Tank still not cycling after one month

[TheStripedHermit]

This is the 2nd time this has happened to me and it just doesn't make any sense. The tank was started with dry rock and old sand from an aquarium I tore down last year.

Parameters:

Temperature - 22.5-23°c
Ph - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.5ppm
Salinity - 1.025ppm

No change in ammonia at all despite adding ATM colony and Pure Reef balance which were both in date. I have no idea what I can do at this point so any advice will be appreciated

 

[Reefering1]

More time

 

[robotrash]

When you say old sand did you wash it extremely well? It's typically not advisable to reuse sand.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

No change in ammonia at all despite adding ATM colony and Pure Reef balance which were both in date.

What are you using to test Ammonia, and have you tested for Nitrite or Nitrate? I know some people report false readings up to 0.5 Ammonia with some test kits (this is a reportedly common issue - Brandon429 has a few threads on the matter).

Also, I'm not familiar with ATM colony or Pure Reef balance, but if they're bottle-bac cycling products, then there's a good chance they're not actually useful for cycling (to my knowledge, only three bottle-bac cycling products have been shown to actually be useful for cycling: Fritz TurboStart 900, BioSpira, and Dr. Tim's One and Only for saltwater).

 

[buruskeee]

As long as ammonia dropped after initial spike and you’re reading nitrates, you should be good to go. You can dose ammonia again to see another spike to be sure and see it get processed to be safe, but ATI test kits can read 0.5 still even if it’s close to 0 or 0.

 

[exnisstech]

Test for nitrates. If you have nitrates you should be good to go. I don't even bother testing ammonia or nitrates any longer.