Should I start my tank over?

I've had this tank running since August and it still hasn't cycled yet.
I initially put TSS+ in and thought I was good. After a few fish dead I had a nitrite spike and looked into properly cycling my tank.
I have used medication in the tank but have done several water changes since then.
When I start trying to cycle it properly the ammonia was decreasing like it was supposed to. When it got to .25, Nitrite: 5+ and Nitrates: 5ppm I did a pwc and dosed the ammonia back to 2ppm.
The readings stayed the same for a week: ammonia: 1ppm, Nitrite: .50 ppm and Nitrates: 10-20ppm for a week.
I did a pwc this past Friday and the same thing is happening, the readings are staying the same.
Currently my readings are: Ammonia: 2ppm, Nitrites: .25ppm, nitrates: >5 ppm.
I've tried cycling with fish and they just immediately stop eating then die after a couple weeks. Also my tank has always had a source of ammonia (fish food) but I never had a ammonia reading until I started using Fritz fishless fuel.

I've used: TSS+, Stability, Fritz fishless fuel

 

Welcome to the forum, and it sounds like you're going through what most of us did at one time or another. I'll try to help.

• Have you tested your source water for ammonia?
• When you tried the fish-in cycle, did you test the water before adding the fish, and test often and do water changes as needed to keep the ammonia and nitrites low after adding them?

 

Welcome to the forum, and it sounds like you're going through what most of us did at one time or another. I'll try to help.

• Have you tested your source water for ammonia?
• When you tried the fish-in cycle, did you test the water before adding the fish, and test often and do water changes as needed to keep the ammonia and nitrites low after adding them?

The ammonia from my tap is 0. When I had the fish in I tested and everything was testing at 0. I never got any reading except for nitrites and that was at the beginning of October and that's when I started a fishless cycle because all the fish died. I did weekly water changes even when I was getting 0 readings.

 

It sounds like you're doing everything right. What kind of fish did you add? Some species are notoriously weak and/or prone to sickness.

 

I had a Betta then 2 albino Cory and 4 red phantom tetra. I have a theory that it's my tap water that is causing the issue with my tank. When I first start trying to cycle the water in the tank was 50% tap and 50% filtered water, the ammonia was going down, nitrite was going up. The 2 times I changed the water since then was all tap water and I've been having issues ever since. I'm going to do a water change and use all filtered water then dose back up to 2ppm ammonia and see what happens. Can't hurt since nothing is happening anyway lol.

 

You don't mind me asking the size of the tank? The smaller the tank, the more prone it is to things such as this.

I've been in a situation before where I cycled a tank for MONTHS and when it finally seemed like it was a over- the cycle crashed the moment I introduced a fish. I had to do waterchanges every other day. The tank in question was five gallons (one betta).

I suggest seachem prime if you can get your hands on it. I think it detoxifies ammonia for 24hrs. Either way- it makes ammonia spikes a bit safer to bear.

 

You don't mind me asking the size of the tank? The smaller the tank, the more prone it is to things such as this.

I've been in a situation before where I cycled a tank for MONTHS and when it finally seemed like it was a over- the cycle crashed the moment I introduced a fish. I had to do waterchanges every other day. The tank in question was five gallons (one betta).

I suggest seachem prime if you can get your hands on it. I think it detoxifies ammonia for 24hrs. Either way- it makes ammonia spikes a bit safer to bear.

Yea, it's a 10 gallon tank. I'm using prime. I'm glad I'm going through the growing pains of figuring this out because I plan to buy a bigger tank in the near future so I don't wanna have to figure this out then. This is just a small tank for my daughter to have some fish. My plan was to always use filtered water because of how bad our water smell straight from the tap but I got lazy.

 

Yea, it's a 10 gallon tank. I'm using prime. I'm glad I'm going through the growing pains of figuring this out because I plan to buy a bigger tank in the near future so I don't wanna have to figure this out then. This is just a small tank for my daughter to have some fish. My plan was to always use filtered water because of how bad our water smell straight from the tap but I got lazy.

That answered my next question. I wondered if you're using a de-chlorinator, but that's obviously not it. I'm out of ideas. Hopefully someone else will have some ideas.

 

That answered my next question. I wondered if you're using a de-chlorinator, but that's obviously not it. I'm out of ideas. Hopefully someone else will have some ideas.

Thanks, yea I was reading somewhere that maybe I'm not using enough dechlorinater, I'm going per the instructions but maybe that's not enough for my tap water and it's actually hindering my cycle. I'll test this filter water theory out and see what happens.