Hello, I recently destroyed my cycled tank, I have a 210g with about 50 adult cichlids. I was wondering how I should properly go about restarting the tank.
I have 2 canister filters at 500+ gph, i clean out the filter once every month or two, it has 4 layers and i cleaned out the top one of gunk by rinsing it in the dirty tank water like i've seen on youtube etc. Last month I got a fish smell and decided its been a year or a bit longer since I have 2 filters how about i restart one to help clear up the green tint water. That didn't work so I did the 2nd filter a little over a month later so that I would still have good bacteria to tackle stuff on the tank. Well that crashed the system I now have a horrible toxic smell that's filling my house. I've had the top off with a fan out the window to help with this. Yesterday morning I had enough of the smell and did a 70% water change. (always been scared of big water changes) This didn't help my parameters much. I use the API master test kit, I followed the instructions to the letter, Yesterday I was at 4.0 ppm ammonia, .25 nitrite, 160 ppm nitrate. After the 70% water change I waited till this morning so roughly 20 hours or so. 1.0 ppm ammonia, 2.0 ppm nitrite, a bit darker than 80 ppm nitrate but less dark than the 160 i'd guess somewhere on the side leaning closer to 80ppm.
The fish look healthy, they are eating as always, not gasping, water looks crystal clear, smell is down but still potent, maybe fills the room instead of house.
What should I do, should id do big water changes daily? should I wait for the bacteria to grow and take hold of everything and just deal with the smell and vent it out the window to the best of my ability? Should I keep adding beneficial bacteria?
Just to also add, I put prime in the water then added to the tank then put in 200g worth of quick start beneficial bacteria in a hour later not sure if those counter each other. There's 0 extra food ever, and their waste is relatively small.
