Tank will not cycle

[tommiej]

Hi, i hope you guys can help me figure out what is wrong with my tank. I have a 45 gal tall tank. so 12 inches wide, 36 inches in length and i believe 18inches tall. It is not a planted tank. i have an airstone and a 50 gal sponge filter to which i added an airstone to this filter, plus a 5 gal sponge filter as well. I tried to cycle my tank and i tested my water once a week and noticed that the ammonia spike did drop but nitrite and nitrates never appeared. this was the case for 3 weeks. i was tired of ghost feeding the tank because the decaying food would just collected at the bottom of my tank so i bought dr.tim's ammonia and started dosing this daily to get the ammonia level to 2. I also purchase 2 bottles of fritzzyme 7 hoping that this live bacteria will help the nitrogen cycle. this did nothing and i continued adding the live bacteria until both bottles were empty. at this point ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates were all 0. I did more research and a youtuber stated that my tank may have been cycled and i just have "really clean water". so i took my tank water to a fish store and he also confirmed my tank was cycled. So the next three weeks i started buying fish only for them to all die within weeks of each other(i only bought 3 glofish tetra each week). I then bought fritz turbo start and this seemed to help for a week, ammonia dropped but again, nitrites never appeared. 2 weeks after dosing fritz turbo start, i now have an ammonia spike of .50ppm. I once again purchased another bottle of fritzzyme 7 hoping this live bacteria can help cycle my tank but again, nothing is happening. I did more research and  the internet stated that if my PH is below 6, the cycle will cease to exist. these test strips and master test kits only show a ph level of 6, so what if my PH level is below 6? how is it even possible for a tank to cycle with such a low PH level? if beneficial bacteria prefers PH levels of 7, how are people keeping fish like German Blue rams who prefer PH levels of 5? any suggestions would be great. this is the third time i'm trying to cycle this tank and none of my friends keep fish, and the ones who do are pretty much useless as they have people who set up there tank and maintain the tanks for them. 

[JettsPapa]

Welcome to the forum.  My water is hard, with high pH, but it's my understanding that as pH gets lower the ammonia toxicity does also, so with that in mind I have doubts that ammonia killed your fish, especially if your ammonia never got above 0.50 ppm.  I doubt it would have killed them even if your pH was around 7.0, much less.

How are you testing your water.  Many people recommend the liquid test kits instead of strips, but unless you follow the instructions very carefully, especially shaking the bottles like your life depended on it, they can give false nitrate readings.  With that in mind, I wonder if your tank is cycled, but your test isn't showing nitrates?

As far as the fish dying, this may be a dumb question, but I assume you've added dechlorinator every time you add water to the tank?

[tommiej]

i have the master test kit. and yes i use water conditioner when i do water changes. i even tested my tap water and the PH is 6. again, only because 6 is the lowest rating on those test kits. 

 

[Lennie]

Sera ph test kit can read as low as 4.5. I use that one and pretty happy with it, if you decide on test to see if you have anything lower.

Besides that, if it is actually 6, it should not be a problem I assume.

I also don't think you should be needing this many bottles of beneficial bacteria. 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Lennie

[tommiej]

right? i agree, again, i only dosed a little at a time, as i know beneficial bacteria would eventually grow to balance out the ammonia levels. And i know most becteria lives in the sponge filter, so when i do clean my sponge filter, i rinse the filter in old aquarium water. so it amazes me how my ammonia levels just never drops now even when adding this bacteria. 

[uscmule]

Hi, fellow newb here.

I have super hard well water. I had a hydroponic hobby for a while and I got used to using buffers to improve the water chemistry. When I started prepping an aquarium I just grabbed some seachem neutral regulator reflexively, and have been using it ever since. One less variable to worry about.

[tommiej]

hi, yes i know there are API PH up, i bought two bottles and i dosed it to my tank and ph was still at 6. So i read reviews and one reviewer said, the PH up only last a day. I also read, to never chase PH as this can cause fish death with the PH constantly fluctuating. So i did buy aragonite/ crushed coral, so hopefully this can help keep my PH at a good 7. But again, im not sure what happened to this bacteria. When i used fritz turbo start, it was good for 1 week, then the week after, i was going to buy more fish so i tested the water and AMMONIA lol its been 2 weeks with ammonia in my tank so not sure what happened to all the live bacteria. i did do a water change and gravel vaccumed the rocks but again, i did not mess with my sponge filters.  

[uscmule]

PH up and down are kinda different than a buffer/regulator. Its true they do not last as long depending on how well buffered your water is.

If you dose a regulator it will take your water to ~7.0 - 7.5 and keep it there. There are also acidic and alkiline buffers that will target PH values above or below 7, depending on your application.

This is what I use, hope the link is legal:
https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Neutral-Regulator-1-Kilo/dp/B000255PFS

[Lennie]

Btw, you generally won't need your tank to be dealing with that 2ppm ammonia with the directions of tims ammonia solution. 

You may check these videos. And old sponge of @Irene was able to deal with actual fish waste but it still took much more than directions accepted as "cycled".

 

 

 

[tommiej]

i have seen all these videos and some. Again, not sure why the fritz turbo start worked for one week, then hasn't worked after as the ammonia is still present in my tank. I added seachem reef buffer (my mistake, did not know this was for salt water) and the PH did raise to 8.2, ammonia spiked to 4ppm, nitrite is 2ppm and nitrates are also raising, my tank is really foggy now. Im hoping this is a bacteria bloom and that the bacteria will settle soon, hopefully. I will continue to test to see if the parameters drop, if not, ill perform a 50% or more water change as the ammonia and nitrite is needed to feed the bacteria. Thanks for the suggestions.