cycling my 5 gal. :/ grrrr

[shalafi04]

i put up this 5 gallon over 9 weeks ago and its soooo messed up. I dont know what to do.

My 40g actually was put up and cycled and this 5g is soooo messed up.

I had to move my betta into my 40gal community tank because the 5gallons perameters went completely haywire.

its a 5gal. no real plants, dorky pink gravel, plain little light, theres nothing crazy about it.

heres what it has read the last 2 days:

pH: 8.2 (yuck, my tap comes out 7.4 so I dont know whats with the increase)
ammonia- 0
nitrates- 5
looking good right....
NOT

nitrItes- 5.0 yep! FIVE+

my poor freaking betta was living in a little fishy hell.

I use a liquid master test kit. And I know Im doing it right becuz it worked fine on the 40g and the 29g.

So what does this mean. When I saw the high nitrites yesterday I did a 50% water change because i know how bad they are for the fish, and it still is reading a 5.0. Which means its probably higher than 5 because thats the highest reading available. :(

whats wrong?

[jbeining75]

Water that small is hard to control... .How often due you clean the tank? Does it have a filter?

[shalafi04]

it has the little HOB filter that came with it. probably the equal to a aquaclear 20.

I clean all my tanks at least once a week, do my top offs and changes if they need them.

little tanks suck. Is there anything I can do?? Can I snag some plants from my cycled 40g or so gravel from it and put it in there to help it out.
or do you think a little 10g would be easier to control than a 5. If so... im gonna junk that piece of $***

[Lady Hobbs]

You were probably trying to use too much ammonia for a tank that size. You don't need a huge bioload when only one fish is going in there.

Why not dump some of your gravel in there from the other tank since that ones cycled or have you? STOP CLEANING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jbeining75]

yeah I'd try that or you can amquel plus it to bring down the levels...... after huge ammonia spikes come nitrite spikes........ I'd keep the wc's going switch the gravel and amquel it.....

[shalafi04]

well i dont have ammonia, so my goldfish had cycled that tank for me. my only concern is that if I do not have a fish in there now, there is 0 ammonia going in. Should I continue to feed the empty tank until it levels, or should I put on of my goldies back. Id hate to do that but i do have a very small red oranda who would fit comfortably in the 5g for the time being.
my poor fish. i suck as a fish mommy :(

[AquaBANG]

in a 5G tank will it not be ok to do 100% water changes every couple of days?

[shalafi04]

thats what i was thinking, if like the tank always has new water with zero everything, isnt that sorta the same as being "cycled" cause changing out 5g constantly isnt too big of a deal. :/ hmmmm

[AquaBANG]

make sure the water with which you replace is conditioned and similar water parameters. basically if its from the same source, its going to be fine.