Help, is my tank cycled yet?

I've been trying to cycle a ten-gallon tank for about 5 months now, and I'm still getting readings of ammonia even after all this time, and yet I'm getting nitrates, but no nitrites. Does anyone know what to do or how to help? I've tried doing water changes, as well as a few doses of TTS+ and a couple of other additives to try to help it cycle, but still nothing.

 

If you are still seeing ammonia readings then it’s not fully cycled. Is this a fishless cycle or a fish-in cycle? Can you explain what steps you are taking and hopefully someone can help you sort this out.

 

What is your pH level? At a pH under 7.0, ammonia starts turning into ammonium, and if your pH gets close to 6.0, all ammonia has turned into ammonium.

While ammonium is far less toxic to fish (some claim it is non-toxic to fish) it is a horrible food source for the ammonia converting bacteria. If your pH is too close to 6.0, the tank may never cycle.

Have you checked your tap water for nitrates?

Best of luck

 

I've been trying to cycle a ten-gallon tank for about 5 months now, and I'm still getting readings of ammonia even after all this time, and yet I'm getting nitrates, but no nitrites. Does anyone know what to do or how to help? I've tried doing water changes, as well as a few doses of TTS+ and a couple of other additives to try to help it cycle, but still nothing.

We do need more information. What are the numbers for pH, ammonia and nitrates? Some folks never go through the nitrite spike while using some bottled bacteria. Assuming this is a fishless cycle, what is your ammonia source?

 

I've been trying to cycle a ten-gallon tank for about 5 months now, and I'm still getting readings of ammonia even after all this time, and yet I'm getting nitrates, but no nitrites. Does anyone know what to do or how to help? I've tried doing water changes, as well as a few doses of TTS+ and a couple of other additives to try to help it cycle, but still nothing.

I presume you are reading 0.25ppm ammonia? If it is persistently 0.25ppm, regardless of whether you do a lot or few water changes, that's fine. It's a quirk of the API test kit and you can consider it to be zero.

A lot of assumptions I've made, but it does sound like it'll be applicable for your case. ^_^ Let me know if not, because then there would actually be a problem with the cycle potentially.

 

If you are still seeing ammonia readings then it’s not fully cycled. Is this a fishless cycle or a fish-in cycle? Can you explain what steps you are taking and hopefully someone can help you sort this out.

I'm doing a fish-in cycle, I attempted to do a fishless cycle, but I put the fish in too early.

What is your pH level? At a pH under 7.0, ammonia starts turning into ammonium, and if your pH gets close to 6.0, all ammonia has turned into ammonium.

While ammonium is far less toxic to fish (some claim it is non-toxic to fish) it is a horrible food source for the ammonia converting bacteria. If your pH is too close to 6.0, the tank may never cycle.

Have you checked your tap water for nitrates?

Best of luck

I actually haven't been checking on the pH recently, I'll look again soon

I presume you are reading 0.25ppm ammonia? If it is persistently 0.25ppm, regardless of whether you do a lot or few water changes, that's fine. It's a quirk of the API test kit and you can consider it to be zero.

A lot of assumptions I've made, but it does sound like it'll be applicable for your case. ^_^ Let me know if not, because then there would actually be a problem with the cycle potentially.

My ammonia has been consistently reading at about 0.50 for a while now, and it hasn't seemed to rise

 

I've been trying to cycle a ten-gallon tank for about 5 months now, and I'm still getting readings of ammonia even after all this time, and yet I'm getting nitrates, but no nitrites. Does anyone know what to do or how to help? I've tried doing water changes, as well as a few doses of TTS+ and a couple of other additives to try to help it cycle, but still nothing.

Test the water that you are putting in on water changes chances are the water if out of the tap has ammonia already in it

 

Test the water that you are putting in on water changes chances are the water if out of the tap has ammonia already in it

I already checked that a while ago, my tap does have ammonia so I've been using filtered water.

 

My ammonia has been consistently reading at about 0.50 for a while now, and it hasn't seemed to rise

Got it, same thing. If it does not change at all I'd chalk it up to a false positive reading.

It's not like nitrifiers grow so slowly that a parameter should be 'stuck' at a particular reading for so long. Either it should increase or decrease, especially given how long it has been.

So yeah, defo I would not worry about it.

 

I'm doing a fish-in cycle, I attempted to do a fishless cycle, but I put the fish in too early.

I actually haven't been checking on the pH recently, I'll look again soon

My ammonia has been consistently reading at about 0.50 for a while now, and it hasn't seemed to rise

I’d suggest following the advice of mattgirl . . . Test your pH level.

If your pH gets low enough (below 7.0 ppm), it can have the effect of stalling or slowing the cycling process.

 

I'm doing a fish-in cycle, I attempted to do a fishless cycle, but I put the fish in too early.

For us to get to the bottom of what's happening we need to know what you've done up to this point.
How long have you had fish in this tank? what kind and how many?
Before adding the fish what was your ammonia source?
How much water are you changing each time you do a water change?
How often are you doing them?

You are using filtered water. Is it your tap water you run through a filter or are you buying filtered water? Some filtered water needs to be remineralised. Be sure to check the pH level on both the water you are using for your water changes and the water in the tank. We want to see a number up to at least 7. Less than that tends to slow the cycling process down. Lower than 6 has been known to stop the process.

You have ammonia in your tap water. How high is the ammonia in the tap? If it is less than one we can work with that should we discover the filtered water you are using isn't working. A fully cycled tank will remove the low amount of ammonia added when doing water changes with water that has a low reading of ammonia.

What kind of tests are you using? Strips? liquid? Let's try to figure out if your tests are telling the truth. A constant .5 ammonia reading after so long isn't something we see often. Lots of folks never see a true zero reading while using the API liquid tests but normally it is no more than .25

 

okay, I just checked and my pH is at a good parameter, it was a bit dark so I couldn't see the exact number, but I could tell that it was definitely above 7.ppm.

For us to get to the bottom of what's happening we need to know what you've done up to this point.
How long have you had fish in this tank? what kind and how many?
Before adding the fish what was your ammonia source?
How much water are you changing each time you do a water change?
How often are you doing them?

You are using filtered water. Is it your tap water you run through a filter or are you buying filtered water? Some filtered water needs to be remineralised. Be sure to check the pH level on both the water you are using for your water changes and the water in the tank. We want to see a number up to at least 7. Less than that tends to slow the cycling process down. Lower than 6 has been known to stop the process.

You have ammonia in your tap water. How high is the ammonia in the tap? If it is less than one we can work with that should we discover the filtered water you are using isn't working. A fully cycled tank will remove the low amount of ammonia added when doing water changes with water that has a low reading of ammonia.

What kind of tests are you using? Strips? liquid? Let's try to figure out if your tests are telling the truth. A constant .5 ammonia reading after so long isn't something we see often. Lots of folks never see a true zero reading while using the API liquid tests but normally it is no more than .25

I've had fish since about late September, right now I have two in the tank: a harlequin rasbora, and a panda cory. Before I added fish I dosed the tank with Fritz pro ammonia. Before I used to be doing about 50 percent water changes frequently, but more recently I've been doing 15-20 percent changes about once a month.

I get my filtered water through my fridge. I just did a test and the pH of my tank is doing just fine.

It's been a while since I checked, but I'm pretty sure the ammonia level in my tap was at .25.

I've been using a liquid test for ammonia.