Tank Won’t Cycle… HELP!!

[JGMeredith]

I’m beyond confused. I’ve been in this hobby for almost 20 years and this has never happened to me. I sat up a 32g AIO, 2 months ago. RODI water, plenty of rock, and used Fritz Turbo Start (like I have many times before) and introduced a couple gobies to the tank. It’s been over 2 months now, the tank is EXTREMELY cloudy and my ammonia is 3.0 but ZERO nitrites and zero nitrates. No idea what is happening or why it’s not converting. Any advice is very welcome!

 

[juniorgomez708]

I’m beyond confused. I’ve been in this hobby for almost 20 years and this has never happened to me. I sat up a 32g AIO, 2 months ago. RODI water, plenty of rock, and used Fritz Turbo Start (like I have many times before) and introduced a couple gobies to the tank. It’s been over 2 months now, the tank is EXTREMELY cloudy and my ammonia is 3.0 but ZERO nitrites and zero nitrates. No idea what is happening or why it’s not converting. Any advice is very welcome!

Any pictures of the cloudy water?

 

[Troylee]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom.. what test kit are you using?

 

[Idech]

How are the fish doing ?

 

[JGMeredith]

Any pictures of the cloudy water?

Best I can do. That’s with whites 100% and blues 60%)

 

[JGMeredith]

How are the fish doing ?

The fish seems 100% normal. I am dosing Prime since the ammonia just keeps rising.

 

[Tired]

Sounds like something's wrong with your test kits.

I'm also not certain whether bacteria can make use of ammonia that's been bound up by Prime.

Got another tank you can temporarily move the gobies to, maybe in a breeder box so you can easily put them back?

 

[sixty_reefer]

If the bloom is heterotrophic bacteria the ammonia won’t convert, most likely a space competition between heterotrophic bacteria and chemotropic bacteria, you really need to get those fish out of that system asap and place them in quarantine wile finding why you have a bacterial bloom or what caused it.

 

[JGMeredith]

Sounds like something's wrong with your test kits.

I'm also not certain whether bacteria can make use of ammonia that's been bound up by Prime.

Got another tank you can temporarily move the gobies to, maybe in a breeder box so you can easily put them back?

2 separate kits, same reading on both.

 

[JGMeredith]

If the bloom is heterotrophic bacteria the ammonia won’t convert, most likely a space competition between heterotrophic bacteria and chemotropic bacteria, you really need to get those fish out of that system asap and place them in quarantine wile finding why you have a bacterial bloom or what caused it.

I don’t have a clue why I have a bloom (if that’s it). I’ve done nothing differently than I have before. What can I do to help if it’s a bloom?

 

[sixty_reefer]

I don’t have a clue why I have a bloom (if that’s it). I’ve done nothing differently than I have before. What can I do to help if it’s a bloom?

If it’s heterotrophic bacteria you need to look for a source of dissolved organic carbon, have you got any macro algae in the tank or dosed anything else besides bacteria, can you post the pic of the bottle you used also.

At this point all you can do is increase oxygen in the system

 

[taricha]

Cloudy water blooms often consume much O2.
O2 is a required reactant for ammonia to be oxidized to NO2 and NO3.
Aerate strongly for the good of everything (cycling included)
And skim / uv / fine filtration to remove or kill off the bloom.

 

[brandon429]

all you do is run a rip clean on the tank and it will be fine, this isn't a stuck cycle, and we can't rightly say that copious prime addition doesn't skew non digital test kits anymore.

I long suspected Prime as a test kit adulterant.

he does not have 3 ppm / toxic ammonia with a living fish after this long, this isn't a cycle issue its a bac bloom issue that fully cycled tanks get.

a fritz cycle is done under ten days. there are no stalled cycles at 2 mos, only test kit issues.

 

[reeftankdude]

Buy and aim a power head directly at the surface. Maybe there was something wrong with the bacteria you used. Drop in some Dr. Tim's and cut of the filters for a few days to give the Tim's bacteria time to settle into the rocks. Then ad a cheapo UV sterlizer.

 

[hsosa]

more flow and try to break the water surface will help. water change .

 

[Soren]

Have you tried water changes?
I am not the most experienced, but I try to read about issues and learn as much as I can and this sounds like bacterial bloom like @sixty_reefer & @taricha and others mentioned.
As mentioned, increased aeration/waterflow/surface agitation should help with this.

I am surprised that the gobies have lived this long with high ammonia and likely depleted O2, but a resolution as soon as possible would likely be greatly to their benefit. What type of gobies are they?

 

[Tired]

There's no way those fish are acting normal with 3ppm of active ammonia. That's gotta be the stuff bound up in the Prime showing up on the kit.

 

[Dan_P]

I’m beyond confused. I’ve been in this hobby for almost 20 years and this has never happened to me. I sat up a 32g AIO, 2 months ago. RODI water, plenty of rock, and used Fritz Turbo Start (like I have many times before) and introduced a couple gobies to the tank. It’s been over 2 months now, the tank is EXTREMELY cloudy and my ammonia is 3.0 but ZERO nitrites and zero nitrates. No idea what is happening or why it’s not converting. Any advice is very welcome!

If the ammonia tests are correct, the fish are surviving only because the pH is low. Whatever you do, avoid anything that will increase the pH. The Prime is unlikely doing anything. Prime can stop nitrate and probably nitrite tests from reading anything. However, it should also kill your ammonia test as well. Since it is not, there must not be much Prime in the water. I would like to know which brand of ammonia test you are using.

As for the bacteria bloom, new systems can develop them, so nothing unusual here. Focus on getting rid of the high ammonia.

As soon as possible, add fresh Turbo start or Biospira. This will introduce bacteria that will bring down tha ammonia pretty quickly. Your first bottle could have been a dud.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I don’t have a clue why I have a bloom (if that’s it). I’ve done nothing differently than I have before. What can I do to help if it’s a bloom?

If you added prime around the same time as any bottled bacteria, that's where your bloom came from.

I agree that getting the fish out of there and into clean water is a priority. You want to avoid using Prime for 2 reasons - 1. There's considerable debate as to whether or not it actually affects ammonia/ammonium, and 2. It makes ammonia test results meaningless... at least the ones that measure total ammonia.

Even if you got a bad batch of turbo start, 2 months is enough time for nitrifying bacteria from the air to start colonizing the tank... So something is skewing your nitrite/nitrate test results as well.

 

[GatorGreg]

You wouldn't have happened to have used dry dead rock?
I had this EXACT thing happen a few years ago when starting dry rock tanks. I absolutely abhore dry dead rock when starting a reef. Absolutely nothing but problems I couldn't figure out how to solve. I am in awe at the folks who can turn that garbage into a thriving reef. Only way I want to start a tank now is with ocean rock.

I'm a believer.

I've started a tank recently with ocean rock and with dry rock by now in the timeline I was already having stressful problems. I've been enjoying the life on my ocean rock so much I'm reliving my teenage years when I had my best reef ever. Every day I look at it there's something new.