4 weeks.. ammonia.. and STILL no nitrites??

[grneyesct]

I have had my 40 gal up and running with fish for 4 weeks now.. my ammonia levels are and have been at 2.0 - for the past 2 weeks. I did do a 10% water change a week ago, but did not clean the gravel. After 4 weeks I still have yet to see Nitrites or nitrates??

My fish:
1 small Bala shark
2 platies
6 sm tin foil barbs.

everyone appears happy and healthy.. eating and swimming well =)

What the heck is going on?? I thought that it took 4 weeks to cycle?? And that I would have at least seen some sign of Nitrites by now..

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
~ Dana ~

 

[Magnolia_360]

Maybe you added to many fish at once or something and it shot the ammonia up. HTH

 

[grneyesct]

hmm dont think so .. the same fish have been in there since day 1?? I really didnt think a tank would take this long to show some signs of nitrites. thanks for replying tho =)

 

[thecichlidaddict]

You are sure that your test kit is a recent product? They do have a shelf life and can test faulty if it's old.

You arent' using a product called amquel to treat your water are you? If so that can give false readings as well.

Did you ever seed your tank with existing bacteria? If not that can speed up your cycle. Add filter floss from an established filter into your own as an effective way to do this.

 

[LoveMyOscar]

 

[grneyesct]

I checked the date on my test kits .. they're fine. I didnt use anything to treat the tank... I plan on making a trip to my LFS tomorrow to see about getting some substrate to seed my tank with. We'll see cus.. my ammonia appears to have dropped to 1.0 as of this morning so hopefully (keeping my fingers crossed) things are finally starting to change.

In the future.. and on my next tank I do plan on using the fishless cycle. I wish I had known one existed when I started this tank.

Thanks for the advice and I'll keep you al posted

~ Dana ~