Hi there,
I've been trying to get my 20-gallon aquarium cycled since the 9th of October. Since Oct 19th, I have had plenty of ammonia-eating bacteria after I added Tetra Safe Start Plus and a new larger filter with new and old media in it. My aquarium's Ammonia stays at 0ppm. But Nitrite spikes daily regardless of how many waters changes I do; I always vacuum the gravel.
I've been water changing literally every single night since I put in the good bacteria on the 19th. I change between 25 - 50 percent of the water. I never let it be over .025 or at the worst .050. Over the weekend, I even did a 50% water change along with a deep clean of the gravel, moving very slowly and sucking up as much waste and particles as I could, and removed all the fake plants and decor, gave them a good scrub and rinsed them in prime with water. I also squeezed the media gunk out in a bucket of tank water and placed it back into the filter.
I've recently read that the Nitrite bacteria take weeks to many months to develop when I am doing a fish in a cycle, which I am. I have 4 skirt tetra and 8 neon tetras. I also read that the Nitrite-eating bacteria live on the substrate surface and on the inside of the aquarium glass, on decor, and in my filter on the media. If this is true, then how do I not remove what little my aquarium has, or if anything, how do I encourage growth?
I've been trying to get my 20-gallon aquarium cycled since the 9th of October. Since Oct 19th, I have had plenty of ammonia-eating bacteria after I added Tetra Safe Start Plus and a new larger filter with new and old media in it. My aquarium's Ammonia stays at 0ppm. But Nitrite spikes daily regardless of how many waters changes I do; I always vacuum the gravel.
I've been water changing literally every single night since I put in the good bacteria on the 19th. I change between 25 - 50 percent of the water. I never let it be over .025 or at the worst .050. Over the weekend, I even did a 50% water change along with a deep clean of the gravel, moving very slowly and sucking up as much waste and particles as I could, and removed all the fake plants and decor, gave them a good scrub and rinsed them in prime with water. I also squeezed the media gunk out in a bucket of tank water and placed it back into the filter.
I've recently read that the Nitrite bacteria take weeks to many months to develop when I am doing a fish in a cycle, which I am. I have 4 skirt tetra and 8 neon tetras. I also read that the Nitrite-eating bacteria live on the substrate surface and on the inside of the aquarium glass, on decor, and in my filter on the media. If this is true, then how do I not remove what little my aquarium has, or if anything, how do I encourage growth?
