Is My Cycle Stalling?

[silicon]

Hi all,

I keep getting readings of 0.75-1ppm ammonia,
0.25 nitrite
5 - 10 nitrate, it has been like this for 4 weeks now and suddenly today the ammonia spiked to around 4ppm, water changes brought this back to 0.75 immediately,
PH - 7.2


I have 6 green tiger barbs, feeding fine, swimming fine, shoaling, etc.

I have a 20 Gallon tank,

Any advice as too what is happening in my tank would be absolutely great,

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

[WILDER]

The tanks till cycling.
Just want to make sure you are not touching the filter sponges or cleaning the gravel.
It cant take up to six weeks to cycle a tank with fish.
Looks like your cycle won't take much longer.

 

[silicon]

Oops, i cleaned the gravel tonight and did a 50% water change to bring the ammonia spike back down, will cleaning the gravel and this big water change have affected my cycle???

Thanks,
Mark

 

[WILDER]

Shouldn't touch the gravel till the ammonia and nitrite reading is 0 thats when the tanks cycled.
You need benefical bacteria in the gravel.
You need to do water changes so the fish don't suffer with the high ammonia and nitrite readings.
When I was learning was told that large water changes slowed the cycle down, but some say that isn't true.

What your tap nitrate reaing.

 

[silicon]

what happens to all the fishes waste then.... wont it just rot in the bottom of the tank and propagate the ammonia nitrite readins, should i clean 20% of gravel every time i do a water change? or?

Cheers,

Mark

 

[WILDER]

No don't touch the gravel till your ammonia and nitrite reading is 0.
Then you start to do gravel vacs.
You can remove uneaten food with a net.

 

[rdd1952]

I don't think enough bacteria colonize the substate that cleaning has an adverse effect on cycling unless you have an under gravel filter. Most of the bacteria are in the filter so cleaning the gravel should be fine just don't bother the filter unless the flow gets terrible slow in which case you can lightly swish it in old tank water to get the flow up again. The water changes are good as they will keep the levels low and contrary to popular belief won't slow the cycle (actually may speed it slightly). Your goal is to keep both ammonia and nitrite below .25 ppm until the cycle is complete and they both are zero.

How often are you feeding? I would cut back to once every other day until the cycle is complete. That will reduce the amount of ammonia and save you some water changes. An alternative to that would be to feed about 5 minutes before you do a water change and then vacuum up any uneaten food on the bottom. Did you do anything out of the normal that could have caused the spike? Are you sure all the fish are present and accounted for? A dead fish that misses detection and starts to decay can cause a spike.

 

[silicon]

i dont know what caused the spike, thats the thing, i added a load of new plants? but i didnt think that could help ammonia?

Oh and I inherited the fish tank and it came with a UGF and before i joined this site i had it all up and running so now i am stuck with it....... Any advise with this new info???
Thanks

Mark

 

[rdd1952]

Since you do have a UGF (pardon me if you said that in an earlier post and I missed it), then by all means hold off on any true gravel vacs. It is fine to simply hover the vac above the gravel to pick up trash and waste but don't get down into it. Just keep up the water changes. It's perfectly fine to do a couple larger ones to get the ammonia down to a lower level. You've already done one 50% change. You could still do another one about 3 or 4 hours later. that would in essence equal about a 75% WC. From there, do smaller ones as needed to keep the level at .25 ppm or lower.

 

[silicon]

I did about 75% water changers in total now, but the bloody ammonia just stays at 0.75 - 1 ppm?!??!?!?!? whats going on, p[lease help

 

[rdd1952]

If you are doing water changes and the ammonia isn't changing, then it sounds like your test kit is faulty OR you have ammonia in your tap water. Have you tested it?

 

[silicon]

Yes i Have tested the tap water and it shows at 0 ppm which leads me to suggest that the test kit is fine as it does detect other ranges and it picked up the 4ppm spike. It is an API master kit.

Am i not doing enough water changes? and would it harm if i left the gravel when cleaning to keep doing water changes with conditioned correct temp/ph water until the Ammonia comes under control?

I attach a picture of the tank......if this helps...

edit - cant attach pictures int he newbie area!

So no picture im afraid

 

[st24rsap]

Yes i Have tested the tap water and it shows at 0 ppm which leads me to suggest that the test kit is fine as it does detect other ranges and it picked up the 4ppm spike. It is an API master kit.

Am i not doing enough water changes? and would it harm if i left the gravel when cleaning to keep doing water changes with conditioned correct temp/ph water until the Ammonia comes under control?

I attach a picture of the tank......if this helps...

edit - cant attach pictures int he newbie area!

So no picture im afraid

im currently cycling my tank and dont vac the gravel, all i do is run the vac across the surface of the subtrate to pick up the majority of the fish waste

 

[rdd1952]

How large and often are you doing water changes? You should try to do them often enough to get the ammonia and nitrite down. But if you are still getting the same reading immediately after a water change, I'm not certain what is wrong. Obviously, if you have a reading of 1 ppm and do a 50% water change, you should end up with something around 50%. Definitely hold off on gravel vacs and just hover it above to suck up some waste without disturbing the gravel.

To attach a photo, you need to set up and account with a hosting site like Photobucket.com or Snapfish.com. Upload your photots there, copy the URL (ion Photobucket it is the Direct Link) and use the

button above to paste in your link.

 

[silicon]

So now i have done loads of water changes to try and bring the ammonia down and what little readings of nitrite i was getting have gone! I added dechlorinator but i think with my water changes i have killed any bacteria eating the ammonia and hence why the nitrite dropped,

Can this happen from water changes, and if so do i need to start over with the cycling process! I hope not Also, if this is the casde would a good dose of 'cycle' kick start things again provided i kept water changes to a minimum?


Cheers,
Mark