Question for you - 55 gal tank has been up 5 months, no measurable bacteria

My husband has a 55 gal tank that's been set up about seven months. The tank currently has 6 neon tetras, 2 angel fish, and 4 corys. He added these fish slowly and kept a close eye on water parameters but has never had any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate show when he tested the water. The tank has a few pieces of bogwood and PH has been averaging around 7.5. Early on he tried adding more bogwood to lower the ph but the ph crashed and he lost a few fish, so he's not tried adding more since. The fish that are in there appear healthy, active and eating well.

Question for you - 1) How can we safely lower the ph a little without causing another crash? 2) Why the heck are we not seeing any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate after all this time?

hmm not sure how often and how much do you change your water?

He's been stretching the water changes out to about once every 6 weeks, 25% change. At first he was changing water more frequently but with the low number of fish and no measureable bacteria he backed off hoping to see the tank cycle.

well im no expert..but i use this site as a good reference

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in a cycled tank you should see a little Nitrate.

you don't want to see any ammonia or nitrite.

what is the filtration of the tank?
do you gravel vac with each water change?
..do you have plants?

Emperor 400 for filtration, we gravel vacuum/siphon with each water change. No live plants.

How old is the test kit did it expire possibly?

Are you changing the cartridges every month? This could be part of the problem as every time you replace the cartridge it takes a good portion of your BB's out of your tank.

If you do the cartridge changes, I would recommend modding the filter so you don't have to.

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He's been changing out the filter media every other water change. We're just scratching our heads here, wondering what we are missing. I'll look into the links posted, thank you for the info. As for the test kits, I think I bought them when I started up my 75 about 2-3 yrs ago. I use the same kits for my tank and and his and get Nitrate readings everytime for mine. Maybe the kits are old enough to miss low readings. Thank you all for your time and suggestions. Much appreciated!

Another trick that is easier than the mod I linked is to take a cartridge, cut the blue filtering pad along one side to dump the charcoal out (Its only really needed after treating with meds). Get batting sheets from a craft store (cheaper than most pet stores, and its the same exact thing! looks like this [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ).

Cut the batting into strips and work under the blue filtering pad until you fill the tray with the batting. Then either silicone the blue pad back down, or rubber band it and presto, more mechanical filtration that doubles as a home for your beneficial bacterial for bio-filtering! Another option is something like this:

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I am a bit confused as to what your problem is. Your fish are healthy, (thats a plus)
There is no ammonia or nitrites, (another plus)
There are no nitrates, (this is not a bad thing)

As far as I am concerned, you have a perfectly cycled tank.

As for the ph issue. Just buy some peat, you can get this at any fish store. Put a small portion of the peat into a mesh bag, and set it in your filter so that the water flows through it. Monitor the ph, and increase the peat till the desired ph is obtained.

My question for you is. 7.5 is a very acceptable ph, and if all your fish are healthy and comfortable, why mess with it?

It sounds to me like the tank is cycled. It also sounds like it is not overstocked, thus the ease in maintenance with the water changes. I agree with madness about the PH, there really is no need to mess with it if its at 7.5.

Thanks all! We have been hesitant to add more fish since we've not seen evidence of the bacteria cycle with the test kit but I suppose if it's not broke, we'll not worry about it.