cycling a tank, ammonia question

[thatsbetta]

hello!
I have cycled a 5.5 before a few years ago, but i have gotten rusty since then! HA

i have a nice 10 gallon tank with a sponge filter and heater. it has two bettas in it right now. I am cycling it with my two bettas. Everything is going smoothly, this is day six. I test my water three times a day, and two of those times my ammonia is at .25
whenever my ammonia is at or slightly above .25 i do a 2 gallon water change.
sometimes i have to do a water change twice a day! i am thinking that i am not letting my ammonia get high enough and this cycle will take a long time.
i bought some ammo lock (ammonia detox) but i havent put it in the tank. i was thinking that it would help the chances of my fish undergoing any damage. i have heard that ammo lock will mess with your test results and is a waste of time.

my questions are:
am i doing too many water changes?
if so how high should the ammonia be before i do a water change?
should i put my ammonia lock in?
i have another betta i am wanting to put in the tank.. when can i put him in?

thanks for any help!

ps. yes this tank is divided

 

[SirWired]

hello!
I have cycled a 5.5 before a few years ago, but i have gotten rusty since then! HA

i have a nice 10 gallon tank with a sponge filter and heater. it has two bettas in it right now. I am cycling it with my two bettas. Everything is going smoothly, this is day six. I test my water three times a day, and two of those times my ammonia is at .25
whenever my ammonia is at or slightly above .25 i do a 2 gallon water change.
sometimes i have to do a water change twice a day! i am thinking that i am not letting my ammonia get high enough and this cycle will take a long time.
i bought some ammo lock (ammonia detox) but i havent put it in the tank. i was thinking that it would help the chances of my fish undergoing any damage. i have heard that ammo lock will mess with your test results and is a waste of time.

my questions are:
am i doing too many water changes?
if so how high should the ammonia be before i do a water change?
should i put my ammonia lock in?
i have another betta i am wanting to put in the tank.. when can i put him in?

thanks for any help!

ps. yes this tank is divided

You are currently doing the right thing for a fishy cycle. It is true that your cycle is going to take a long time, but keeping it low is really the best for the fish and will help them have a long life. Perhaps you could let it rise to 0.5ppm, but certainly no higher. Maybe the other members here could back me up, but I think that should be okay for a Betta.

Don't use the AmmoLock. Stuff like that is only to be used in extreme emergencies when you cannot do the "gold standard" of Ammonia reduction, which is of course a water change.

You really can't add any more bio-load to the tank until it cycles. (ZERO Ammonia AND ZERO NitrItes). That would just increase the frequency you would have to do changes.

SirWired

 

[thatsbetta]

thank you for your help.
i have cycled a 5.5 with a betta and snail very quickly and both are still alive over a year later.
if i recall correctly i did the same thing then, and i only had ammonia for a week and a half, and nitrite for just a week or a little less.
i am pretty sure i cant get that lucky twice! HA, maybe so! I remember having a couple of crazy spikes in the 5.5 where i had to do a 70 % WC.

this is only day 6 or so of cycling my 10 gal. so i am sure i will shouldn't be spiking just yet, but i did on my last tank. I suppose a lot on the time it takes to cycle depends on lots of different things.