Am i doing something wrong?

When I cycled my 29Gal, I pulled a piece of granite from my son's gold fish tank that had been sitting there for a little under a week; I am not sure if this helped to jumpstart my cycle or not.

Reading this post however has gotten me to thinking if temprature may also play an important part in establishing a bacteria colony because during that time I mistakenly kept my temprature between 84F-86F and cycled in less than five weeks. It's been a long time since biology class but does'nt bacteria do better at warmer tempratures?
 
Caspar said:
When I cycled my 29Gal, I pulled a piece of granite from my son's gold fish tank that had been sitting there for a little under a week; I am not sure if this helped to jumpstart my cycle or not.

Reading this post however has gotten me to thinking if temprature may also play an important part in establishing a bacteria colony because during that time I mistakenly kept my temprature between 84F-86F and cycled in less than five weeks. It's been a long time since biology class but does'nt bacteria do better at warmer tempratures?
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I've kept my temp between 76 and 80 degrees. Did you do a fish-in or a fishless cycle?

I looked into Bio-Spira, but overnight shipping on that stuff seems like it will be pretty pricey, and there is no where close to me that carries it. The only pet stores close to me are Petco and Petsmart, has anyone ever gotten filter media from these places, and if they do give it to customers, would you trust their water?
 
AndrewM6097 said:
I've kept my temp between 76 and 80 degrees. Did you do a fish-in or a fishless cycle?

I looked into Bio-Spira, but overnight shipping on that stuff seems like it will be pretty pricey, and there is no where close to me that carries it. The only pet stores close to me are Petco and Petsmart, has anyone ever gotten filter media from these places, and if they do give it to customers, would you trust their water?
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I would'nt use anything from petco or petsmart. You could introduce diseases to your tank. If I were you I would take the Danio back and do a fishless cycle. Dose pure ammonia (no Scents,no cleaners,no surfactants) to 3-5 ppm Initially. Check the ammonia level religiously (daily)and keep the level at 3-4ppm. Once you get NitrItes keep dosing ammonia but only to 2-3ppm (keep it there,Don't let it get below 2ppm). Your nitrItes will get very high, then finally you will test and all your NitrItes will have dissapeared. Test for NitrAtes, do a large water change to get the NitrAtes down under 40 ppm. and stock your fish immediatly.
 
i bought the danio at petsmart, do you think they will take them back? because its already been 2 months
 
Just be patient...

you have ammonia..the bacteria will consume the ammonia..you need nitrites for the next level to occur.

keep the ammonia at<.25 if you can. do changes daily if need be.

you have a small bio-load and it will take a bit more time for the next phase to kick in.
you should start seeing nitrites soon.

when did ammonia start showing?
with the small bio-load the ammonia was probably late in showing.


hang in there. it may take time ..there is no set time for the cycle to occur.

I had a stalled cycle on my 75..I actually used stability by seachem..it kicked the cycle a bit..or it kicked by itself. no real way to determine this.all I know is I added it and two days later the nitrites turned to nitrates.
but the nitrites hung in there for about 4 weeks before I added stability.
 
AndrewM6097 said:
I've kept my temp between 76 and 80 degrees. Did you do a fish-in or a fishless cycle?

I looked into Bio-Spira, but overnight shipping on that stuff seems like it will be pretty pricey, and there is no where close to me that carries it. The only pet stores close to me are Petco and Petsmart, has anyone ever gotten filter media from these places, and if they do give it to customers, would you trust their water?
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I did a fish-in cycle that started out with 3 swordtails. Once I got past the Nitrites and everything (with exception of Nitrates) remained at zero I introduced a school of six Lemon tetras and continued to stock every week after that. The only thing that I can think of that may have helped my cycle is the granite and/or the temp.

Some where along the way I got lucky and it just happened. I really do wonder though if the temp may have had something to do with it.:huh:
 
2 months and you still have ammonia and not even nitrites yet?? Yeah you are doing something wrong , lol. I didn't realize it had been so long.

You are treating the water before the water changes right? Try raising the temp also , that was a good idea by Caspar.

I would spend the money for the Bio-spira also, yes it's expensive with 2 day shipping, but I'd rather spend 30 bucks than have to do water changes every single day for 2 months.
 
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If you know soemone else who has an established tank, put a galon or two of their dirty but acceptable water in your tank as clean water when you change water. Also, take some of your gravel out if you can, and wrap it in a cheeze cloth. Drop that wrap in your freinds tank, and let it sit for about a week. Then add it back to your tank. You will be amazed at how fast that will kickstart your cycle. Use bio-spira too. Or you can just go ahead and add all your fish that you want, and change your water 50% every three hours.... lol jk..... its worked before though.... but ya... dont try that... thats like playing with fire... and im sure the fish would HATE you.
 
BucJason said:
2 months and you still have ammonia and not even nitrites yet?? Yeah you are doing something wrong , lol. I didn't realize it had been so long.

You are treating the water before the water changes right? Try raising the temp also , that was a good idea by Caspar.

I would spend the money for the Bio-spira also, yes it's expensive with 2 day shipping, but I'd rather spend 30 bucks than have to do water changes every single day for 2 months.
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Yes i am treating water BEFORE adding it to the tank. I'm using aquasafe, but soon will be switching to prime. I just can figure out what im doing wrong....temps have been kept stable not going lower than 76, filter is working fine, ive been keeping up with my water changes. Ive been testing everyday and havent seen ANY nitrites. I did find a couple places about an hour away that carry bio-spira so i guess i'll just bite the bullet and buy some. thank you for everyones help, you guys are great. And keep the responses coming!
 
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