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?

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I help out a family friend from time to time cleaning his condo when he is not able. He is out of town and I went there today to clean up and found that the condo above him had a water leak (it was her icemaker) that leaked into his condo. There was water dripping in the kitchen, down through the cabinents, onto the floor, above the fridge (so there is water all under/behind the fridge) The leak continued out into the hallway where it is carpeted.

He would like for me to clean it up before it molds since he will be out of town for 5 more days. Obviously he won’t be paying the clean up bill. (the upstairs neighbor will) So what is a fair price to charge for a clean up of this nature? Would you pay by the job? By the hour? I want to be fair- I’m not in it to make money, but I would like to be reimbursed for my time. I’m guessing it will take 2 of us about 4 hours to clean it properly.

thanks for your input
I wasn’t asked to do the repairs, just mop up the water as best as possible. There is a section of carpeting about 16 square feet that is wet. Other than that it is hard surfaces.

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