Tank WILL NOT complete cycle

JayLB

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Newfoundland, Canada
Ammonia around 1.0
Nitrite around .25
Nitrate 5.0
PH is 7.0
Temp is 80
20 gallons
Fishless

Just completed 50% water change prior to this test, only difference was nitrite was maybe closer to .25 than it is now.

Water has been at these parameters for literally WEEKS.
HELP ME COMPLETE CYCLE TO ADD MY FISH
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Picture of tank? Do you have live plants? What products, if any; are you using to add ammonia to the water.
 
What plan have you been following to cycle the tank? Can you do a quick rundown of your process from start to now incl products used, water changes, parameter readings at the start and each week etc
 
The fact you have some nitrite means there is some bacteria converting the ammonia into nitrite.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the ammonia and nitrite have gone up and come back down to 0ppm. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

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After 7 weeks, I would buy some live plants or a bottle of filter bacteria supplement. Drain the tank and refill it with dechlorinated water. Wait a few days and add some fish. Keep the feeding down for a few weeks, and monitor ammonia and nitrite levels for a few weeks.

If you add a liquid filter bacteria supplement, add a double dose every day for a week (when you have fish in there). Then pour the remaining contents into the tank. Try to add the supplement near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.
 
Picture of tank? Do you have live plants? What products, if any; are you using to add ammonia to the water.
I had fish in initially but they are out. No live plants. I used seachem prime and stability, I didn’t add any artificial ammonia.
 

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The fact you have some nitrite means there is some bacteria converting the ammonia into nitrite.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the ammonia and nitrite have gone up and come back down to 0ppm. Nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

------------------
After 7 weeks, I would buy some live plants or a bottle of filter bacteria supplement. Drain the tank and refill it with dechlorinated water. Wait a few days and add some fish. Keep the feeding down for a few weeks, and monitor ammonia and nitrite levels for a few weeks.

If you add a liquid filter bacteria supplement, add a double dose every day for a week (when you have fish in there). Then pour the remaining contents into the tank. Try to add the supplement near the filter intake so it gets drawn into the filter where it belongs.
Oddly I’ve done this, and used seachem stability.
I have fritz turbo start and zyme7 coming soon. Hoping that will help.
 
What plan have you been following to cycle the tank? Can you do a quick rundown of your process from start to now incl products used, water changes, parameter readings at the start and each week etc
So the tank is probably like 3 mos active and running. I waited about a week before adding fish, but I used prime and stability during that time and was “feeding” my tank. After I added fish. But I lost 3 fish. So I immediately took them out and put them in a smaller tank where I do daily water change, until I could fully cycle the big tank.

So it’s been Fishless for like 5 weeks now, I have been feeding the tank, doing weekly water changes of at least 30%. Adding prime and stability and a ph neutralizer as recommended on labels.

Parameters have been basically where they are now for 4 weeks ish.
 
The question is always cause and effect. Were the fish you lost straight from the store, and lost as a result of that? Or was it the new cycle...

Ask the store, and they'll always say it's the cycle.
 
I had fish in initially but they are out. No live plants. I used seachem prime and stability, I didn’t add any artificial ammonia.
If you don't add a source of ammonia, the filters won't develop the beneficial bacteria.

I would just do a fish in cycle. Stuff waiting another x number of weeks.

Drain the tank, refill it with dechlorinated water and live plants. Wait a few days and add a few fish. Let it run for a month and see how the ammonia and nitrite levels go.
 
Sometimes I wonder if people are reading the cyking info on this site. For the most part, the fishless cycling article here is fool proof when followed to the letter. And then I keep coming across threads where people seem not to have done the reading.

So here is your problem. The nitrifying bacteria that colonize tanks longer term, and which we want to do so during the cycle, reproduce by dividing. They do this whent there is more ammonia or nitrite than they need. The one thing they do not do is to form spore. Read what is in the bottle of Stability and then tell me why this is what anybody would use to cycle a tank? SeaChen knows better, but they "must" compete on all products, This is not limited to them. They almost all do it.

Next, the bacteria that handle nitrite (and apparently can process ammonia right to nitrate) as well as the means to test for them and to use them to cyce are patented. So only two companys can sell them. Other products will not contain Nitrospira. So if you want to jumpt start a cycle use one of three things: Dr. Tim's One and Only or Tetra's SafeStar+. The patent is shared by these two outfits.

Next, water changes and dechlors which contain something to detoxify ammonia will slow a cycle. The bacferia want NH3 (ammonia) but the detoxifiers convert it the NH4 (ammonium). The bacteria can use this but much less efficiently. The ideal situation in a fishless cycle is to use a dechlor that does not detoxify ammonia.

Finally, the max amount of ammonia or nitrite one should ever have without it stalling a cycle are follows:
Ammonia: if your test kit use the nitrogen scale, 5 ppm; if is uses the total ion scale, 6.25ppm.
Nitrite: if your test kit use the nitrogen scale, 5 ppm; if is uses the total ion scale, 16.4tppm. Most total ion tests dio not read this high, so you will have to do diluted testing.

Neither of the above stall points can happen in a tank which follow the fishless cycling article here to the letter. You should not chnage it, you should not think you can do better another way, you should just foloowing your test results and when the readings are as suggested, act.

Finally when you say "feeding" the tank, what does that mean- steak and potato, dead fish, a piece of shrimp, ammonia?????? The thing that controls the cycle is ammonia- so, how much one adds and when are the main determinants of how fast or slow any cycle might progress or if it will stall.
 
Three main issues I see:

1) Initially tried to do a fish in cycle, but doesn't sound like you were doing the daily water testing and water changes required to keep fish safe from the build up of ammonia & nitrite.

2) When doing the fishless cycle, you were still adding prime (which detoxifies ammonia so the bacteria can't feed off it and grow their colony) and also doing water changes which was again taking out the ammonia and nitrite that the bacteria needed in there to be feeding on. Prime & water changes are to protect the fish from dangerous levels of ammonia & nitrite, but when doing a fishless cycle you need those in the tank.
3) It doesn't sound like you have been adding a proper ammonia source to the tank to feed the bacteria colonies and encourage their growth.

You're now probably best to do a fish in cycle, as you already have the fish and they aren't in a cycled tank anyway so would do better in the larger tank. BUT you need to read this article (especially the fish in cycle one, but the fishless cycle article would also be a good one to read for understanding of the system), and be prepared to do daily water testing and water changes:

Follow the process in the article, and you'll get there :)
 
If you don't add a source of ammonia, the filters won't develop the beneficial bacteria.

I would just do a fish in cycle. Stuff waiting another x number of weeks.

Drain the tank, refill it with dechlorinated water and live plants. Wait a few days and add a few fish. Let it run for a month and see how the ammonia and nitrite levels go.
I just added a liquid ammonia source.
 
The question is always cause and effect. Were the fish you lost straight from the store, and lost as a result of that? Or was it the new cycle...

Ask the store, and they'll always say it's the cycle.
Who knows. Of course they say it was the cycle.
 

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