So much trouble on cycling! Please help!

Hello all and thanks in advance for reading.
So last June I bought a 5 gallon tank. I tried to fish food cycle it, added water and media from a old tank etc. The cycle went on and a month later I put 2 ADFs in there.... then I got new tank syndrome and had to do 50% water changes every day... still tungs didn't help and I had to return the ADFs. By the time they were out of the tank my amonia was at a shocking 4 to 5 ppm......
So then I did a 75 percent water change, let things settle for a few days and then did a 90% waterchange, removing EVERYTHING from the tank. My amonia read only .25 ppm. So then I bought bottled bacteria and threw it in. Things were going ok... except for I stumbled across a female endlwr at the pet store and had to get her. I figured that once I had the tank cycled I could put her in and temporarily keep her in the 16 gallon I have. But then I realized she's pregnant... I have had her for about 3 weeks now.l and she's going to give birth any day now. My amonia is reading 1.5 ppm and I am out of bacteria. What can I do? I would just let the tank sit and cycle but now she is going to give birth and I want her babies to not get eaten by my community fish and goirami in the 16.

 

As I am sure you already know cycling a tank simply means growing ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria. By moving the seeded media from your 16 gallon cycled tank should have basically cycled this tank since you added both types of bacteria.

I have to ask. What products are you adding to this tank? Please list everything you have added. Hopefully ammo-lock isn't on this list. You gave us the ammonia number but what about nitrite, nitrates and pH?

If you can spare more media from your 16 gallon tank. I will recommend you change out most of the water in this tank again. Be sure the only thing you add to this tank is your water conditioner. Hopefully that water conditioner is Prime. Although any of the many water conditioners will work Prime will protect your little girl and her babies.

Once done go ahead an put your little girl in this tank. There should be enough bacteria on the seeded media to handle her bio-load since hers is going to be much lower than the bio-load in your community tank. Once she is in there just keep an eye on the numbers and do water changes should you get an ammonia or nitrite reading. Keep both as low as possible. You really shouldn't see either since you moved media from a cycled community tank.

 

I'm still new to the aquarium world myself, but if you're struggling to cycle your tank maybe you could try importing some cultured water from your 16 into your 5, that might help speed things along. That or maybe you could try getting some Tetra safe start.

Also, I have a question. The female Endlwr - I'm going to assume that's not misspelled for now - is it a betta? Because if it is, once it lays its eggs I would recommend separating her from them because I read somewhere once that females tend to eat the eggs. And if she's not a betta just disregard what I said.

 

I'm still new to the aquarium world myself, but if you're struggling to cycle your tank maybe you could try importing some cultured water

This really wouldn't help at all. Bacteria isn't free floating in the water. It is growing on all the surfaces in the tank. we don't actually cycle the water. We cycle the tank. Cycling a tank simply means letting bacteria grow on all the surfaces in the tank. The only thing there would be in the water is nitrates and they are nothing more than the waste product left from the ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria.

This is an Endler, basically a cousin to a guppy. They don't lay eggs, They give birth to live babies.

 

Yes, it is a Endler, sorry for the misspelling.
I am adding Fluval Bottled Bacteria and do use prime water conditioner. So far this is all I have in the tank. My 16 galling has a 3 part filter, charcoal, filterfloss, and bio balls.
There are 0.15 nitrites and 0 Nitrates right now.... ph is about 7
How much water do you reccomend replacing? 75%? More? Less?
Totally off topics but I just Krazy glued a bunch to moss to some drift wood and put.it in the tank without rinsing it off. A bunch of residue came off and into the water... is this safe?

 

Yes, it is a Endler, sorry for the misspelling.
I am adding Fluval Bottled Bacteria and do use prime water conditioner. So far this is all I have in the tank. My 16 galling has a 3 part filter, charcoal, filterfloss, and bio balls.
There are 0.15 nitrites and 0 Nitrates right now.... ph is about 7
How much water do you reccomend replacing? 75%? More? Less?

I would change out most of it before putting both seeded media and the fish in this tank. The water change should remove the nitrites and the seeded media should prevent another spike.

I will recommend you replace the carbon/charcoal with either a sponge cut to size or more bio-media. Carbon really isn't needed on a regular basis. It has its place in this hobby such as pulling medications out of the water but there is no need to constantly run it in our filters. The more room for bio-media the better.

 

I would change out most of it before putting both seeded media and the fish in this tank. The water change should remove the nitrites and the seeded media should prevent another spike.

I will recommend you replace the carbon/charcoal with either a sponge cut to size or more bio-media. Carbon really isn't needed on a regular basis. It has its place in this hobby such as pulling medications out of the water but there is no need to constantly run it in our filters. The more room for bio-media the better.

Thank you so much! I will do a 75% change on this tank and add the guppy... will taking out all the filter from my 16gsllon be healthy for it?
Sorry I didn't mean to say guppy... I was just reading a post about a guppy and now my brain is confused

 

Thank you so much! I will do a 75% change on this tank and add the guppy... will taking out all the filter from my 16gsllon be healthy for it?
Sorry I didn't mean to say guppy... I was just reading a post about a guppy and now my brain is confused

You don't want to take all the media from your 16 gallon. Start out with maybe half the bio-balls. Anything else you can move from the 16 over to this tank will help since bacteria grows on all the surfaces in our tank. Something like a handful of gravel if you have a gravel substrate would help seed the new tank. or a plant or two. Every little bit will help.

 

So I did a 75% water change and added 1/8th gunky water from 16 gallon back in... then about 1 and 1½ cups of gravel as well as the filter floss to the new tank and a algaecover decoration... I dosed with a little extra prime. Is this enough to start back up the cycle? I will test the water before bed and update in the morning.

 

So I did a 75% water change and added 1/8th gunky water from 16 gallon back in... then about 1 and 1½ cups of gravel as well as the filter floss to the new tank and a algaecover decoration... I dosed with a little extra prime. Is this enough to start back up the cycle? I will test the water before bed and update in the morning.

It should although the gunky water wasn't needed and will not help get this tank cycled. Did you go ahead and put the little girl in there? If not I am going to recommend you do so. She will feed the bacteria you just moved over. Without an ammonia source the bacteria will have a difficult time spreading throughout your tank.

 

Acclimating her now!
Ok- now she is acclimating... took way longer then I thought to get her into the new tank... not the smoothest tradition... a little worried. I just ran a test and the amonia is under .5 ppm... closer to .25. Dosed with some prime. I just added 3 plant clippings and my hope was that the old gunny water may have had some fertilizers in it for the clean water since my root tabs have still not come and I am just using gravel.

 

My girl has been in for almost 24 hours now and no problems yet... cycle still not strong. Will update when she gives birth!