[a123andpoof]

Okay I am having trouble with the cycle on my 10g. I started cycling like the first week of Feb. Added the ammonia, then watched the NI one day checked and they were in the light purple checked a few days later it was blue again. Could it have spiked? I think it did as when I checked again the NA was up 1 color from .5. Checked again today and its back at .5. That is normal for my other cycled 10g. Ammonia is still at like 2.0. Could it have finished cycling? I wish I would have monitored a bit better but some of my liquids are running low and I don't have the money to restock so I have been watching it and trying not to over test. Though I think I under tested. I did do a water change once I noticed a change in the NA, and a few days later it was back or still at .5. Not sure what to do. I am thinking it may be done minus the extreme ammonia, but was hoping someone else may be able to shed some light and tell me their opinion and if once I get the ammonia down it would be safe to add fish.

 

[Bombalurina]

Typically a cycled tank will have no ammonia or nitrates and nitrates anywhere from 10 to 40...I don't there is enough nitrate present in your tank for it to be cycled. The ammonia also suggests that it isn't.

 

[a123andpoof]

Okay, then what were the slight rise in Nitrates and Nitrites that I saw? And why is it taking so long? I added water, rocks, and swished the filter in some of my established ten gallons water. What is going on and why is then nothing happening? I do not understand what I am doing wrong. I added ammonia and it has been stable for the last month and a half. Maybe I am being impatient but my first tank did not take this long.

 

[Bombalurina]

Can you borrow any filter media and/or substrate from your established tank? I'm not sure what's going wrong, but that should inject a whole bunch of good bacteria (your filter wouldn't have got much from the water) into the tank.

 

[a123andpoof]

I added a good handful of rocks from my other tank maybe 2 weeks ago. But it seems like by now it should have done something with or without the rocks.

 

[Bombalurina]

It does rather...what level have you been keeping the ammonia at? All I can think is maybe there was too much or not enough...

 

[LittleBettaFish]

You need the gunk off the established filter media to properly kick-start a cycle if you don't want to remove any of the actual media.

Rocks and decorations hardly contain any beneficial bacteria at all as the filter is essentially the source of oxygenation in your tank and where the lion's share of bacteria colonises.

Can I ask what your pH is? Sometimes cycling can cause your pH to crash, which in turn stalls the processing of ammonia. I know, I've been there, done that and own the tee-shirt.

If that's not the case, it sounds like it might be a problem with how much ammonia you have been adding in. What levels did you allow your ammonia to initially read as? Have you been continually adding new ammonia, or just waiting for it to be processed by the developing bacteria? I believe ideally, you should be aiming for your tank to process 4ppm of ammonia in 24 hours. However, don't quote me on that.

 

[a123andpoof]

It's staying at a steady 2 -4 ppm. I haven't added ammonia in probably 2 weeks. I intially put in about 4ppm and kept it there for like 2-3 weeks, and then when i thought I saw Nitrites let it get lower to about 2ppm and it has stayed there. I will check my pH and see whats up with that. Usually it is around 7 something I think. I rarely check the pH.

 

[a123andpoof]

my Ph is around 7.6 but I think it's a little higher.