please help-stalled cycle, I think

[gale]

My ammonia has been at .5 for a week now. I have only been adding ammonia when it's .25 or below so I haven't added any in a while. Nitrites have always been zero due to adding bottled bacteria but nitrates were recently at around 10. I added a heater to the tank since it has cooled off recently. Any other ideas? I asked at a betta facebook group and was told bettas never need a cycled tank so now no one seems to want to help even though I read about people fishless cycling there every day. So anyway should I add more ammonia at this point? Maybe some people don't bother to cycle for bettas but we are.

So I just am not sure what to do next to get this going again. I'm about 30 days in and have added ammonia a few times. Ammonia levels have gone down within a few days up until now.

 

[gale]

ugh. Now someone at the group is telling me to put guppies or goldfish in the tank.

 

[Mrscmurray]

I feel like it might be a good idea to avoid this group with future questions, it doesn't sound like they have any fish's best interests at heart.

I am not familiar with stalled cycles so hopefully someone will be along soon to help

 

[**sarahp**]

I could be way off base here but I have read somewhere that the ph of the water changes after a while when doing a cycle and that can cause a crash. In fact I seem to remember it happening to me when I cycled my tank years ago.

I think the best thing is to do a large water change and then add enough ammonia to get it back up to 2 or 3 ppm and see if it disappears over a reasonable time frame and check for nitrites then.

 

[gale]

Thank you! I have not been checking ph (another suggestion at one of the fb betta groups) so I will be sure to do that tonight. The other suggestion was from one person and I argued with them (along with a few others who agreed with me) about why a betta needs a cycled tank just as much as any other fish but she wasn't having any of it. She owns a fish store so she knows better. Everyone else there that responded didn't suggest fish but no one really knew what to try. I think I have enough water for a 50-60% change and then I can get more on Monday (bad well water so I buy water in town).

 

[gale]

I could be way off base here but I have read somewhere that the ph of the water changes after a while when doing a cycle and that can cause a crash. In fact I seem to remember it happening to me when I cycled my tank years ago.

I think the best thing is to do a large water change and then add enough ammonia to get it back up to 2 or 3 ppm and see if it disappears over a reasonable time frame and check for nitrites then.

Well I think you're right. I checked my pH just now and it's down to 6.4. When I started it was around 7.2 to 7.4. I didn't have enough water on hand after all so I'll be getting some tomorrow and will replace at least half and see if that helps with the pH. If it keeps going down I might just get one of those bacteria laden sponge filters instead of doing all this.

ammonia hasn't moved at all. Nitrates are around 40-at least something is happening.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yup. Looks like a pH crash. Do a 90% water change to add some new inorganic carbon (needed for the bacteria, and the same stuff that keeps the pH up).

Then, bump the ammonia back up to 2ppm and wait 24 hours. You should see some nice movement by that time.