Cycling confusion

led_zeppelin

AC Members
May 8, 2005
339
0
0
SE Michigan
Ok guys i need some serious help. When i first started out my ten gallon tank(it has an underground filter system) I put this stuff called stress zyme in along with 1 platty. 1 week later i had stuck in another dosage of stress zyme. That night i went to the LFS and the guy said that stress zyme didnt work and to stick 1/3 bottle of a cycle in when i got home. I did. He said my tank should be good in 2 days. Wrong, it wasnt. Because of the high ammonia ( 4ppm ) I took my platty out and stuck it in a smaller 5 gallon tank and am doing 1.5 gallon water changes every day. Now last night i went up to a different LFS and was told to buy BIO-Spira and to add 1/2 of that when i got home and my tank would be fine the next day (today). My amonia level is at 4ppm and nothing has done a thing. Should i off changed water between the different chemicals or somthing? I am clueless as what to do now. Can somone please help!
 
I also have a 10g with a UGF and when I first started it I had 1 tetra and 1 scissortail rasborha to cycle it. I'm not sure how long it took to cycle, i believe about a month. I never placed any chemicals in the tank and everything went fine. This was about a year ago and those fish are doing fine
 
To start with, BIO-Spira is the only product that I've heard of that is proven effective, if it was stored properly both at the store and during shipping. The others introduce bacteria that will not survive in an aquarium. Bio-Spira is effective, but it is often not shipped or stored correctly, and has a limited shelf life even under those circumstances. I would guess your packet has gone bad.

Water changes will be your best friend. The ammonia should be kept below 1 ppm, so daily changes may be needed. The larger the colume of water in the tank, the better off 1-2 fish will be, simply because the increased water volume dilutes the wastes better.
 
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