Help: Sadly...another Cycling thread.

[Chozon1]

Hi all. Been a bit since I logged on here, but I've been busy.

Anyway, it's been five weeks since I started cycling my tank with fish food. ammonia got up to 8.0 twice, so I did water changes to drop it back to four, using tetra aquasafe both times. Otherwise, I've pretty much left it alone. I added some Stress Zyme last Thursday, being fed up with waiting (I can be impatient at times. ). Before then and up until now, no sign of nitrite or nitrate. Water temp has been at 82 degrees for a few weeks, but I dropped it to 81 yesterday.

So...my question is, how long can this take? Am I doing something wrong?

[aquarist48]

Good morning Chozon1. Hate to hear that your tank is taking so long to cycle. What test kit are you using? Do you have an API liquid Mater Test Kit?
Do you know your pH levels?
It could take 4 to 8 weeks to cycle.

[Chozon1]

Yeah, I finally managed to get an API master test kit a few weeks ago. My PH was 7.4, but dropped to 7.0 earlier tonight. Leading me to wonder exactly what is in Stress Zyme...

[aquarist48]

Good morning. I think your pH level is fine. Too, pH levels will just about always fluctuate from time to time. Here is a link on pH that you may find interesting.
http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/107

Hang in there. I'm sure you'll get some more responses. Too, when you go to use bottle #2 in your test kit, I think it is, pound it on a counter, shake it really well before you do the test and see if any of the results change.

[Chozon1]

OK. Thank you. ^_^

[Lucy]

Stress zyme is one of those products that claim to help the cycle. However, I didn't find that it helped. Personally, I would stop using it.
You can try increasing aeration, that may help as well as the increased temp.
Weird that you haven't had any nitrite reading. Were you testing everyday?
The #2 nitrate bottle contains crystal that really need to be mixed well. Not only following the directions but banging it on a table a few times.
If it's not mixed properly, you could get a false 0 readings.

[Chozon1]

I was testing every other day until about a week ago. Now I test every day. I usually wack the bottle on something hard, but I'll give it a good bang and see if that helps anything.