Tank cycle crashed

[Summer Lotus]

I've only had my tank for less than 2 months but my water parameters was stable for at least 3 weeks until now. I bought some plants last week and added a bunch of root tabs for them. Because of these changes, I've been monitoring my water parameters more often. Last week, the ammonia and nitrite were 0ppm. The nitrate was around 5ppm. Yesterday, my ammonia and nitrite were both 0ppm, while my nitrate was at 20ppm. Today, everything spiked so the ammonia and nitrite were about 1ppm and the nitrate was probably around 80ppm. I immediately did a water change but the water parameters are still in dangerous levels for the ammonia and nitrite. I've dosed seachem prime to protect the only betta fish in the tank and will probably do another water change tomorrow.

What could have possibly caused this crash? There were maybe a few leaves that melted but nothing else seemed to have died. Are there any other suggestions in order to get this cycle back to normal quickly besides adding bottled bacteria, which I've already done?

[Woowala]

Root tabs spiked the nitrogen faster than the plants could use it.  Water change back to safe levels and stay on top of it until the plants and bacteria catch up.

[Dacotua]

Just a FYI,

Your system did not crash, you have NEW TANK SYNDROME. Unless you were putting an ammonia source in your tank, you could still have a cycling tank after two months. I had a 5-1/2 gallon tank that took me roughly 6 weeks to cycle and that was with me putting ammonia drops into the tank. Don't assume your tank was cycled. How did you cycle your tank? Did you add an ammonia source like liquid ammonia or live fish.

Another thing to consider, are you SURE you have ammonia? Dosing Prime WILL GIVE FALSE POSITIVE for Ammonia.

Depending on your tank size, what is a "Bunch of Root Tabs". What are we talking about here? If you over did it, reach down and remove most of them. Your tank still sounds "New".
 

[Summer Lotus]

  

On 8/24/2024 at 6:50 PM, Dacotua said:

Just a FYI,

Your system did not crash, you have NEW TANK SYNDROME. Unless you were putting an ammonia source in your tank, you could still have a cycling tank after two months. I had a 5-1/2 gallon tank that took me roughly 6 weeks to cycle and that was with me putting ammonia drops into the tank. Don't assume your tank was cycled. How did you cycle your tank? Did you add an ammonia source like liquid ammonia or live fish.

Another thing to consider, are you SURE you have ammonia? Dosing Prime WILL GIVE FALSE POSITIVE for Ammonia.

Depending on your tank size, what is a "Bunch of Root Tabs". What are we talking about here? If you over did it, reach down and remove most of them. Your tank still sounds "New".
 

I actually was forced to do fish in cycle so I watched the water parameters daily. After about a month, the ammonia/nitrite were 0ppm every day for a few weeks and the nitrate was 5ppm. I used bottled bacteria and live plants in hopes that it wouldn't take a long time to cycle the tank.

After I saw that the ammonia/nitrites were 0ppm for a few days, I stopped using Prime so I'm pretty sure the ammonia was 0ppm since I still checked my water parameters very often. I'm very paranoid about killing my betta fish since I've gotten quite attached to that little thing.

My tank is only 6 gallons so when I added more plants 1 1/2 weeks ago, I added maybe 5 easy root tabs for the new plants. Then 2 days ago, I noticed that my red dwarf aquarium lily's leaves were turning green so I added 2 more root tabs just for the dwarf lily. The next day is when the tank cycle crashed.

  

On 8/24/2024 at 6:27 PM, Woowala said:

Root tabs spiked the nitrogen faster than the plants could use it.  Water change back to safe levels and stay on top of it until the plants and bacteria catch up.

I honestly didn't think that just adding a few more easy root tabs would cause such an issue. Lesson learned I suppose.

Edited August 25 by Summer Lotus

[Dacotua]

Your cycle still has not crashed. You are "Over Stocking" your tank in relationship to the biological filters ability to process waste.  A crash is when all your bacteria dies and you have to start over

 

 

[Summer Lotus]

Thank you for the explanation. I'm very new to this hobby and still learning.

[Woowala]

On 8/25/2024 at 2:27 PM, Summer Lotus said:

 I honestly didn't think that just adding a few more easy root tabs would cause such an issue. Lesson learned I suppose.

Yeah, it's easy to overdo it, especially with a young tank.

[Airborne 82nd]

"I've only had my tank for less than 2 months but my water parameters was stable for at least 3 weeks" So you think your tank cycled in about a month? 

I don't know what less that two months means. So lets say it is six weeks minus three weeks leaves you with a three week cycle time??? 

I don't think you have completed a cycle. Every tank is different. My 75gal. took 3 1/2 months but I waited 4 months and I was keeping my ammonia at 2ppm with Dr. Tims. I also used Dr. Tims One and Only ( one time). Then I read how many of these things are hit and miss and let nature provide the bb. I don't care for fish in cycles but that is just me. Both ways will work but I didn't have to worry about my Oscar I knew for a fact my water was ready for him. I also didn't have any plants or firts. and I don't know what they do or don't do for a cycle. Like others have said you might have just over loaded what small amount of bb you had. 

Edited August 26 by Airborne 82nd