"yepadoos" wrote...
I cannot get my tank to cycle and am lost at what to do next. Have a
30 gallon tank with several fish in it. I have been receiving
conflicting info from books/fish store and I think I have it all
screwed up. Been messing with this for a couple of months.

Right now the water is very cloudy with a green tint. It has been this
way for 2 weeks. I have resisted the urge to do a water change but it
is looking terrible. I was hoping this was the late stage of cycling
but I'm not seeing any changes. Algea is growing on the sides of the
tank. Ammonia=4ppm,nitrite=0,nitrate=0.

Fish store said I was under-filtered. I had a whisper 30. I got rid
of that and put in a emperor 280. It has been several days an no
improvement. I have used cycle. I have used something that came in a
packet that had to be refrigerated (can't remember the name). Still no
luck.

Questions:

Planning on doing a 20% water change today and vaccuming the gravel in
hopes of clearing up the water. Good idea?

yes. plan on a routine water change of at least 20% one a week.


Are water changes detrimental to cycling?

water changes are always detrimental. when cycling i personally do a 10%
every other day unless the ammonia gets too high, then i'll bump up the
changes accordingly.


The emperor 280 comes with a media basket. Should I put something in
there?

i'm not familure enough with the emperors to know much about them. in my
tanks however i do have some filter material (looks kinda like one of those
old green scrub pads or in one filter i use a sponge).

my recomendation is to pack everything up and send it to me. just kidding!
(sort of.) ;-) i'd start on a routine of a 10% water change every other
day, cut back on the amount of food you are feeding, and add some filter
material. there are others here that can give you much better advice on the
emperor than i, but hopefully this will give you some things to start with.

how many and of what type of fish do you have?