brittdee 0 Posted August 27, 2012 Hey guys! Not to bother you with more "my tank won't cycle" crap but I've gotten myself super confused. There are so many variables that I can't figure out. Quick run down of my situation. I had two goldfish that I got before I knew about tank cycling. I was working hard to cycle the tank while keeping them healthy and happy. My sister babysat my fish for a weekend and my fish ended up dying under her care So now I'm trying to do a fishless cycle. - I have a 20 g tank with two filters running; a Topfin 10 & an Aquaclear 30. I have a mostly bare bottom with just a few larger rocks and an airstone. I use drops instead of strips to test the water parameters. - I've been trying to cycle for 4 weeks with no nitrites whatsoever - Ammonia has been consistently present but I don't know whats producing it if I'm not adding ammonia or even food product? It has been sitting at 8.0 (or higher I guess since the test kit tops out at 8.0), and I thought the higher the better and just read this week that it's better to have it sitting at 4.0- 5.0. So I did a 50 % water change with Prime and now it's at 4.0 - I also read that things happen faster at slightly higher temperatures so I've been trying to keep it at 80 F. But I also realized that it was at 88 F (gghh way to read a thermometer right :[ ) So I'm guessing that's too hot and probably wasn't helping so I got it turned back down - PH has been around 7.2 - I've been using Seachem Stability for the past 4 days out of desperation - Oh and I've got some brown particles (?) growing on things. Where is that coming from and is it bad? it tends to clump together. I guess I just want to know if I'm on the right track now. I'm just getting pretty impatient and frustrated with the process. And should I only do water changes to maintain ammonia at 4.0? 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brittdee 0 Posted August 27, 2012 I just feel like I'm bumbling my way through this. My brain hurts from reading so many forum posts and articles, so help would be appreciated 0 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites