Nitrogen cycle broke....how can i restart?

HI.


I'm having problems getting my 48l tank to cycle again. We were doing alright until we had an outbreak of whitespot. used the meds as instructed, including removing the filters and the sugar coated tetras recovered nicely. The filters dried out during the dosing, so we're back at square 1 with the cycle. since then I've been changing the water daily trying to keep my fish healthy. The ammonia won't go down, no matter what i do. I'm changing it and changing it and changing it, but the params are the same, and the fish are gradually getting weaker, even our beloved Siamese who always comes to say hello when you come in the room. Here's the numbers.


Ammonia 1.5


nitrite 0


nitrate 0


pH 6.8


temp 24C


We have 1 siamese fighter female, 1 male and 1 female tux platy, 2 male guppies, 1 male and 4 female neon tetras and 1 cory (gender uncertain) I feed them once a day with a small pinch of flakes (they are eating less and less) and some catfish pellets (again, they are losing interest, but they all love these too). I rinse the filter every few days in the water i'm removing to stop it clogging, and it also has a venturi which i use to keep the o2 levels up. I'm also using nutrafin cycle at each change (using the maintenance dose of 10ml per 40l) on the grounds that every little helps, and it shouldn't do any harm.


I'd really love some advice right now...really don't want to lose another fish, especially Dashi our betta. she's such a little darling. They are all starting to get very tired though|||You are missing the point your tank is cycling from scratch and the level of ammonia you have is normal in a tank that is going through a cycle with fish .

You have no nitrite and 0 Nitrates if you get your ammonia to 0 it wont cycle .

You need to return all the fish and do a fish less cycle ,No wonder you had White spot you are cycling a fish tank with fish that will not withstand the cycling process.You also never remove the filter just the carbon

The nutrafin cycle your adding is giving you a false reading you need to research Ammonia and Ammonium.

The best advice i can give is return all the fish get a bottle of pure Ammonia from a hardware store make sure it does not foam when you shake it if it does don't use it .

Then cycle using the ammonia that way nothing gets harmed in the process and you will have a properly cycled tank.|||Stop feeding, only every couple days

Stop rinsing the filter, it isn't clogging unless you're overfeeding and you are washing off the exact bacteria that you're trying to grow

Stop adding cycle, it's just concentrated waste when overused and you are way overusing it and making the problem worse

Keep doing 30% water changes, maybe every few days but be careful to use proper temp water and water conditioner



Edit: @no cure was right to tell you, when medicating you only remove the carbon, not the whole pad. When you get a new filter pick one that has separate biological filtration.|||It shouldn't have broke just because the filters got dry you should still have beneficial bacterias in the rest of the decor and substrate!


That's a really small tank which means it is super prone to toxins!





I would raise the water temp by 5 degrees over the next 3 days and do 10% water changes everyday until the levels look better!!!





Don't add salts that is to small of a tank and you'll end up making it brackish!





Good luck|||the nutrafin cycle has to be used in a period of 3 days... i wouldnt change the water for those three days... test the water for amonia and onle change 25% of the water.. try to go as long as u can before changing the water... to cycle the water, u have to give it a chance to develope the beneficial bacterial.,.





good luck!|||Why did you remove the whole filter? You just remove the carbon.