First off, I have three other established aquariums, so I do have a fairly solid back ground of basic fish keeping. And before you ask, the reason I did not use one of these aquariums to give the new aquarium a jump start is because these aquariums have pest snails that I do NOT want to take a chance of introducing snails to this new aquarium.
I have a 55g Freshwater and I am currently doing a fish-less cycle. About 2 weeks ago I added a product by Nutrafin called Cycle. It says it’s a Biological Aquarium Supplement and claims it “immediately establishes save biological aquarium environment” and “allows immediate introduction of fish” . It has instructions to give X dose per gallon of water for three days.
I followed the directions and did water testing on the third day. I have the API freshwater master test kit (Liquid testing kit). Most of the reading were off and the ammonia levels read high, so I did a 25% water change. This did not lower the ammonia levels. I decided it might have just been a bad ammonia spike, so I let the aquarium run with the filters for another few days. The other reading went to normal, but the ammonia was still high. I tried Jungle ammonia clear tabs, and tetra’s ammonia remover product with a 25% water change. STILL no change in the ammonia reading. Let the aquarium run a few more days hoping it just needed some more time. After about two weeks of the aquarium running and adding the bacteria supplement, I decided to do a 50% water change.
That was a couple days ago. My readings are now:
Ph 7.6
Ammonia .50
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
I’m just stumped. The water is also a little cloudy… and the ammonia levels have been high even after water changes. And ideas?
I think I’ve been pretty thorough, but if you need more information…. let me know.