Cycling problems

J

jcaulley

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Mar 11, 2004
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I have had my aquarium set up for 2 weeks now, today is day 14. My ammonia doesn't appear to be dropping off. It is at 1.2 ppm and has been for more than a week. It is not going up or down. My nitrites are between .8 and 1.6 ppm and my nitrates are around 50 ppm. None of these values have changed in the last 5 - 8 days. Ammonia is the longest. Is this normal or should it have started dropping off by now.

75 Gallon
30 lbs. dead rock
80 AragAlive Fiji Pink Sand
Aquaclear Pro 150 Wet/Dry Filter w/protein skimmer
6 Green Chromis
2 Yellow tail Dammsels
 
Any seed material? Live rock, sand from a healthy tank? If not, then the cycling process will take quite a while. Keep monitoring it and do water changes to prevent the ammonia from exceeding 1 ppm. These changes won't extend the cycling time, since the bacteria will still have ample food--you'll just be sparing the fish some gill burns.
 
I don't have any live rock or sand. I was thinking about ordering some Live sand activator from IPSF. Do you think I should or just hold off?
 
I would order some. The problem is that you want to add only a small portion, to introduce the bacteria, but without adding the critters that will not tolerate the cycling toxins. A small chunk of live rockis usually adequate to the purpose--you ideally want one that does not have lots of encrusting organisms, just a bit of algae maybe and the bacteria.
 
God help those damsels, I really don't like cycling with fish. However if you have nitrite rising you should be seeing ammonia go down. I'd go and buy 10 pounds of good cured live rock from my lfs as soon as is possible to give it a 'bacteria transplant'. I'd also start to wonder about my test kits...
 
Do not add the Live sand activator from IPSF before the cycle is done. You will kill the pods you are paying for.

I would check the test kits and are you feeding the tank?

Personally I would remove the fish and take them back to the LFS. they shouls not be in there yet, and will be injured by the cycle.


Ray
 
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