3 weeks into fishy cycle and no nitrites

[ClimbAZ527]

I don't know what is going on, but I'm 3 weeks into my fishy cycle and I have nitrites. The water has gotten cloudy a couple of times, but it clears up after a couple days. I'm still getting ammonia readings though. Can someone please help me?

[ClimbAZ527]

This is a correction; I have no nitrite readins at all.

[anonapersona]

How much ammonia?

Is this a new tank? Did you seed bacteria from any other tank or filter? How big a tank, how many fish? Have you vac'ed gravel or cleaned the filter?

[Matt W]

Do you have nitrAtes?

[ClimbAZ527]

This is a brand new tank that I started about a month ago. It's a 20G tank and I've got four fish in it. I have no nitrites at all, which I guess would explain why I have no nitrates either. I seeded it with that store bought bottle stuff from Proquatics.

[ClimbAZ527]

I changed filters once and I've been doing weekly water changes.

[tomm10]

I'm new to this too so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. I wouldn't change filters. Its my understanding that the beneficial bacteria that will break down your ammonia and nitrites prefer to live in your filter material. If you're changing your filters then you're just throwing away whatever bacteria have started to colonize and starting from the beginning (or close to it) again.

What is your ammonia reading? Is it high? Has it been climbing?

I'm not familiar with the product you said you seeded the tank with but most folks here will tell you that Bio-Spira is the only "bacteria in a bottle" product that works. The other option is to use material from an established tank like old filter material or gravel to seed your tank.

[BlueyKDX]

Just from my own experience, the cycling process can take a long time... especially if its a fishy cycle and you have to do water changes. My 20g long has just finished cycling... it took alittle over a month because my ammonia and nitrite spikes got so high I had to do daily water changes to keep them at tolerable levels. Although the water changes were keeping the fish safe, it was greatly slowing down the cycling process. Well now, ammonia is 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates 5; I'm so glad I'm through it though. I think you just have to keep testing that water and be patient. It's probably a combination of you changing the filter and the water changes (although yours or only once a week).