Are we EVER going to Cycle???

Hey everyone, its been a while since our last post. Here is the story now. Molly has gotten over her fin and tail rot, and the clarity of the tank in better than the day filled it with tap water. She is really happy and swims like she is really enjoying her new home. We are feeding her good food. We recently got an API water test kit when we were in Toronto. Got home thinking we have finally cycled this beast and lo and behold we got these readings.

Ammonia= 4.0
Nitrite= .25
Nitrate= 0
Ph= 7.5

That day we did a 50% water change and retested the water and no change. We did a 30% the following day and no change. Again a 30% waited a day and today we have these readings.

Ammonia= 4.0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=0
Ph= 7.5

SO what's going on here? We have insanely high ammonia levels even after the water changes. They just do not drop at all. This makes no sense. We don't have gravel so we know that the food and waste are not sitting on the bottom so that can't really be what is causing the problem no? I know that you will say keep doing the water changes but we feel like this will only result in the same conclusion. So any ideas? We have had this tank for 2 months already and expected to be at least somewhat into the nitrogen cycle not at the very start!

Thanks for your help.

 

I would think that the water changes would have lowered the ammonia level at least a little. Have you tested your tap water for ammonia, perhaps that's the source of ammonia? Or maybe your ammonia test is bad?

 

OK, so we looked at our tap water and it showed only slight ammonium about .25 if that. We are just amazed that the cycle has not even really started.

 

i'm not sure, but I thought you had to have gravel for the bacteria to live in which convert the ammonia. if you have no gravel, there's not much for the bacteria to colonise on, and no bacteria = nothing to convert the ammonia = high ammonia. not sure though...just a thought. . .maybe the filter is enough for the bacteria to colonise on?

 

Just keep doing daily water changes. Your tank is cycling... it's just going to take a while since you are doing it with fish. Since you should be doing daily water changes it's going to take longer.
My tank had bad bad ammonia spikes for 2 weeks even with the constant water changes I was doing. My ammonia stayed at a constant 2.0, but it did eventually drop not too long ago in fact and now we have almost no ammonia (tap has some ammonia in it), no nitrites and well..no nitrates which I'm kinda concerned about lol...... Patience is key heh
I'm not sure how having no gravel would affect anything though. I'm sure someone more familiar with that situation will be able to help ya out with that if it's messing with your cycle.