I'm So Confused - Cycling 5 Gallon

[Slaphppy7]

Hard to say....regardless, if I were you, I'd do a WC to get it down to 1-2 PPM...no use in growing a huge colony (if the cycle doesn't stall) of BB that you don't need

 

[DragonFox91]

Yay! I got Nitrites. Appear to be at 1ish.

Ammonia at 4ish.

 

[Creation'sBest66]

My first betta I just let the tank sit overnight. He lasted a week, so I decided to try cycling

I let it sit for 3 weeks. Ammonia stayed at 2. Wasn't getting nitrites or nitrates. Supposedly ammonia needs to get up to least 4 before cycle starts. Was putting in a few fish food pellets every day.

Got impatient & put another betta fish in. Had her for 3 weeks. Lot of glass surfing. A couple days after I got her, finally got positive test for nitrites & nitrates. But Other than that one positive test for nitrites & nitrates, nothing. She finally appeared to be calming down w/ the glass surfing but got ick. Died a week later. Ammonia continued to test 2 all thru out. I got a 4 once & did water change.

I'm so confused.
Why after 3 weeks wasn't I getting nitrites or nitrates? It was 5-6 weeks, counting the time the fish was in.
Pellets seem to take a while to break down so this time I'm trying flakes. Do those work better?
I'm not cleaning/wiping everything down to get rid of the ick b/c I think it's the ammonia/uncycled tank that got to her. Is that okay or even in a cycled tank will the ick come back?
How do you cycle a 5 gallon tank & get ammonia high enough to start getting nitrites & nitrates?

It's so frustrating knowing it could be another month minimum before I can try another fish again.

What kind of water are you using?. I have 2 beta tanks no filters. Using spring water($1.00/gal @dollar Tree. I did not wait. I brought tank and betas same day. Set up the tank and put beta in within an hour of purchasing them. That was a month and a half ago. Change water once a week. Too much fuss over them and they croak on you. Feeding 2 times a day.

 

[DragonFox91]

What kind of water are you using?. I have 2 beta tanks no filters. Using spring water($1.00/gal @dollar Tree. I did not wait. I brought tank and betas same day. Set up the tank and put beta in within an hour of purchasing them. That was a month and a half ago. Change water once a week. Too much fuss over them and they croak on you. Feeding 2 times a day.

I use tap water I de-clorinate.

My friend did the same as you & his betta has been alive 2 months. He did use an established filter but says he cleaned it very, very well (b/c it was a school's filter, he says there were crayons & pennies in it), but brand new substrate & brand new decorations. He says no cycling needed for 5 gallon betta tanks & thinks I'm wasting my time trying to cycle. He says you're always going to test positive for some ammonia.

After my previous 2 betta's have died, I think it's just best to be patient till it's fully cycled.

 

[DragonFox91]

Day 5: ammonia still at 4

 

[Essjay]

I would do a water change to drop the ammonia to 2 ppm. You don't need 4 ppm, it will grow so many bacteria that most of them will die of starvation once there are fish in the tank so why bother wasting time growing them.

When I did a fishless cycle, it took 3 weeks for ammonia to drop and nitrite show up.

 

[DragonFox91]

I've done approximately 75% water changes 6/29 & 7/1, testing 4. Today I tested 4 still, then did a 50% water change.

Reason I'm confused is b/c I got a positive test for Nitrites 6/29 but have got zero every time I tested since.

 

[Essjay]

What is the highest ammonia level your tester can read?
When a level is more than a tester can measure, it reads as the highest colour on the chart. So if your tester measures a max of 4, it could be anything over that which could be why the water changes still show that level.

 

[DragonFox91]

It's API so max is 8.

I just tested 3 for ammonia.
0 nitrite.

 

[DragonFox91]

Did giant (90%ish) water change. Ammonia down to 2. Nitrite .25

I think the problem was in addition to a dose of pure ammonia, I put in fish food & that was keeping ammonia high. I had a lot of rotting fish food in the gravel & tried to remove a lot of that just now. That may've been suppressing the Nitrite somehow. Maybe trying to clean out the gravel some disturbed the Nitrite from being buried under the gravel to floating in the water? Who knows.

 

[DragonFox91]

Tested a nice shade of purple for Nitrite yesterday but nothing today. Ammonia still 2. No Nitrate. What happened to my Nitrites

 

[DragonFox91]