Ammonia Up...again. (5 Months Without Cycle, I Feel Like Giving Up)

Just curious, where did you get your tank? New? Same with gravel and decorations? I didn't notice but I'm sore you checked the API expiration date.
I had a very hard time at first but I followed the prime and stability and made a huge difference in my 45 gallon. Also changing from the HOB to a canister made a huge difference for me. I left the order of coarse, medium and fine floss, then bio balls and ceramic, then finally purigen and NO carbon on top. My next step is to change to biohome in top 2 trays . Incidently I don't start balls into the filter as well in my 29 gallon. Cycle started really fast with those.
How are you doing at this point, a couple days from the last post. People on here are so helpful.. The best. Sometimes I just observe


Edit.. A friend of mine had a dead catfish lodged in his intake hose and have him ammonia spike and had no clue why..

 

Seachem Stability and Seachem Prime have always worked for me. I missed what type of filtration you are using.

I agree if you have Nitrates, you are cycled. If you still are reading Ammonia, ck your testing, water source and for dead fish,plants ect.. Nitrates mean you are cycled. What media do you have in your canister filter? What type of substrate? If you can't find dead matter in the system, and you are not overfeeding, sounds like you need more nitrifying surface area. My 29 gal I run a small HOB filter and an undergravel filter. I currently have 2 Corys,5 tiger barbs,5 Buenos Aires Tetras and several large Platys(6-7) . I put the large Platys in there to lower the bioload on my 46 gal. Bow ft. It has Seachem fluorite for substrate,which is not a good candidate for an undergravel set up. The 46 gal has, Fluval 306 and a Tetra power 60 filter. You just can't cram enough biomedia into the 306 to handle the load I run.( Wish I had bought the 406) "Overstocking" can be compensated for with enough biomedia to convert the ammonia load. Of course you still must do regular water changes. And you need to be able to move your stock around as the larger species grow. Hope you get it worked out. Man those fishless cycles are a pain from what I've read. Never have done one and don't plan to. Sounds like a lot of work for nothing to me. IMHO. THANKS

 

Here's a quote from the Seachem Support staff on their forum-

Prime works to detoxify free ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates. It puts them in a form that is much more bioavailable to the beneficial bacteria. Often times people don't realize that free ammonia will kill beneficial bacteria, thus it takes them a very long time to cycle their aquarium. Typically, once the ammonia has peaked at around 1-2ppm, we suggest to stop adding the additional ammonia. Especially if you are seeing the conversion to nitrite. Prime simply keeps the fish safe (if they are present) and allows the bacteria to more easily consume/convert the ammonia and nitrite.

-Seachem has a good reputation, and I'm not sure if they'd jeopardize it to sell a few more bottles of Prime.

I agree. I called Seachem and did what they said, used Prime and Stability, with water changes, and my tank finally cycled. But I was doing an fishless cycle, so it was less stressful. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this. Is there any chance the tank is just overstocked??

 

Just curious, where did you get your tank? New? Same with gravel and decorations? I didn't notice but I'm sore you checked the API expiration date.
I had a very hard time at first but I followed the prime and stability and made a huge difference in my 45 gallon. Also changing from the HOB to a canister made a huge difference for me. I left the order of coarse, medium and fine floss, then bio balls and ceramic, then finally purigen and NO carbon on top. My next step is to change to biohome in top 2 trays . Incidently I don't start balls into the filter as well in my 29 gallon. Cycle started really fast with those.
How are you doing at this point, a couple days from the last post. People on here are so helpful.. The best. Sometimes I just observe


Edit.. A friend of mine had a dead catfish lodged in his intake hose and have him ammonia spike and had no clue why..

Idk if you've read my comments on the jugs I use for water..but..

Well..Ive contacted Triton. A company that specializes in testing for metals in aquariums. At this point i'm 95% convinced I have antimony in my tank. It's a heavy metalloid akin to arsenic that is used in plastic type 1. It leaches almost immediately and more so over long periods into water. It's under 6ppb, which is the human safe limit. But I'm convinced it's probably enough to kill bacteria. I know Prime detoxifies heavy metals so I'm hoping that helps. But based on my reading, my levels would be above what prime detoxifies.

So..that's where I'm at right now, for whatever reason plastic type 2 jugs are 2-3x more expensive then type 1. So..I'm buying type 2, 5 gallon buckets that are really cheap but kind of cumbersome and with cheap handles. I emailed Trito. As they Really seem to be my only hope, after googling for hours to get some info on antimony in the aquarium. It's even listed as something they test for. Guess we'll see. This is beyond one of the most frustrating things I've dealt with in life. But if these fish make it, no way I'm ever getting rid of them...

 

Seachem Stability and Seachem Prime have always worked for me. I missed what type of filtration you are using.

I agree if you have Nitrates, you are cycled. If you still are reading Ammonia, ck your testing, water source and for dead fish,plants ect.. Nitrates mean you are cycled. What media do you have in your canister filter? What type of substrate? If you can't find dead matter in the system, and you are not overfeeding, sounds like you need more nitrifying surface area. My 29 gal I run a small HOB filter and an undergravel filter. I currently have 2 Corys,5 tiger barbs,5 Buenos Aires Tetras and several large Platys(6-7) . I put the large Platys in there to lower the bioload on my 46 gal. Bow ft. It has Seachem fluorite for substrate,which is not a good candidate for an undergravel set up. The 46 gal has, Fluval 306 and a Tetra power 60 filter. You just can't cram enough biomedia into the 306 to handle the load I run.( Wish I had bought the 406) "Overstocking" can be compensated for with enough biomedia to convert the ammonia load. Of course you still must do regular water changes. And you need to be able to move your stock around as the larger species grow. Hope you get it worked out. Man those fishless cycles are a pain from what I've read. Never have done one and don't plan to. Sounds like a lot of work for nothing to me. IMHO. THANKS

I think a lot of you guys aren't reading all my info posted. Though I don't blame you, it's a lot haha. I don't have nitrates, I did when I Insta-cycled with HEAVILY cycled media added. But the bacteria dies within 2-3 days. You can read my comment above, but at this point, I think my water is polluted with antimony. There is no way my tank has gone this long, all these products without being able to even start cycling, even a little bit. And then when I add heavily cycled media and 3 extra filters now as of a few days ago...it still dies. The tank is heavily areated, everything is right. Something is wrong and the only explanation is the plastic. I've been doing a lot of reading. None the less, you guys are amazing for helping. I'll keep you updated if your interested..

 

I agree. I called Seachem and did what they said, used Prime and Stability, with water changes, and my tank finally cycled. But I was doing an fishless cycle, so it was less stressful. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this. Is there any chance the tank is just overstocked??

No, I'm pretty confident my tank is not overstocked.. I will continue to do water changes with prime though, I have enough surface area to cycle a 55g+ tank at this point too. So we'll see what happens..

 

Good luck, I guess I should consider myself lucky. Where I live, I've never had a bad water problem, I use it straight from the tap with prime for water changes, and keep gallon milk jugs full of aged water for top off. Sorry you are having trouble in what should be a relaxing hobby. Thanks

 

Sorry you're having trouble. I'd try using Seachem Prime and Stability. You use them at the same time- according to Seachem one reason for slow cycle starts is that Ammonia hitting 1ppm+ actually harms bacteria as well as fish, so you use Prime to protect it during the cycling. One word of advice, shake the Stability like there's no tomorrow, same advice if you decide to continue with TSS+.

Shake the Prime too! Yes, it smells, but you get used to it. Make sure you are shaking your tubes when testing. Don't test immediately. Wait a few hours or next day. Sorry, but didn't have chance to read through others, but what media? Swish in taken out water with changes, but not rinsed. If only carbon, would definitely advice alternative media, such as seachem purigen, filter floss, sponge, ceramic media. Also, highly recommend the large (XL) bio sponge filter for inside the tank. It's inexpensive and is used with an air pump. Double bonus is it will be great for not only filtration, but your BB (beneficial bacteria.) And, since you are upgrading to larger tank, would advise setting up quarantine tank. Don't give up. Hope that helps.