Halloo!
I recently invested some money in a 55 gallon tank and have been trying to cycle it for the past 10 days. After failing at finding pure ammonia drops I asked around and a friend suggested using food so I've been throwing the odd cube of worms in (and scooping the excess out the following day) and testing the following day or so.
PH is currently at 6.6 - 6.8ppm
Ammonia is 2 - 4 ppm
Nitrites are 0ppm
And Nitrates are 5ppm
I have not done any water changes and I have a heater set the water at 75F.
Now, the ammonia has consistently been 2 - 4 ppm for the past 7 days, nitrites have never spiked above .25ppm which leads me to believe that I have not in fact cycled since, as I've read, you need a high spike in both and then the nitrate growth (as you can probably tell, I'm new to cycling. My previous tank came with cycled water so I didn't have to diddle with it). I had some media with bacteria from my previous 30 gallon tank (a small amount of water/plastic plants/some gravel I squished around in a sock to release all the stinky goodness) that I put in right after the initial set up. At this point I'm wondering, since I have the nitrates, did my tank already cycle and I just have high ammonia because I've been adding so much food?
I should also note that I've been adding Top Fin: Bacteria Supplement every other day for.. 5 days now? I was hoping it would boost the bacteria. Now I'm thinking my nitrate boost might be from that?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am anxious for bichirs
I recently invested some money in a 55 gallon tank and have been trying to cycle it for the past 10 days. After failing at finding pure ammonia drops I asked around and a friend suggested using food so I've been throwing the odd cube of worms in (and scooping the excess out the following day) and testing the following day or so.
PH is currently at 6.6 - 6.8ppm
Ammonia is 2 - 4 ppm
Nitrites are 0ppm
And Nitrates are 5ppm
I have not done any water changes and I have a heater set the water at 75F.
Now, the ammonia has consistently been 2 - 4 ppm for the past 7 days, nitrites have never spiked above .25ppm which leads me to believe that I have not in fact cycled since, as I've read, you need a high spike in both and then the nitrate growth (as you can probably tell, I'm new to cycling. My previous tank came with cycled water so I didn't have to diddle with it). I had some media with bacteria from my previous 30 gallon tank (a small amount of water/plastic plants/some gravel I squished around in a sock to release all the stinky goodness) that I put in right after the initial set up. At this point I'm wondering, since I have the nitrates, did my tank already cycle and I just have high ammonia because I've been adding so much food?
I should also note that I've been adding Top Fin: Bacteria Supplement every other day for.. 5 days now? I was hoping it would boost the bacteria. Now I'm thinking my nitrate boost might be from that?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am anxious for bichirs
