How do I get my aquarium to cycle?
I need serious help. I set up a 46 gallon aquarium at the beginning of June and can’t get it to cycle. Unfortunately, I have listened to advice from 3 different pet shops, and all 3 had different answers. I initially ran the aquarium for a week, then my local pet shop told me to add bacteria and 2 goldfish, which I did. Of course the ammonia climbed, as it should have, so next, 2 pet stores told me I had to perform frequent water changes, preferably some every day, which I did-about 2 gallons every morning, which kept the ammonia at about .5 ppm. Fish stressing from ammonia. I kept this up until a couple weeks ago. I had a Tetra Whisper filter and could not figure out how the bacteria filter would grow in that setup. The NEXT pet store told me the filter was no good, so I switched to an Aqua Pure three-stage filter which includes sponge material for the bacterial colony. They said my frequent water changes were keeping the aquarium from cycling and that I should stop it until cycling had occured. They also suggested I add Bio-zyme every day for a week, which I did per the instructions. They told me it would cycle the aquarium in a week. Nope, still no cycling occuring. Ammonia has been at 1.0 ppm for a week now and I am afraid I am going to lose both my fish. What the heck am I doing wrong?? Where should I go from here?
In response to the first answer-has the bacteria had long enough to grow, since I switched filters a week ago? Or does it exist on all surfaces, not just the filter?