Tank going another cycle?

Please help! I think my once fully cycled tank isn't very cycled anymore (if that makes sense) and I'm scared my betta might get sick or die. I've noticed ammonia levels slowly rising over the past week despite daily water changes to get them back down, and somehow my nitrates are all gone at 0ppm. My ammonia is sitting at around 2ppm so I've added ammo lock to the tank to hopefully make it safe, any suggestions on what to do so that my fish doesn't get sick?

 

Use a product like Prime or Ammolock to temporarily detox the ammonia. Keep up on water changes. He should be fine if you're monitoring the levels and doing something like this. Also consider adding a good bacteria product like Tetra Safestart to boost the cycle progress.

Did you do something to mess with the cycle? Clean the filter too much (or in tap water) or change out the substrate?

 

Use a product like Prime or Ammolock to temporarily detox the ammonia. Keep up on water changes. He should be fine if you're monitoring the levels and doing something like this. Also consider adding a good bacteria product like Tetra Safestart to boost the cycle progress.

Did you do something to mess with the cycle? Clean the filter too much (or in tap water) or change out the substrate?

I thought my fish had fin rot, so I did daily water changes and was adding aquarium salt, along with swishing the filter in old tank water once a week. It was probably overkill because I was paranoid, but I think it's where I went wrong and screwed up the cycle.

 

I'd personally try to get my hands on some seachem prime. Ammolock does work, and will hold ammonia in emergency and is fine if you have more ammonia than you usually would (i.e dropping extra food in tank/ lost dead fish). But it is no good, in my experience, to grow bacteria back. It holds ammonia in such a way bacteria cannot eat it and therefore cannot use it to reproduce. While prime binds ammonia in such a way that it cannot be absorbed by the fish, but can still be eaten by the bacteria allowing it to reproduce and grow back.

 

I'd personally try to get my hands on some seachem prime. Ammolock does work, and will hold ammonia in emergency and is fine if you have more ammonia than you usually would (i.e dropping extra food in tank/ lost dead fish). But it is no good, in my experience, to grow bacteria back. It holds ammonia in such a way bacteria cannot eat it and therefore cannot use it to reproduce. While prime binds ammonia in such a way that it cannot be absorbed by the fish, but can still be eaten by the bacteria allowing it to reproduce and grow back.

Thank you that's really good to know, how often should I change the water and dose with prime? Every 24 hours?

 

Yes, every 24hours for 1pm ammonia until cycled. You can dose for up to 5ppm safely in an emergency. But its just easier If you go over 1ppm to go ahead and do a water change to get it back to 1ppm and dose as normal. You can dose prime every day until your weekly water change but the water will smell like prime (sulphur) so two water changes a week will keep things smelling good, and your fish will of course appreciate it.