Stalled cycle

[Crissi]

Hello all! I am new to the site and just wanted to first say hi!

I have had my tank up and going now for 13 days. Unfortunately, I am not doing the fishless cycling because the clerk at the LFS said there was no way to cycle without fish. (I really wish I had found this site before then!) But I digress. I seem to be stalled at the ammonia spike. I have a really great testing kit and my ammonia readings are at 2 ppm. My nitrite readings are at .5 ppm and they have both been like this for 4 days now. What did I do wrong? Is there something I can do to push past this wall I seem to have hit?

As for my tank it is a 55 gallon bow front tank. I have it set up for freshwater and currently have 5 black skirt tetras, 1 dwarf gourami and 1 rainbow shark. I am really feeling badly for these fish and thinking about taking them back to the store if I can't get the cycling to move on.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You need to do more water changes with dechlorinator(i suggest you do a 40% now followed by a 30% one every 2days), 2ppm ammonia is lethal to any of your fish- cycling with fish can take months to complete im afraid.

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

Phoenix is right. You should deffinitley be doing water changes when your ammonia and nitrite levels get too high. It will take several weeks for the tanks to be properly cycled and until then the ammonia and nitrite levels will be continually high and you will have to do water changes when tixin conditions are stressful.

Unfortunatly some of you fish may die. Rainbow sharks are very sensitive and not a good fish to cycle with. Should the shark die do not get discouraged and stop mid cycle as many people do. If you see the cycle through and do proper water changes everything will be good.

Remember that no matter what advice you get from an lfs it is always good to get a second opinion and do more research.

Peace.

 

[Crissi]

I'm sorry, I should have added that to my initial post. I have been doing 30% water changes everyday.

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

Then your doin good, just keep up the good work and keep those toxin levels down. 3 weeks and your cycle should be completed.

 

[tdiii]

Get to work and find somebody you know with an established tank (maybe even your LFS) then ask them if you can have a chunk of there filter media or a sock full of their gravel.

I just started cycling a 33 gallon tank with a couple of danios two dwarf gouramis and a big chunk my neighbors foam filter media. It has been 7 days now and my ammonia and nitrites are at zero. Hopefully it will stay that way.

 

[rdd1952]

I'm sorry, I should have added that to my initial post. I have been doing 30% water changes everyday.

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With your ammonia at 2 ppm, I would step up the water changes to 40 or even 50 percent daily as long as there isn't some major difference in the pH of your tank water and that from the tap. You really need to get it to .5 ppm as a maximum until it finally cycles. If you are doing 30% daily, the ammonia should be lower than 2 ppm. Have you checked your tap water to make sure there isn't ammonia in it.

 

[Crissi]

Thanks for all of your help! I went to my aunt's house who has an established tank and got a handful of rock and have put it in a stocking draped over the side of the tank! (I hope I did that right.)

I also did several water changes this morning as well as last night and have got my ammonia level down to the .5 mark so now I am gonna hold my breath, keep doing those water changes and hope everything takes hold and does well. Thanks again for all of the help everyone!