Starting From Scratch 5g

HI Guys, First post here but have been a lurker forever. About 20 months ago I bought my daughter a 5 Gallon Aqueon Minibow 5 LED tank. I had big Cichlid tanks when I was in my 20's in my bachelor pad but completely forgot about the "cycle" at the time. So we added a fish almost right away. It wasn't a huge deal. 1 fish in a 5 gallon isn't creating much waste. BUT the tank never cycled properly. Ever. I don't think I even once observed readable Nitrates on the API test kit. Basically for the next 18 months I did a 30% weekly waterchange and let life go on. Ammonia would spike once in a while and we'd get brown algae but the fish was fine...I think. Bring us to two weeks ago and 2 missed water changes due to 60 hour work weeks and we had a dead Betta.

So, we performed a short flushing ceremony. My daughter wanted to redo the tank and being she's 5 and getting over her dead fishie I said sure. We broke the tank completely down, bought brand new pink and white mixed gravel. 4 Live Plants 3 "Anubias Asst." and 1 Java Fern and 2 new ornaments. I explained to her though that this time we're going to cycle properly.

It has now been two weeks and I have 2ppm Amonnia nearly non-stop, 0 Nitrites and 0 Nitrates. ONE day I tested Nitrites and the next day they were gone.

Water is as follows.

8.2 PH CONSTANT (never changes ever)
0.25amm out of the tap
Hardness Deep Purple, off the scale.

On day 10 I dumped in a bottle of Dr. Tims with a good expiration date bought off Amazon. I've been using Dr. Tims ammonium Chloride to keep the Ammonia at 2PPM. Is it possible that the filter on this is just so bad that a cycle will never happen? I removed the activated carbon pad and put fluval sponge in the entire thing. Maybe 40% of the sponge actually gets wet. I have also removed the flow restricting sponge I had around the intake. I'll put it back if/when we ever get another fish.

Honestly, even the plants seem to be doing poorly. What am I doing wrong here? I'm ready to just drain the thing to empty, fill it fresh and throw in a fish because my daughter is getting frustrated on day 16 and frankly so am I.

 

I'd get on amazon and buy a cheap minI sponge and an air pump/air line if you don't have one....put it in the tank and keep the old filter running for now. Get some stability and add it to help along the cycle a bit and just keep checking the water. When you test for nitrates make sure you beat the #2 bottle off of the kitchen counter, throw it against a wall a couple of times and then shake it until your arm feels like it is going to fall off (this is a great show for the daughter too )
Cycling is annoying, but it is a great way of showing ourselves(and our kids) a lesson in patience

 

If you aren't using a bacterial supplement it can take months for the bacteria to find its way into the water and establish. I recommend getting some Tetra safestart or seachem stability. Tetra safestart cycled my tank in 2 weeks. Add safestart 24 hours after using dechlorinator, and don't do a water change for 2 weeks, while still adding a little bit ammonia to feed the bacteria.

Also try to get some sort of ceramic filter media in addition to the sponges such as fluval bio rings, they are very porous and will give much more surface area for bacteria to colonize.

 

So you're saying get a sponge filter with the ultimate goal of eliminating the Aqueon one? I was always told you can't have a cycled tank with just an internal filter like that. Was I told wrong? This hobby was easier with 55 Gallon tanks and dual 300gph filters. BUT... No room for that and my daughter REALLY likes having a Betta in her room.

Would something like this work with a Tetra Whisper pump?


I added a full bottle of Dr. Tims Mak. That's apparently "the best" on the market. Also isn't that Nitrite Blip sort of weird? Purple one day blue the next 5?

 

From what I understand Dr. Tims is close to (if not the same as) tss+.....and with tss+ you don't get nitrites at all, maybe the bacteria ended up dying? I'd check it again and see what is it reading just to be sure.

 

I added a full bottle of Dr. Tims Mak. That's apparently "the best" on the market. Also isn't that Nitrite Blip sort of weird? Purple one day blue the next 5?

Oh sorry, my brain kind of bunched that in with the ammonium chloride. During my cycle I didn't see nitrites, I don't think it's too uncommon to skip over that.

 

Tested at 8am this morning. 2ppm/0/0. I'll give it another day or two before I make any changes. Honestly. I'm considering just trashing this entire tank and buying something much nicer. Maybe a Fluval Spec or whatever that really Mod looking one I see is. This Aqueon is trash. You can see in the s how scratched up it is after only 20Months. Sure it's in a kids room and she probably scratched it, but it's not like I leave her with sharp objects!

 

So you're saying get a sponge filter with the ultimate goal of eliminating the Aqueon one? I was always told you can't have a cycled tank with just an internal filter like that. Was I told wrong? This hobby was easier with 55 Gallon tanks and dual 300gph filters. BUT... No room for that and my daughter REALLY likes having a Betta in her room.

Would something like this work with a Tetra Whisper pump?

My daughter has nothing but a sponge filter in her 10 gal tank, and had nothing but a sponge on her 2.5 gal when she just had her betta. The one you put up would work and you could put anything in it (even carbon if needed at some point)

Tested at 8am this morning. 2ppm/0/0. I'll give it another day or two before I make any changes. Honestly. I'm considering just trashing this entire tank and buying something much nicer. Maybe a Fluval Spec or whatever that really Mod looking one I see is. This Aqueon is trash. You can see in the s how scratched up it is after only 20Months. Sure it's in a kids room and she probably scratched it, but it's not like I leave her with sharp objects!

The 2.5 has quite a bit of scratches on it as well, and my kid doesn't have sharp objects either

 

Cycling stinks. I got readings that were weird when I was cycling my first planted tank. Good luck. I hope it turns around soon.

 

My wife and friends think I'm nuts. "It's a fish give it water it's fine" "Buy your daughter a fish you mental case"... but I've always said if you're going to have pets big or small, try and do what's best for them. Also the science aspect of this IS fun and educational. Every morning my kid comes and gets me and says we have to "see if the colors are right yet". She's going into kindergarten with a pretty good understanding of single celled organisms and bacterial colonies at least... Like I said I'm gonna give this a couple more days to see if anything at all is different. Any amount of change will make me happy if it's in a positive direction! Thanks for the chat guys I appreciate it and I'll be back to update.

And just cause I feel like it, RIP Philippe. And no, the stress of being surrounded by lego dragons didn't kill him, this photo was months ago. The other photo with the cave was just after we first got him.

 

So just got home. This is new... Any ideas as to what this white stuff on the plants and in the water column is?

 

At this point in time it does certainly look like you're well on your way to cycled. Your last picture shows the water a little milky which is a great sign. It should not be too much longer as your bacteria is in bloom and will settle down soon. One day out of the blue it will be really clear. I would also recommend the sponge filter. They are great and kids love cleaning them out all you do is take it out of the tank insert it into a bucket of old tank water and squeeze it out. When my little girl was smaller she use to do this sort of thing and loved it.

 

24 hours no change. I haven't dosed ammonia in a week. I'm at a bit of a loss.

 

If I'm not mistaken it does appear that you have Nitrates showing up but have way to much ammonia in the tank. Do a 50% water change daily until that gets lowered. Once you see it dropping you will start to see a nitrite spike. Then after a couple days or so you should start seeing you Nitrate levels really begin to increase. Also wish that level of ammonia it's quite toxic. So I'd suggest running some sort of activated charcoal inside your filter to help with the ammonia.

 

That's 2-3ppm ammonia by my eye. So I'm not sure why I'd want to lower it. There's no fish in the tank so who cares about how toxic it is?

 

What level did you dose the ammonia to when you added it?

 

2-3ppm

 

How do you feel about picking up a bottle of TSS+ off of Amazon?

 

I don't mind but I dumped in a bottle of Dr Tims 3 days ago... That should have done it no?

 

It should have, yes, but if the ammonia was too high, it could have killed everything. I'd do a 25% water change, add the water conditioner, wait a day and then add the TSS+ to the tank.

 

Weird, I'll try anything at this point. 2-3ppm seems like it should have been perfect though.

 

I think I know what I'm doing. I'm stopping at pet smart and buying the smallest HOB they have. I'm then taking my Dremel with a carbon fiber wheel and cutting the Aqueon tank cover till it fits properly. I'm going to take tin snips to carve out the plastic from the old filter as well so I don't make dust.

In addition I'm doing a 100 percent water change and putting in a fresh bottle of Dr. Tims that I will order directly from his website. That will solve my problem of having the worst filter I have ever seen and I won't need to replace the tank.

 

Let us know how that works for you.

 

All done. I'm a bit shocked how strong the filter is but I'm sure I can sock or baffle it when I'm ready to put a fish in.

Took all of 20 minutes to mod the tank to take the new filter. I stuck the biofoam from the old built-in into the media compartment so I don't lose what little progress was made.

I also did a 75 percent water change. I'll give it a day and do some more tests. Fingers crossed.

 

Filter is running for 24 hours. Tested and showing 1/0/4...maybe. Just added a bottle of TSS+ and will retest in the morning. If ammonia actually drops I will redose to 1ppm and test again in 12 hours regardless.