Does anybody know how to keep the ammonia as low as possible while cycling a new tank? I got my tank running for 2 weeks and the ammonia is still reading 3.0. I am using Prime as water conditioner. Will water change daily help?

what size is your tank? i actually did water changes everyother day to keep stuff at bay until my water cycled. i dont see a problem doing this just dont mess with the gravel much and dont do big water changes. good luck and lets see what other ppl say about this. i did this and had no problems but others may have other advice..jewels

It's a 30 gal tank with 2 fish in it. I vac the gravel every time I do water change, will that slow down the cycle? Also I been doing water change daily for the past 2 days.

The only real way to lessen the ammonia is by doing big water changes.Ammonia should be brought down as close to 0.25 as you can,in order to keep the fish from suffering as much as possible.Frequent water changes and gravel vacs may slow the cycling down a bit,but at least your fish will stay healthier.

Thanks for the replies. I will try to keep a close eye on the ammonia level and maybe do a small water change every 2-3 days.

When I'm doing water change, should I add the water conditioner in the tapwater or pour the tapwater into the tank first and then add the water conditioner? Cause the ammonia level doesn't seem to be getting any lower. When I was doing a water change today, I realized that there were some slimy thing in the wall of the tank, what are they?

Add the water conditioner first. It should have little impact on your cycle, as it's primarily meant to remove chlorine and chloramines. Although if I remember correctly, Prime is also supposed to reduce ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites, but I wouldn't expect it to have a huge impact. Does anybody else know just how much of an impact Prime has on water conditions?

The main thing is to limit your fishes' exposure to the cholorine stuff. So conditioner first, and then water.

What do the slimy things look like? Is is a sort of coating on the tank wall? This could be the beginnings of brown algae--quite common in newly cycling tanks and nothing to stress over. Did they look like little pale worms? These are most likely either nematodes or planaria--both harmless to fish, and usually a sign of over-feeding.

The great thing about Prime is that it binds ammonia (and others), making it harmless to the fish, but still available to the bacteria to process. Wonderful thing! Yes, pour the conditioner into the tank before refilling it with tap water - it will not harm your fish or your cycle.

Not sure on the slime - you'll have to describe it so someone can take a guess as to what it is. What color is it? It is a fine layer over the glass or a clump?

Thanks for the replies. I can't really see the slime, and yea it's kind of like coating in the wall of the tank, airtube, etc. It's like touching a bar of soap. I don't know how else I can describe it. =(

Read my topic on aquapuppy- one of the things I mentioned is the new producxt from Searchum- that is if you have bioimass materiakll for it to latch onto- an incredible new 3 typr bacteria product to avert new tank syndrome

My guess would be that the slime is the beginnings of brown algae. It can take a little while for it to get thick enough to actually show up as brown. It's the only thing that I can think of. Once it does show up, it's very easy to wipe off with a scrub pad or sponge, or even just your fingers.

We had to cycle a second tank recently with an aquaone filter. Anyway we waited months and months and still it wasn't cycling (our first tank took about 2 months to cycle, this second tank we had left for about 3-4 months and still it wasn't cycling). So anyway we replaced the standard black mesh filter media inside the filter with some of the Eheim ehfi substrat pro. Anyway that combined with the use of Cycle and our second tank cycled (& quite fast too). I've only done fishless cycles though so I don't have any advice on how to help your fish through it. Good luck!