It has been 4 weeks and Tank not cycling

Hello All, I am a new joiner to the fishlore community. I have setup a 29 gallon freshwater aquarium. It has been 4 weeks and I have been waiting for my tank to start the cycle process. This is what I have done till now -
Set up the tank filled with freshwater, used Aqueon tap water conditiner, waited for 2 days, added API Quickstart and added store bought ammonia to get the ammonia levels to 2 ppm (Tested using API test kit). Tested after 1 week and after 2 weeks - Ammonia at 2ppm, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0. Thinking that API Quickstart is not working, I got Tetra Safe Start Plus and added enough bacteria to treat 60 gallons. Waited 10 days and retested the water. Still the readings are same. Ammonia around 2ppm, Nitrite, Nitrate 0. Looking at some youtube videos, I ordered Dr. Tims One and only and added more than half of the 8 ounce bottle. It has been 10 days since then and when I tested the water, the readings are still the same. It has been more than 4 weeks that I have first set the tank up. Would there be anything wrong I might have been doing?
Also, I have used the Tap water conditioner just as much they mentioned on the instructions. Are there chances that the chlorine / chloramine content in my tap water is too high that the normal dosage of tap water conditioner is not enough to neutralize?
Please help me understand what might be happening here. Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome to fishlore!

 

Your water conditioner will be fine and no harm done if you put more in. You should go old school and put some fish food in there every once in a while rather than using so many chemicals, I've never had great success with using chemicals to cycle a tank or with store bought ammonia.

 

Do you have fish in there? I'm assuming that's where your ammonia is coming from. The tetra safe start and API quick start should work unless you're over stocked at the moment. Can you tell me how many and what ypes of fish you currently have?

Many people will disagree with the advice I'm about to give but here goes:
If you add a decent amount of plants to your tank at the start along with 5-6 tetra sized fish, the ammonia should never reach detectable levels in a tank of that size. Just do a 30% water change weekly and keep adding the bacteria products like quick start as instructed. You should have no problem. This is how I've started with all my tanks and never had a death due to cycling.

Do you have fish in there? I'm assuming that's where your ammonia is coming from. The tetra safe start and API quick start should work unless you're over stocked at the moment. Can you tell me how many and what ypes of fish you currently have?

Many people will disagree with the advice I'm about to give but here goes:
If you add a decent amount of plants to your tank at the start along with 5-6 tetra sized fish, the ammonia should never reach detectable levels in a tank of that size. Just do a 30% water change weekly and keep adding the bacteria products like quick start as instructed. You should have no problem. This is how I've started with all my tanks and never had a death due to cycling.

EDIT: Didn't read the part about buying ammonia. But yeah I'd just advise replacing all your water and adding fish in straight away with plants and restart API quick start or tetra safe start. If you don't like plants you can just throw them out after 1 month.

 

Yes, like Level99Fishing said, using plants is good especially with fish.

 

I had a tank that did absolutely nothing in the way of cycling in the 5 or so weeks I left it set up. It was my first "platics" tank. Once my patience ran out, I completely changed the setup to the same as my other tanks: AquaSand substrate and live plants. (Filter media in all my tanks has been ceramic rings and sponges/filter floss). As soon as I changed the tank setup from fake to real, it started cycling. So I guess I'm just curious... are you using plastic or live plants and natural substrate or painted gravel?

 

EDIT: Didn't read the part about buying ammonia. But yeah I'd just advise replacing all your water and adding fish in straight away with plants and restart API quick start or tetra safe start. If you don't like plants you can just throw them out after 1 month.

I have a 2.5 inch tall Anubias and 2 inch Java Fern in the tank. The substrate is blue / dark blue colored gravel. I also have some decorations in there. After about 2 days of initial setup, I have put in the 2 live plants and the decor in the tank as someone said plants do help with cycling.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Has a filter been running? If yes, what media (sponges, ceramic, cartridges, etc.) is in it? If cartridges, were they unwrapped from any plastic bag container? (I know that last question might sound simple but I believe I read where someone accidentally inserted one in the filter still in its bag before.)

What's the tank temp and pH?

Did you use pure ammonia - no additives, fragrance, surfactants (doesn't bubble when shaken vigorously)?

I hope we can get to the bottom of this.

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Has a filter been running? If yes, what media (sponges, ceramic, cartridges, etc.) is in it? If cartridges, were they unwrapped from any plastic bag container? (I know that last question might sound simple but I believe I read where someone accidentally inserted one in the filter still in its bag before.)

What's the tank temp and pH?

Did you use pure ammonia - no additives, fragrance, surfactants (doesn't bubble when shaken vigorously)?

I hope we can get to the bottom of this.

Thank you for your response and your intention to help me through this!!!
I have a Marineland penguin 150 running all the time. Yes, the cartridges are unwrapped from plastic container. Read somewhere that high temperatures are good for cultivating bacteria, I set the tank temperature at 80 degrees F. The ph is around 7.8.
The ammonia I used is not scented and no additives. Got it from a dollar store. I did the normal check of shaking the bottle and making sure there is no foam.

 

Thank you for your response and your intention to help me through this!!!
I have a Marineland penguin 150 running all the time. Yes, the cartridges are unwrapped from plastic container. Read somewhere that high temperatures are good for cultivating bacteria, I set the tank temperature at 80 degrees F. The ph is around 7.8.
The ammonia I used is not scented and no additives. Got it from a dollar store. I did the normal check of shaking the bottle and making sure there is no foam.

It sounds like you've done everything right. It should have worked. I'm completely perplexed!

I can think of two things to try. Long shots, but you've tried everything else.

You could take a water sample to your local fish store and have them confirm your readings, just in case your test kit results are inaccurate.

You could also replace all the water with new water. It won't negatively impact any cycling progress as the beneficial bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water column. A water change sometimes jump starts a stalled cycle.

I'd like to see a picture of this stubborn tank.

 

Reading about headaches like you're going through is one reason I've never used bottled bacteria. Besides questionable effectiveness, bottled bacteria will send your test readings wacky and your readings won't really tell you what's going on in the tank.

 

Reading about headaches like you're going through is one reason I've never used bottled bacteria. Besides questionable effectiveness, bottled bacteria will send your test readings wacky and your readings won't really tell you what's going on in the tank.

I like the idea of bacteria boosters but I think they're often misused, plus I think some are just junk.

I used one once in conjunction with my normal fishless cycling with ammonia and the result was quite impressive. TSS+ had my 29 gallon processing 4 ppm of ammonia in three days.

 

Cycling is for growing the beneficial bacteria needed to complete the nitrogen cycle of breaking down waste into Ammonia -- Nitrite-- Nitrate. The bacteria needs something to eat in order to live and to multiply, if no nutrients are going in, the bacteria will not multiply because it is not being fed. With Live Soil and Live Plants, there is natural die-off that will induce a cycle in the tank. If everything is plastic and you add nice new conditioned water, there is no nutrients being created or added so there's really nothing to cycle... this doesn't mean you're off the hook, because once you add a fish in there, your tank will go into cycle since it doesn't have the beneficial bacteria needed to handle any bio-load at all... that's how most people kill their first few fish.

Since you are patient and looking to set up a tank the "right way," why not go for a live aquarium? Or you can put a bit of frozen fish food in there for nutrients every few days...

 

O

Cycling is for growing the beneficial bacteria needed to complete the nitrogen cycle of breaking down waste into Ammonia -- Nitrite-- Nitrate. The bacteria needs something to eat in order to live and to multiply, if no nutrients are going in, the bacteria will not multiply because it is not being fed. With Live Soil and Live Plants, there is natural die-off that will induce a cycle in the tank. If everything is plastic and you add nice new conditioned water, there is no nutrients being created or added... Since you are patient and looking to set up a tank the "right way," why not go for a live aquarium? Or you can put a bit of frozen fish food in there for nutrients every few days...

The tank's ammonia level is 2 ppm so there is plenty of food for the bacteria.

 

O

The tank's ammonia level is 2 ppm so there is plenty of food for the bacteria.

ead: I am at the point where my glasses need glasses... lol

 

It sounds like you've done everything right. It should have worked. I'm completely perplexed!

I can think of two things to try. Long shots, but you've tried everything else.

You could take a water sample to your local fish store and have them confirm your readings, just in case your test kit results are inaccurate.

You could also replace all the water with new water. It won't negatively impact any cycling progress as the beneficial bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water column. A water change sometimes jump starts a stalled cycle.

I'd like to see a picture of this stubborn tank.

Here you go. This is the stubborn tank -


So this is what I am going to do-
1) Take my water sample to LFS to get it tested.
2) If the readings are the same, I will do a complete water change and will fill it up with new water and will use some fish food as ammonia generator.

 

Aww! I love "The Little Mermaid". I'm excited for when you'll stock it. Do you know what you want to put in it?

 

Aww! I love "The Little Mermaid". I'm excited for when you'll stock it. Do you know what you want to put in it?

Yes. I have made up my mind.
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