Hi Everyone -- I've been lurking for a bit and can see that you all have much help and advice to offer and I'm really in need.
About a month ago (16 September) my established 20g tank crashed. Everything went wrong at once (heater was working in overdrive which unfortunately coincided with a thermometer failure resulting in very warm and incredibly smelly water, there was weird white stuff in the tank, then the filter froze up, and I started losing fish). I moved the fish to a small tank and totally re-did the 20g -- new everything, except the biowheel (I transferred the orginal one to the new filter). I know now that it was probably not a good idea to do such a wholesale change, but at the time, the fish were suffering and I just wanted to fix things.
My problem now is that I don't know if I'm making any progress with cycling the new set-up. I added Stress-Zyme according to package directions with each of the water changes for the first 14 days, along with Stress Coat.
The
pH readings stay between 6-6.6 and the
ammonia keeps climbing (9/23: 2ppm, 9/29: 4ppm, 10/6, 10/11, 10/14: 8+
PPM), but I'm still getting 0 readings for
nitrite and
nitrate. The high ammonia is really starting to bother the fish and I would like your advice.
Do water changes hurt cycling (should I expect this process to take longer since I have fish in the tank)? Does the frequency matter? Should I vacuum the gravel when I do these changes (I use a Python for my water changes)?
I have added AmmoLock because the ammonia is still measureable even after a
water change -- does the AmmoLock slow down the cycling process? Does this mean I'm not changing enough water?
Thanks so much for any advice you can give -- I'm trying my hardest and doing what I can to save my fish. -- Mary Ann