I am having a really hard time with this cycle

[goodjobchamp]

About 4 months ago i cycled a 20 gallon tank, cycle crashed when i put in 6 juve pleco. Move all of them to my 20 gallon with 6 hillstreams 4 otos and everything is fine for another month or 2 while it cycles back up. It ended up having a ph drop during the 2nd cycle which was corrected and could handle a load of 2 ppm ammonia in about 16 hours. Algae everywhere and i mean everywhere the tank looks great and the cycle seems perfect. 3 days ago i put in 3 of the plecos and decide to test the water, 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10-20 nitrate. I am completely confused why this cycle wont stick. 

water parameters.

20 gallons

76 degrees

3 kh 

11gh

7.2 or 7.4 ph hard to tell. 

I am just completely confused, was it the algae that was helping with so much of the ammonia? The plecos are destroying it really fast so it could be causing an impalance in the tank. I have no idea at this point any help would be great on my next step. 

 

[Tony s]

Technically you’re still cycled. But may be a bit under cycled at the moment. Algae will absolutely help remove nitrogen compounds from your tank and the plecos may have upset the balance a bit. But so would a super scrub down and algae removal. .25 ammonia is still safe for your fish though. But watch that it doesn’t climb more. If it does then water change and prime after is the best option. You could add in some fritz7 or other to help fortify your bacteria 

[goodjobchamp]

I currently have stability from seachem is that fine aswell? @Tony s

[Tony s]

I believe that would work fine. Haven’t used it, but seachem has great products 

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/11/2024 at 7:37 AM, goodjobchamp said:

I currently have stability from seachem is that fine aswell? @Tony s

Yes i agree, with @Tony s, never used that specific product from seachem, but they have a lot of good stuff like prime, fertilizer and all.

 

On 7/11/2024 at 1:17 AM, Tony s said:

Technically you’re still cycled. But may be a bit under cycled at the moment. Algae will absolutely help remove nitrogen compounds from your tank and the plecos may have upset the balance a bit. But so would a super scrub down and algae removal. .25 ammonia is still safe for your fish though. But watch that it doesn’t climb more. If it does then water change and prime after is the best option. You could add in some fritz7 or other to help fortify your bacteria 

Yes bacteria and wcs, can  be a huge part of fixing this problem here @goodjobchamp. A algae scraper can help as well. Prime for wcs if you have not done that already. 

[goodjobchamp]

Appreciate the help, I will do the recommended dosage of stability for a week and keep testing with some Wc's.  @Whitecloud09 @Tony s

[goodjobchamp]

0.25 ammonia again yesterday so i did a water change but before bed it was 0.25 ammonia and 0.25 nitrite after a water change. I dosed 2ml of prime went to bed and its 0 ammonia 0 nitrite. Are the fish safe while they go threw this, aslong as i dose prime to keep the ammonia nitrite binded? @Whitecloud09 @Tony s

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/13/2024 at 7:32 AM, goodjobchamp said:

0.25 ammonia again yesterday so i did a water change but before bed it was 0.25 ammonia and 0.25 nitrite after a water change. I dosed 2ml of prime went to bed and its 0 ammonia 0 nitrite. Are the fish safe while they go threw this, aslong as i dose prime to keep the ammonia nitrite binded? @Whitecloud09 @Tony s

Should be. That and wcs will be fine, @goodjobchamp.

[Tony s]

On 7/13/2024 at 7:32 AM, goodjobchamp said:

0.25 ammonia again yesterday so i did a water change but before bed it was 0.25 ammonia and 0.25 nitrite after a water change. I

0.25 ammonia is safe. 0.25 nitrite isn’t. But you’re doing it right. Keep it low and keep adding prime. You’ll still read the ammonia. It doesn’t remove it. But it keeps your fish safe