Getting fishless cycling started!

[GJF]

If I was to do a water change what percentage would you recommend?

 

[Essjay]

With your water it would probably be worth doing half.

Besides, it'll give you practice for when there are fish, and we recommend 50% changes per week then

 

[CB008]

The heavily planted tank is the key here. It obviously depends on what you mean by heavily planted - but if the plants are all growing actively they will deal with the ammonia even if the filter is not cycled.

 

[seangee]

That does indeed explain why you were able to cycle your tank so quickly. It also explains why you never had a nitrate spike. I have no doubt the tank is perfectly healthy - but it was the plants that got it there rather than the product you used.

 

[GJF]

So as per suggestion I carried out a water change. pH has went from 6.4 to 6.6, ammonia as expected is slightly down too. When doing my tests I also checked for nitrites today and found them to be at .50ppm. Is this due to things finally moving along or could this be reading be caused my fertiliser, seachem flourish which I added last Saturday morning? Dont know if it makes any impact on cycling but my plants are coming along nicely