Fishy Cycle Status - Normal?

Any tanks smaller than 5 gallons really don't need to be cycled. It is hard to keep them stable...you could just do 100% water changes every week. Bettas and gouramis are about the only fish that can handle this much maintenance. If you don't want to do that, then...

You should not have a betta in a cycling tank...any nitrites or ammonia over 0ppm is harmful in the long run to your fish. Betta's long fins become torn easily.

You may be taking out too much water and removing too much ammonia. From my understanding, the ammonia must remain at 4-5ppm for a while before nitrites show up. (NO FISH CAN HANDLE THESE CONDITIONS!!!!) Nitrites come after ammonia (usually within a week or two). When you see a drop in ammonia, you'll see a rise in nitrites. This is when you need to watch out. Soon after, your nitrites will rapidly drop and go undetectable. When they are undetectable for 1+ days, then your cycling is complete. This is when you'll notice nitrates.

I highly recommend that you go buy some Bio-Spira for your tanks. It instantly cycles your tank (though you still should keep close watch on the water conditions for a week or so). If you don't do that, then at least take your betta out of the tank during the cycling!

Its been a while. But keep on wating. Every tank has to be cycled. It keeps them healthy, and if you dont do it, the fish will get sick. Can you get a hold of some Bio-Spira? If not maybe do a smaller change, and keep waiting.

Jess7 said:

I am on Day #11 in one tank (10g - 1 betta and 3 - ADF's) and Day#14 in a 2.5 w/ 1 betta. The ammonia has not gone over .5 (I've been changing the water almost every day) and I haven't seen a presence of Nitrites. Is this normal?

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the bio load is relatively light. chances are that by doing daily water changes you may not get that "spike" you are looking for and have the tank cycle.
The ammonia level is usually cause by decaying matter (waste, food, etc). When there is no measureable ammonia, the baterica in the tank is processing what ever is decaying. Add alot of new fish at once and you get a spike, over feed too much, you get a spike. the bio load will adjust itself but it takes time and can harm your fish. Hence the need for water changes helps control toxic chem and plus it's just plain good for your fish. if you have long term ammonia problems you are, ie overfeeding or too many fish, overloading the tank.

a properly cycled 10g tank should take about a month. Larger tanks take longer

It can take longer than a month! Fishey cycles take a while, because of how low the levels have to be. The tank will cycle even if the levels are so low. The two above posts are not true(except mone), for the most part. Sorry if this sounds mean, but its the only way to say it. And if there is another fish that will fit in a 10g, the the betta and ADF let me know.

ANY amonia is enough amonia to cycle the tank, if you know someone that has an established tank or can talk the LFS people into it, try and get a piece of their filter sponge or floss, or even a couple pieces of ceramic bio media that will get the bacteria in the tank so that they can start populating the filter.

Thats what I did with my 55g, I lightly stocked it at first threw in a couple pieces of used filter floss from my 75g and did daily 50% waterchanges. 3 days later I had detectable nitrAtes and never saw any readable amonia.

2.5's are hard to keep stable...its really not worth cycling. Trust me, its much less hassle to do large water changes/gravel vacs each week than try to cycle it with your poor fish.

beachbuum04 said:

2.5's are hard to keep stable...its really not worth cycling. Trust me, its much less hassle to do large water changes/gravel vacs each week than try to cycle it with your poor fish.

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well if you have a small filter and do waterchanges each week, it will still cycle eventually. But I would suggest doing heay waterchanges (1g) a day until you see nitrAtes. You're right I always do a fishless cycle or seed the filter so there basically is no cycle.