brand new to the hobby...super confused about cycling my tank!

[sarah009]

Hi Everybody!

I'm new to fish keeping and I'm really excited to get into the hobby. I've been doing loads of research for months and feel pretty comfortable with everything except cycling the tank. At first I was fine with it, but the more I research the more confused I get. I have a 15 gallon tank, heavily heavily planted and its been running for a week or so. I plan to put in 3 dwarf puffers. I have the API master test kit. Ive been testing and adding in fish flakes daily for a source of ammonia. Current levels are PH 7.2, Ammonia 0.25ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 10ppm. The levels don't really make sense to me at this point in the cycling process, so I'm not sure what's going on there. Also I've read conflicting info on adding fish flakes vs adding ammonia -- like fish flakes are a messy slow way, and adding ammonia is the fast way but also doesn't always have the best results in terms of the beneficial bacteria grown. Then last night I was watching one of Cory's videos from Aquarium Co-op, whom I adore, and he was saying that often times in heavily planted tanks you won't even get correct water readings when testing since the plants use up so much of the Ammonia. It sounds to me from what he was saying that as long as you have a heavily planted tank, plant growth, and algae growth, then your tank is "alive" and you can put fish in. Can someone point me in the right direction?!

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

In a planted aquarium, the plants will use ammonia as a source of food when the tank lights are on. Your ammonia test kit will still read any ammonia in the water, but the plants can reduce the amount of ammonia in the water when they absorb it and use it to grow.
eg: Your plants might be using half the ammonia in the water and your test kit is only reading 0.25ppm. Then your tank has 0,25ppm of ammonia in it and if you stop adding fish food (or ammonia) the plants will use the remaining ammonia in the water over the next few days.

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You should check your tap water for nitrates. Some people have nitrates in their tap water and that could be the cause of your tank having 10ppm nitrate.

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Adding flakes or any type of fish food, dead fish, frozen prawn, or liquid ammonia will all do the same thing, provide a source of ammonia for the beneficial filter bacteria to eat. Flakes and fish food are more readily available than liquid ammonia and they are cleaner than using a bit of frozen meat (fish, prawn, steak). The meat will produce huge amounts of ammonia but they also encourage other types of bad bacteria to grow in the tank. Flake and pellet foods also encourage different bad bacteria to grow in the water but not as much as meat based foods. They can also encourage fungus to grow in the tank. Liquid ammonia does not encourage bad bacteria or fungus to grow in the tank.

Different sources of ammonia will make no difference to how long the beneficial bacteria take to grow. The average time for a tropical aquarium to cycle is 4-5 weeks, but sometimes it can take longer.

Liquid ammonia is easier to measure and calculate how much is required to get the ammonia levels to about 3ppm, which is the recommended amount of ammonia to get the filter bacteria going. You can have less ammonia and it works too but most places suggest 3-4ppm, I prefer 3ppm.

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If using fish food or meat to cycle the tank, it is a good idea to drain and refill the tank each week. Use a basic model gravel cleaner (like the one in the link below) to clean the rotten food out of the gravel. The same thing after the tank has cycled. Do a complete drain and refill the tank, then wait 24 hours before adding fish. The big water change will remove any nitrates from the water so the new fish will be going into a clean tank.
https://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

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If you have a heavily planted tank that is using most of the ammonia in the water, you could stop adding ammonia and add a few fish, (do a complete water change and gravel clean first). The fish will produce ammonia and the plants can use that and if any ammonia is not used, the filter will develop bacteria to use it. However, in really heavily planted tanks, the filters don't grow many bacteria because there isn't a lot of food for them.

If you do this you should check ammonia and nitrite levels each day and do a 75% water change any day you get an ammonia or nitrite reading.

You also keep the feeding down to once a day or less often if you do get an ammonia or nitrite reading. After a month or so when the filters have established, you can feed more often or add more fish.