Tank's Not Cycling???????

[KCReefer]

My tank's been set up for around 8 week's now and my level's are holding steady. My ammonia is holding at around .50 PPM and is not lowering any more than that. I stopped checking the other level's because I know the ammonia has to drop first I need HELP!!!!! it's driving me crazy. any ideas on what I could try or what's going on? I've had fish only tank's before and never had this problem.

[bertz_maru]

try puttin a bag of carbon in your filter..

[tinyreef]

y'know, i have the exact same issue with some 'dead' fiji rock i picked up at my lfs. they were castaways from an established system that some guy nuked. i've been cycling these sob's for 8 weeks too. i'm thinking there's maybe some serious antibiotics or chemicals in there the previous owner used that's keeping the bene bacteria from firmly establishing themselves. ???

 

i finally caved in and bought some startup bacteria stuff last week but that hasn't help much either. neither has water & rock transfers from my main display tank. if i could catch one of my damsels i'd definitely plunk the little bastage in there.

 

where'd you get your rocks from? what temperature have you been running the tank at? have you tried different sets of test kits?

 

edit: i've been using carbon and poly-filters since week four.

[onthefly]

why not seed the tank with some more bacteria? Nitromax?

[SeaMountain]

My ammonia levels never exceeded .25 for quite sometime. Then when they finally went to zero, the nitrites were at 'trace' levels for a couple more weeks.

 

Now at 6 weeks all are where they should be.

 

What are your nitrites testing at? They should be increasing slightly then spiking.

 

You may also want to take a water sample down to your LFS to see what they come up with for ammonia and nitrites.

 

Hang in there KCReefer! On another note, I had to call my son to see if he survived the twisters the other night. They hit all around him. I AM thinking your in Kansas City, right?

[siskiou]

Is your test kit giving you false readings?

 

I tested my freshly mixed salt water after 24 hrs. (kent) and it read at 0.5 for ammonia.

It's a cheapo Aquarium Pharmaceutical's test for fresh/salt water.

 

Had the water checked at two LFSs and both read zero for ammonia, also using cheapo tests (Tetra).

 

Bought a Seachem Ammonia alert thingie to put into the tank and it tells me 0.02 ammonia.

 

I had only the freshly mixed salt water in a new tank, rinsed out before setting up and have no idea which test to trust, now

 

Siskiou