Does This Mean My Tank Is Fully Cycled?

[dave_paton]

Hello all!!!
i think my tank may be fully cycled but i am not 100% sure. So hopefully i can give enough information to get a yes or no answer.

My tanks stats over the last week:

Monday
ammonia 0 -(has been for about 3 days)
Nitrite 1- (spiked to 2 last week seems to be leveling out)
ph 6.8
did 40% water change and nitrite dropped to 0.75

Tuesday
ammonia 0
nitrite 1 (after work 5pm, i get up to early to check it in the morning)
ph 6.8
did 40% water change nitrite dropped to 0.75

Wednessday
ammonia 0
nitrite 1
ph 6.8
25% water change, nitrite appears to be .50

Thursday 5th June
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0.75
ph 6.8
25% water change nitrite didnt move much maybe a bit less than 0.75

Friday
ammonia 0
nitrite 0.50
ph 6.8
no water change as nitrite seemed to be dropping on its own maybe??

Saturday
ammonia 0
nitrite possibly a bit less than 0.50
ph 6.8

Sundy
ammonia 0
nitrite 0.25 is definatly dropping on its own
nitrate 2ppm (bought a API tester today)
ph 6.8

Monday
ammonia 0
nitrite less than 0.25
ph 6.8
nitrate 5ppm

Tuesday
ammonia 0
nitrite 0!!
ph 6.8
nitrates 7ppm

today
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph 6.8
nitrates 9-10ppm

My tank is a jebo r362 143Litres
2 three spot gourami
4 gold barb
plants: amazon swords java ferm java moss and 2 crypts
to big pieces of bog wood

the hole time my fish have been happy, even through the first 2 weeks of having ammonia of 0.25 and have all look healthy, even through my nitrite spike when it got to 2ppm. over the time my temperature is always been 26' an have performed so many water changes, no wonder melbourne has water restrictions in place lol...... shhhhh!

The signs look good and the guy at the fish store says yes i am cycled and i too think i am due to the final readings of ammonia and nitrite dropping on their own cause. But my reason for doubting this is i have only had a fish in for 4 weeks, and 2 weeks before that i did the stupid lfs thing of letting it stand just with my plant in their.

Isnt this too fast for a tank to cycle??
maybe i am jumping the gun and am not cycled yet???
the only other argument i have in favour of being cycled is that my tap water has 0 nitrate and my tank is going up by 2ppm to 3ppm daily now....

i dunno i am still a newbie to this so maybe someone could please lend their opinion and maybe i will get a better idea of weather i am cycles or not..

thanks to anyone who has read this far down lol what a bore, sorry for drabbling on!!

cheers

 

[dave_paton]

bump

 

[Corleone]

Didn't go back over your post history, but I take it this was a fish-in cycle?

Anyway, you do look like you're in a good spot, but don't get too excited just yet. You're at the end of the cycle by the looks of it, but you might still see some ammonia or nitrite, as a newly established biofilter can be a bit unstable. If you add any fish, you may also see a "mini-cycle," which may call for some more water changes.

Keep up your daily testing for at least a couple weeks, but I think you can relax on the constant water changes and only change if you get ammonia or nitrite readings. If it stays at 0, you can relax and fall into a normal weekly routine. After that, if you make any new additions, test daily for a few days to make sure it's in order, and be prepared to do water changes for a few days if necessary.

 

[OldMan47]

Dave, it looks to me like you may well be cycled. Now comes the hard part. Don't add any fish for at least a week and do some testing between now and then to make sure its really under control. If all is still well, you can gradually increase your stocking levels.

 

[dave_paton]

cool, thanks for the replys. finally something positive haha!!!

i wont be adding any more fish this weekend as i have no spare $$$ i might just spend the week going over my encyclopedia of fish and make some decisions on my stocking.

my tank is an odd shape also, 2ft long 2ft high and 1ft wide, is like kind of a square. not sure about my stocking yet, i no angels are good for taller tanks but personally i dont like them... i dont mean to offend the angel lovers out there.
i like more active fish that swim around alot like my gold barbs.

any recomendations on community fish in taller tanks??? i no their is probably a thread on this but ill ask n e way.

thanks again for the replies!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah definatley cycled, as others have said though sometimes you get a little blip in the readings over the next week or so, so just keep monitoring things, if you see any ammonia or nitrite then do water changes again for however long you need until they've gone.

hold off getting fish for a good couple of weeks, you need to give the bacteia colony time to establish so just sit back, do your research and play the waiting game for a couple of weeks, when you do add fish never add more than a couple at a time, then leave it a few weeks between adding one lot and adding the next lot of fish.

just because the tank is tall doesn't mean you have to have fish which like tall tanks, if you get a good mix of top/middle and bottom swimmers then you'll see action all over the tank

your gouramis are top swimmers, the barbs top/middle swimmers so look for some more middle and bottom swimmers first.

For small active livley colourful fish with bags of personality you cannot go wrong with dwarf cichlids, look up rams, apistogramma and nannacara species. (and yes i know i recommend them to everyone but seriously, you can't go wrong!!)

then throw in a shoal of cories, a couple of ottos and some shrimp and you've probably room for another shoal of some sort of tetra/rasbora type thing to give more activity at the top of the tank.

 

[OldMan47]

Dave, when it comes to stocking, a tank is never complete without a half dozen cories, IMO. Like Ms W said, take it slow stocking and bring the numbers up in a way that won't cause any shocks to the tank. Its the best way to avoid any real issues with bioload.

 

[dave_paton]

ok cool, ive just looked up those dwarf chiclids.... i think i want a pair of those they look crazy!!!! and definatly some corys.... this i s a good thing lol im very distracted by making my wish list i shouldnt be tempted for a few weeks to get more fish...

altho i am going to a massive aquarium tommorow but i am leaving my wallet at home so i wont buy any lol!

did some more testing and im still at 0 ammo and 0 nitrite and nitrate has reached 10ppm

so its looking good,, just wondering about shrimp??? didnt even know i could have shrimp in my tank do you have any links to any pictures of them???

cheers oldman47... and again to miss wiggle

 

[Miss Wiggle]

dwarf cichlids are awesome.

just be careful with the set up, they are a little territorial so you need to make sure you get a cave/hiding spot for each of them, then a couple of spare ones. Beautiful fish though and bags of personality so they're great fun to watch.

likewise with cories, they just wanna play and have fun, get the biggest group you have room for as they really come into their own in a large group.

google search amano shrimp and red cherry shrimp, those are the ones your most likley to come across

 

[dave_paton]

ok... hopefully i can create some territory space.... i might try and create some caves from my plants and drift wood
obviously miss wiggle you keep dwarf ciclids?? was wondering if you have posted a picture of the tank that they are in. if you have i would be really interested at having a look at it because i think i really want these fish!!!

thankyou!!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

got no decent pics since we got the cichlids, we've got nannacara anomala at the moment though, we bought them as babies and they are just developing their adult colourings now.

other half is thinking of buying himself a good camera today so if he does I'll try and get some good pics over the weekend.

at the moment all we have is phone cameras which are rubbish

 

[dave_paton]

haha!! yeh phone cameras are garbage... would love to see some photos of your tank(s). going to look up some nannacara anomala . i bought this color encyclopedia of all fish spieces and have been lost in it for days
thanks for your help!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

selection of old pics here

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Members-...-In-Fishy-Pics/

 

[dave_paton]

selection of old pics here

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Members-...-In-Fishy-Pics/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Members-...-In-Fishy-Pics/[/URL]

AMAZING! nice tanks i mean really nice tanks!!! the planted one is my favorite, i just love that look

 

[Miss Wiggle]

thankyou, that's all my other halfs handiwork, but i'll happily take credit for it!!

unfortunatley shortly after those pics we had a massive algae issue and the tank is still recovering now, Ian's under strict instructions to return it to it's former glory though