How Iv had fish for 4 weeks and havent cycled!!!

[rusty-nail-z]

Hey everyone
I made the typical noob mistake of goin in to petsmart buyin my 29g and running it for 2 days, and thinkin/being told it was all good...4 weeks later, i have 11 fish (inclluding 2 dwarf frogs) and i havent cycled. My ammonia is always at the high end of the liquid test charts, and today is the first time ive seen any color in my test strips for nitrite and nitrate. (nitite .5-.1 nitrate 5-15) ppm. This is a day after a good 20% water change. Im just wondering if theres anything I can do toher than wait it out. No fish have died, recently changed the carbon in my powerfilter... I have medicated the tank with ammo block and stress zyme bout two weeks ago just to be safe. Any comment or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[LittlePuff]

Keep doin' water changes and wait it out. Unless you want to hunt up some Bio-Spira. The others won't cycle a tank. Sounds like it's all normal.

[Rbishop]

Stop the ammo block. Use Prime as your water conditioner. Do a 40% water change whenever ammonia or nitrites indicate .25 or higher.

[rusty-nail-z]

ok no ammo block, wasnt gonna do that anymore anyway, im assuming prime for my replacement water is a dechlorinator, been doin that. As for ammonia, its high everyday... should I change my water everyday??

[Weezer]

Get a liquid kit, it will be alot easier to tell what's going on, it look's like your cycle has started, keep up the pwc's and watch for a NITRITE spike. You may have to test and do pwc's several time's a day....
:hi:

[didy]

im assuming prime for my replacement water is a dechlorinator, been doin that.


Prime doesn't just dechlorinate. It also converts your ammonia and nitrite to less toxic form, without removing it, so it won't hurt your cycle like the ammo block.

[rusty-nail-z]

cool, thanx for the help guys, i just bought some prime, im gonna treat the whole tank volume, i have a question though.....How is the prime going to affect my test readings,cuz i still need to know what the levels are at...

[rusty-nail-z]

One more quick question, do I need to remove my carbon media in my power filter for Prime to work??

[LittlePuff]

No.

[gingerinaustin]

According to the Prime website, Prime won't affect your test readings except for the total ammonia test. The use of Prime can result in a 'false positive' on most ammonia test kits; although the ammonia is in your tank, it's sequestered by the Prime, rendering it harmless to your fish. Prime dissipates from the tank 24-48 hours after you add it, after which time your total ammonia result should be unaffected.