Starting Back Up Again...Questions About Using Seachem Stability

[Kaskade10729]

No live plants in our future, but appreciate the suggestion.

Are you saying this tank will NEVER cycle without plants?

Here were today's readings, but what does it matter? The numbers never change...

Ammonia: About 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Between 0 and 5.0

Seachem suggested to dose the tank with Prime -- not do a water change -- to keep the ammonia from going higher...

 

[the loach]

No, but enough of the right plants will prevent an ammonia spike, algae, high nitrates and if they come from a tank with fish they will have the right bacteria on them as well. I never recommend unplanted tanks, too much trouble.

 

[Kaskade10729]

unplanted tanks, too much trouble.

Funny...I often say the same thing about planted ones...

With regard to the suggestion Seachem made to me about dosing with Prime and no water changes...couldn't I achieve similar results by topping off the tank with fresh water dosed with Prime?

 

[fishbuddha]

I would add some fish food to promote the bacteria growth in the stability. They need something to eat. From Seachem's FAQ:

 

[Kaskade10729]

I would add some fish food to promote the bacteria growth in the stability. They need something to eat. From Seachem's FAQ:

View attachment 227227

Not sure if you have been following this thread, but the fish are in the tank for over a month, and I went through TWO rounds of Stability at this point -- the last round was weeks ago now. The fish were in the tank all that time.

I STILL cannot get my test results to change, no matter how much time I give it or how many times I test. We're STILL getting small traces of ammonia, NO nitrites and VERY little nitrates. Even my Seachem contact cannot help me at this point; he admitted he doesn't know why this is happening, and that he's never seen a tank act so strangely (that almost two months have passed and the API numbers aren't really changing). He believes at this point it may just be something in our tap water that is generating small amounts of ammonia, even though it didn't show when I tested the tap, and that I should just "enjoy my tank" if the fish are doing well...

But how can I do that if I can't be sure that the tank is even CYCLED? Why won't it cycle? At this point, should I be introducing some kind of ammonia control?