# Can't get my 55 to cycle



## madasnave (Mar 18, 2010)

Let's start from the beginning.

I am not necessarily new to the hobby. I have a 55 gallon tank that I received as a grad gift 2 yrs ago, first time with a big tank. Got a wet/dry filter. set it all up. no problem. had mollies in within a week and got it cycling very fast. Tank was running very well for 6 months solid. I had discus and tetras in it and it was planted. Ran out of funds and started college so I had to shut it down. 

Now I am starting the tank back up with a fluval 700 canister filter. I had it running for 2 weeks with ammonia at 4 ppm solid. no budge in ammonia dropping, nitrites rising, or nitrates in any way. stuck some feeder gold fish in to try and start something and they all died in about 3 days. 

Today being as frustrated as I am I bought two aquaclear 50 filters and threw those on instead (I really didn't like the canister anyways, oh well give to my moms bf as a gift).

Just wondering if anyone had any idea why my tank won't cycle this time around?

Here are some specs

temp @ 82F
ph @ 7.8
ammonia @ 4ppm
nitrite @ 0ppm
nitrate @ 0 ppm

my tap water has a ammonia level of 1 ppm
water was dechlorinated

I have 2 jungle vals and few java moss strands on the big drift wood i have as a center piece in the tank.

Running t5 lights at 2 wpg

fungus has already started developing on the driftwood, don't know what that means but it may help you all out.

Canister filter didn't come with any bio media, nor did the instructions say to include any which I am suspicious of... The AquaClear50's on the other hand do have bio media included 

your help is much appreciated. Maybe I just had beginners luck the first time around...=(

Adam.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

You cant throw in fish if you ahve ammonia already in at high levels they will die. Just start over with what you are comfortable with, some small fish. Use a good dechlorinator like Prime so that the ammonia and chlorine are not toxic and wait the 2-3 weeks for it to cycle. Most people who go with the pure ammonia route find it takes almost a month to begin to cycle.

The canister is probably better than the hang-on the back filters, but use both. You can always use the HOB on a quarentine tank later and it will be fully cycled. 

Fungus on drifwood means that the drifwood was not completely dead so some nutrients are leaking out and fungus is using it as a food supply. This is natural and should go away in a few weeks but you could also boil the drift wood to speed up the process. You want it to really leak out all it's nutrients/tannins.


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## madasnave (Mar 18, 2010)

Yea that's what is weird is that I use prime to dechlorinate my tank. A guy at my LFS told me I should start seeing ammonia gradually go down over the 3 week period. But nothing has changed. Idk, Like I said when I had the wet/dry i put fish in within the first week, so i have not a clue as to why the process is elongated this time around.


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