Still More Cycling Questions

[tbm]

very new to fish keeping, however I think I'm getting it together.

background first:

got a tank that I thought was a 29 gal, put chemicals in, put plants in, got 4 fish I thought were mollies, found out fish were teras, went back to store, found out tank was only 20 gal, took back to vendor, bought real 29 gal on Dec 19/07 and started all over again.

put live plants in new tank and this time, got a lyre swordtail and a dalmation mollie from a private person who breeds fish.
put used filter media from her tank in as well.

checked levels every other day since Dec 19. PH, is 7.2, Ammonia has always been at 0, Nitrites at 0 and just the last 3 weeks, Nitrates are varying between 5.0 and 10. There have never been any spikes at all.

Around first week of January, I went back to her and got 1 mature cory, 3 baby corys (the largest was about 1/2 in long, they were sooo cute!) and 2 immature swortails (about 3/4 in each)

so now I have 8 fish in total.

I added another filter, so am now running an AquaClear and WhisperPower, both running on low and a bubble wand. I have been doing weekly water changes and vacuuming and algae scraping.

When I put the filter media in the original filter, I was told to take the carbon out until the tank cycled.

My questions? How long before I know the tank is cycled? How long do I keep testing water every couple of days? When do I put the carbon back in the filter?

I'm trying to spread my question out amongst the fish people so that no one site gets fed up with me, lol

oops, sorry, forgot to say " thank you in advance"

 

[Matt_northants]

Using mature filter media your tank wont undergo a traditional cycle per se as the cycle is the process of maturing your filter.
If I was you I would start to test twice a week now rather than every couple of day, for a month and if everything stays stable test once a week after this period.
And you'll be fine to put your carbon back into your filter now.

 

[OldMan47]

The water testing results looks like you may have had a very fish friendly cycle. If your nitrates go up slowly during the week between water changes, I would say you are there. Go ahead and see if you can pick up the trend. Maybe you could test right before a water change. Once you know how fast or slow the changes are, you can start to judge how much water you really need to change for the bioload in your particular tank. Each time you add or remove fish, it will change but you will know that if its the same right before each change, you are changing just enough water to keep up with your fish. If the water quality is better each week, maybe you have gone overboard. If its a little worse each week, you probably need to change more. The biggest hazard, in my opinion, is adding fish without adjusting your maintenance practices to match.

 

[tbm]

The water testing results looks like you may have had a very fish friendly cycle. If your nitrates go up slowly during the week between water changes, I would say you are there. Go ahead and see if you can pick up the trend. Maybe you could test right before a water change. Once you know how fast or slow the changes are, you can start to judge how much water you really need to change for the bioload in your particular tank. Each time you add or remove fish, it will change but you will know that if its the same right before each change, you are changing just enough water to keep up with your fish. If the water quality is better each week, maybe you have gone overboard. If its a little worse each week, you probably need to change more. The biggest hazard, in my opinion, is adding fish without adjusting your maintenance practices to match.

thanks very much for your replies. The nitrates don't seem to change much if at all. I am doing a 25% change (roughly) each week, I have tested each week right before the change and right after and both days ammonia is 0, nitrites 0. These 2 have never changed at all, even slightly.

whoo-hoo! I've done something right and not stressed my fish out!

oh, and the other thing was when I first got my fancy fin swordtail, she was supposed to be a female, but apparently, she was a he in hiding as he grew a really long thingamagig and has been chasing my 2 female swordtails. He is a non-breeding male however.

 

[erodz23]

I have a question regarding the cycling, not sure if anyone could help. I’m at a stand still, not sure what too do now. My tank is on day 7 of Dr Tims One ad Only and I’m stuck on how to proceed. I was supposed to dose the ammonia yesterday and didn’t since I still had ph 6.8 ammonia 0.5, nitrite 1.0 and nitrate -5.0. Today my reading are: ph 6.6, NH3- 1.0, NO2- 2.0, Nitrate- 5.0. Should I re-dose, or do a water change cause of the PH and then dose or just wait and see ? I have a 23g Fluval w aquaclear50 running. Temp around 78 degrees. Any help would be appreciated. New to the hobby and excited to get this going.