Am I getting there?

[GJF]

Good Evening,

My tank has been cycling for approximately 20 days now. My nitrite is now at .75ppm and ammonia is at .25ppm. Both have been steadily declining.

I have a small population of snails which have appeared within the tank now. These little guys are getting bigger by the day and seem to be doing well. In addition my tank is quite heavily planted and the plants are growing brilliantly, at least two or three times the size they were when they went it.

Seven days ago I added a bottle of Tetrasafe start which seems to be doing the business.

I dont want to add ammonia to my tank because I dont want to do any harm to the snails, can anyone advise me the best way to proceed so I fan finally get some long awaited fish!

 

[Aquarium guy person]

In one of my tanks I used tetra safestart plus and immediately added fish just to try it(the fish were just some baby mollies) and they are all alive big and healthy today!

 

[seangee]

Did you ever add ammonia? If not we need to establish where it came from.
If yes then let the ammonia and nitrite get to 0, do a large water change and you are good to go.

With actively growing plants the normal answer would be you are fine - but the presence of ammonia and nitrites may suggest an issue if you did not add ammonia...

 

[GJF]

Yes I did add ammonia, i added Dr Tim's and had ammonia at approx 3.0ppm. I haven't added any additional since that

 

[Essjay]

The first dose has now dropped but it took 20 days. The tank will be cycled when you know that 3 ppm ammonia can be processed right though to zero ammonia and zero nitrite in 24 hours.

But if you have lots of plants which are showing signs of active growth it should be safe to add fish. Add the first of the species you intend and monitor both ammonia and nitrite every day. If you see either above zero, do a water change to get them down to zero. Wait till ammonia & nitrite have stayed at zero for at least a week before getting the nest species.

But if the plants do not seem to be actively growing yet, you need to wait until they are before getting any fish. the fact that you have a reading for ammonia even with plants in the tank does suggest they are not taking up ammonia very well at the moment.