Cycle is a total waste of money. BioSpira is the only product that supposedly speeds up the cycle process that is recommended on this forum.
help needed for a dummie
- Thread starter coyoteman
- Start date
I even don't trust Biospira - it didn't do squat when I was fishless cycling my 20 g. I used two pouches from two different stores, just to make sure it wasn't a bum pouch, but no dice 
How many and what kind of fish do you currently have in the tank. It helps to know if you are overstocked or well understocked to see how bad you need to panic on the cycling process. If you have a 55 gallon and only 10 small fish in it there is not as big a need to panic because the ammonia levels are not going to climb very quickly. If you have 10 oscars then there is a need for more concern.
Assuming most of your fish are in the 1-3 inch range since they are new, the bio-load is probably not as bad as it would be if you had adult fish or if you had bought 1 inch for every gallon of fish to start. Watch your nitrite readings and you should be OK. I would not think the ammonia is going to get very bad with the quantity of fish you have unless you overfeed.
All these 50% water changes are getting hard on a guy. Any tonight the nitrites again were high so i did a change. i tested the water after the change and the nitrites are still high? i even borrowed the pet stores nitrite kit to confirm mine was accurate. Should they not of went down after a change?
Does your tap water have nitrites in it perchance? Also, you are safe doing back to back 50% water changes, so that can help when numbers get real high. I don't know how well you're set up for plants, but they can help too. Too bad most LFS don't know, understand or trust fishless cycling. Hang in there coyoteman, it'll be worth it in the long run.
Keep in mind that if the test kit is reading it's max, that doesn't mean the nitrites aren't actually higher than that. If it reads only up to 5.0ppm, the value could actually be 10. A 50% water change reduces it to 5.0ppm--and the test results will be the same.
I had the same problem during my fishless cycle. It was because my nitrites were off the scale both time. Yeah, those water changes can be terrible 
but don't lose heart! After you cycle, its only 20% once a week. What I would do, to really get the nitrite down (you're gonna hate this awww ) is do a massive, massive change, like 80%. That should be enough so you can get the nitrite down to reasonable levels, and don't worry, it will not disrupt the cycle - I did a 90% change on my 20 gallon because I had the same problem, and it was all ok.
but don't lose heart! After you cycle, its only 20% once a week. What I would do, to really get the nitrite down (you're gonna hate this awww ) is do a massive, massive change, like 80%. That should be enough so you can get the nitrite down to reasonable levels, and don't worry, it will not disrupt the cycle - I did a 90% change on my 20 gallon because I had the same problem, and it was all ok.