Finally! Fully Cycled!

[Thirdfloor]

I am very happy to announce that my tank is finally fully cycled.
Ammonia and Nitrites both processing to 0 daily for 3 days now.
Going to go get my fish today. (yes, I did a massive WC already, calm down )
Will post up some pics later.

So happy!

 

[pauly]

Great stuff mate

Lets see the pics

 

[Jonno]

how long did it take for your nitrite to change from off the scale? I'm on week 4 tomorrow and i'm still waiting for my nitrite to drop My ammonia dropped in 9 days, today is 18 days later so it should have gone by now surely?

I'm having to do a 20 litre (2 bucket) water change every day to stop the ph hitting 6 and stalling the cycle too

i'm very cheesed off, i feel like i may as well have done a fish cycle and done water changes as i'm having to do them anyway. I must admit the thought had crossed my mind to empty the thing anyway and lob some fish in and do water changes. some words of courage would be most appreciated!!

 

[Thirdfloor]

My nitrite phase was very very short, but i cheated a little and snipped a corner of my frineds filter off when he changed it, brought it home in a bag of tank water and dropped it in my filter to seed the bacteria colony. The nitrite phase only took a few days because of that.

 

[pandacichlid]

whenever cycling a new tank, always see if you can get a donation from somebody's filter. I didn't do this, but it helps significantly.
Congratulations
Mine took awhile to cycle, but it's worth the wait!

 

[mark.w.jones]

how long did it take for your nitrite to change from off the scale? I'm on week 4 tomorrow and i'm still waiting for my nitrite to drop My ammonia dropped in 9 days, today is 18 days later so it should have gone by now surely?

I'm having to do a 20 litre (2 bucket) water change every day to stop the ph hitting 6 and stalling the cycle too

i'm very cheesed off, i feel like i may as well have done a fish cycle and done water changes as i'm having to do them anyway. I must admit the thought had crossed my mind to empty the thing anyway and lob some fish in and do water changes. some words of courage would be most appreciated!!

If you are having to remove a percentage of your nitrite and ammonia every day with water changes then that will unfortunately slow bacterial growth. You must be close, If you are no closer in a week then post back here for suggestions.

 

[Jonno]

If you are having to remove a percentage of your nitrite and ammonia every day with water changes then that will unfortunately slow bacterial growth. You must be close, If you are no closer in a week then post back here for suggestions.

hopefully not...!

i have a few bunches of plants in there at the moment waiting to be planted (they arrived mailorder earlier than expected), could these be causing my PH issue?

 

[Thirdfloor]

Here are the promised pics!

Stock list:
6 Bloodfin tetras (sexes yet undetermined)
4 Zebra Danios (2M, 2F)
2 Von Rio Tetras (I suspect both to be females)
1 CAE
a few snails.


My 2 von rios tend to shoal with the bloodfins, which I like. I would have gotten a few more but there were only 2 left in the tank and I felt bad for them.
I probably would have passed on the Danios, since the tank is just 2 feet long, but I bought them before I knew about fishless cycling and my LFS was nice enough to keep them for me until my tank was cycled.
Yes, I know all about the CAE and will re-home it in a few months. Believe it or not, I actually want one. I think they are amazing. I will eventually put it in a larger tank with some nice upper layer fish that wont bother it down on the bottom of the tank.
I am aware that its a bit overstocked, but I am overfiltering (filter is for a 30gallon tank and mine is only 18) and will watch water test results closely, I am fully prepared to do water changes 2x a week if necessary to keep up with the bio load.


The tank, finally fully stocked and cycled

Bloodfins and Von Rios

Dinner time!!

The Nursery, for any fry lucky enough to find this corner to hide in and not become a snack lol

Let me know what you all think!