cycling, ammonia high all the time?

[Ray445]

I am new to aquariums I have had my 50 gallon tank set up for 10 weeks and it is cycled just fine. But I have done a ton of research and the biggest mistake people make , as I did , is thinking that the ammonia reading they get from a test kit is the real toxic ammonia. It is reading both the NH3 and the NH4 free ammonia is the nh3 and that is what is toxic. You can get a test kit from seachem that measures them seperatly or you can get a chart called Un-ionized ammonia ( nh3) factor chart. You measure you ph and then measure your ammonia with a standard kit then look on the chart for your ph combined with your water temp and that will give you the actual ammonia reading. For example my ammonia measured about 1.0 ppm my ph is 7.2 and my temp is 80. When I multiply my ppm by the factor on the chart I actually get a true reading of about.006 ammonia ppm....Hope that helps and -please pass the info on to others.....

 

[discuspaul]

The ammonia is going up so fast because 6 tiger barbs in a 20 gallon tank is alot when it's uncycled (varies by size of the fish). Generally you want to start with a lighter fish load when doing a "fish in" cycle, to keep the ammonia & nitrite levels from becoming too dangerous too fast for the fish you're cycling with.

As was mentioned, increase the size of your water changes to around 50%, and use Prime or another reputable "detoxifier" to neutralize the negative effects of the ammonia & nitrite on your fish. Even better, if you have another cycled tank to keep some of your tiger barbs in, move a few out, and cycle with a few less tiger barbs, while still doing the large water changes and using prime. This will help keep the level of toxicity down for the remaining fish you cycle with.

I agree with genie as above, & bitbot.
In many areas, tap water will contain 5ppm to 10ppm nitrates.
Your addition of squeezed water from an established/seeded filter medium can help somewhat. Also, you could try Seachem Stability which should help hasten the process. (If you do, hopefully the product you get hasn't exhausted it's shelf life, and be sure to follow the directions precisely - don't alter anything).
One more thing - Check your pH out of the tap and in your tank - if it's above 7.0, up to 8.0 - good - that will speed up the cycle by as much as 2 weeks. If it's under 7.0, this will tend to slow up, even stall the cycle - in this case, add some bicarbonate of soda to raise the pH above 7.0.
Hope this helps you.