and filling with the hose. a small bucket at a time pre-dechlorinated is the way to go. 

I don't know what fish you plan to keep but I'm sure your lfs mean't the bicarb addition as a way of combatting the ph drop rather than ammonia. 

Plants don't use ammonia (I've seen it argued otherwise on forums) but basicly plants use the end stage of the cycle (nitrate). 


My advise is if after you had the tank water tested by a different ammonia kit it's still reading high,  Leave it, don't add buffers, don't wash your filters, don't strip the tank down. just wait.

When it is down, stock slowly. It sounds like something that should be very basic is costing you a lot of money and a major headache.

The cycle shouldn't last any longer than 2 weeks, I once cycled a 24 tank system with 40 kios of uncured live rock that smelled realy bad and It only took 4 weeks to be fulled cycled.


Oh, Welcome to the forum  :Smile:

----------


## lycooper007

Hi!  I'm pretty new at this.  I have recently upgraded to a 60 gallon.  I cycled the tank with the old filter and some API quick start.  I waited a week and tested everything with the API Master Kit.  All the readings were good, so I put my Oscar and my Convict in.  They seem happy enough.  I tested again maybe 2 days later and all tests were in the norm except Ammonia.  I panicked a bit and did about a 50 % water change and treated with API Ammonia out.   Tested again 2 days later and Ammonia was still .1.  I did another water change and treatment, tested a few hours later, and still .1.  I don't over feed and don't think it's over stocked.  I have a Cannister filter (Sun Sun Hw303B 370GPH.) I've done a lot of research so I am baffled.  Any suggestions appreciated!!!  


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

----------


## lost

First of all welcome to fish keeping no disrespect but the api test kits are not the best what I would do first if I were you is take a sample of your water to your lfs and get them to test it then see what they say and let us know.Also what filter medium do you have in your ext filter ?

----------


## lycooper007

Oh ok....Well I don't have a lot of faith in the local Petsmart teens...I DID read that the levels will still show high on the test after you put the chemicals in to correct it..as for the media, I have all of the sponges, bio balls, ceramic rings, biochemical cotton, and an old filter from the previous aquarium...thanks for responding.  I know I asked this question on the wrong page...ha...still trying to figure all of this out.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

----------


## lost

No probs  :Smile:

----------

