Another question about my parametars

my tank is at 7 1/2 weeks of cycling, and my parametars have been staying steady, for the past few weeks. They are not 0 but have been staying steady at these readings: Ammonia 0.25 Nitrate: 20 Nitrite: 0.05

My question, what is causing it to stay at these readings? Shouldn't they be all down to 0 by now?

 

Should be...but some tanks take longer than others..you could always buy some MicroBacter7 by brightwell aquatics to give your biological filter that "extra umph" it might need to get your stuff to 0...i find it is very effective and fairly cheap.

 

ok, when i have the spare money, i'll check it out. lol my credit card is a bit high right now after buying my light

 

lol i totally understand...anyhow its like $16 for 17oz....and that gives you enough to treat a 150gal tank for 2 weeks which will be more than enough biofilter to get everything in ur tank to 0...

 

thats not a bad price, do you know if a place like petsmart or petco would sell it? i think my tank does need help with its cycling as it seems like it can't do it all by itself

 

I dont like those bacterial booster additives, just have some (more) patience and get your params double checked by the LFS.

~Will.

 

yea, i had the params checked 2 weeks ago, and the results were the same as mine.

 

I'm not sure if petsmart sells it or not..i got it at my LFS...Bacterial boosters can give your tank the push it might be needing...seems like your tank should have been cycled by now..good luck with however you want to do it though It WILL eventually cycle all the way but If you need me to ship you some if you cant find it anywhere i can get it at the LFS and I wont charge you anything over whatever the cost of it is and regular shipping..Ill even send ya the reciepts

 

Honestly, if you've already waited 7.5 weeks, it shouldn't take much more just to wait it out. I wouldn't add bacterial cultures at this point, as those bacteria will then have to compete with the ones you have just grown over the last 7.5 weeks.

 

I'm not a fan of these cycle helping bottles of stuff... just my opinion.

If I remember right, I think you did have your water tested by an LFS to cross confirm right? And your tests and their test used liquid tests, not strips right?

Also, I still think the reason your params aren't 0'ing out are because you are curing your live rock in parallel with your cycle when this would normally happen for several weeks prior to the cycle...

If you haven't cross checked your params with someone else's liquid tests, do that... but beyond that... keep waiting.

Plenty of cycles have taken a lot longer than this has (so far)...

good luck with it though, I know this part sucks the most.