On Mon, 08 May 2006 20:17:07 -0000, "Frederick B. Henry Jr."
wrote:

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On 2006-05-08, Koi-Lo wrote:

"Frederick B. Henry Jr." wrote in message
...
My 3 black neon tetras, 1 h. rasbora and 2 glowlight tetras seem very
happy, and aside from the diatom/brown algae I have to scrub away with
water changes, the tank is clear. Today, more than two months after I
set up the 10g tank, and after even trying some (useless) Cycle, my
ammonia is approaching 2 ppm, my nitrite is just over 0.25 ppm and my
nitrate is 5 ppm.


At this point if it was my tank I would try and get some "ripe" filter
material from someone with a cycled tank. What about your favorite LFS?
Surely they can spare you something to get your tank cycled. Over 2 months?
Something doesn't sound right there........ but then, 6 fish... how large
is this tank? Could there be chlorimines in your water, not chlorine?


The tank is 10 gallons. I use Aquasafe: 1/4 teaspoon for every 2.5
gallon bucket. I siphon off 2.5 gallons and put back 2.5 gallons
(different, dedicated buckets). I assume that if there is nitrite and
nitrate present that both sorts of bacteria are also present, no?

Not a lot of fish, true...I had three neon tetras but they died pretty
soon after introduction (I assume the pH was way off for them).

I'm a patient person but I just want to know what could be causing the
cycle to take so long, especially after having spent many, many hours
researching and reading online and elsewhere to make everything right.
I haven't found anything that addresses unusually protracted cycling.

Again, the fish don't *appear* to be suffering, and they are very hungry
and active. I just would like to add some more at some point...

Thanks for the response.

Fred

Actually, 6 fish in a 10 gallon is a lot of fish for cycling, more
than enough. Have you taken a sample of water to your lfs for testing?
Can you bring home a cup of seasoned gravel from a lfs tank?
Test kits can lie sometimes. How is your tank furnished? Gravel?
Ornaments? Plants? Sponge in the filter? All places for bacteria to
grab hold of and grow? If you have gravel, go easy on the vacuuming as
you want bacteria to grow there. During the cycling phase, you don't
want to be scrubbing anything to squeaky clean. Hmmm.

-- Mister Gardener
-- Pull the WEED to email me