Fishless Cycle - I Think It's Done . . . Question

[jdubs]

Hi Everyone!!

My 10 gallon tank has been fishless cycling for about 6 weeks. The last two days the ammonia has been dropping to 0ppm and so has the nitrites. Last night I did my last test because I wanted to put my Betta in today. I bumped the ammonia to 2ppm using pure ammonia. This morning Nitrite 0ppm Ammonia .25ppm instead of 0ppm.

Is this good enough for my one Betta and some cherry shrimp (10)? He is in a two gallon tank that I change the water practically every day and his ammonia in that tank usually gets to about .25-.5ppm.

Anyone think my 10 is good to go?

Thanks!!!! You guys are awesome!!!

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah you're probably ready to add fish. Just do a really massive water change first to make sure all the nasties are removed. I'd say do something like 80%.

 

[TheJ0kerrr]

Like AA said... massive water change should put your cycle back on track and your betta will definetly be happeier in the 10 gallon, no matter what

Just keep an eye on your parameters for a few days after adding him in case you need to do more water changes.

And one last thing... when you are testing for nitrite, what color do the drops turn to as soon as they fall in the tube? When nitrites are off the chart (as usually happens in a fishless cycle), the test sometimes turns to a similar color to the 0ppm. Test for nitrites again after you've made your water change and see if it's still 0ppm. The drops should turn blue on contact with water in the tube.

Have fun with the new fish!

 

[BigbruiserAl]

putting cherry shrimp in very new possibly unfinished tank is asking for trouble IMO

 

[Gilli]

Agree with BigBrusieral - I woudnt add the shrimp until your ammonia is permanently at 0 - they are very sensitive to bad water quality and are likely to die.

 

[waterdrop]

For a long time the test the helped define whether your fishless cycle was complete was whether your new bacterial colonies could drop the ammonia dose to double zeros (zero ppm ammonia and zero ppm nitrite(NO2)) within 12 hours after the dose and repeat this feat for about 5 days running. There are all sorts of legitimate small adjustments to this guideline that the members have helped people with in individual cases. In your case it may be that a betta (which I think of as bit more tough than, for instance, some of the more sensitive tetras, just as an example) that would be moving out of a smaller volume could indeed be an ok transition from the fishless cycling process to more of a "watch for it being a bit of a fish-in cycle" sort of process, which is what you'd be doing. I agree with Gilli and BBA though not to test that sort of thing on shrimp.

Even with the most nicely fishless cycled tank, you are still just moving to a situation where you want to establish the "weekly water change" habit anyway, so possibly having to make more water changes than that on a 10g is not necessarily such a big deal and can simply be a natural extension of paying attention and caring about your newly established tank. Anyway I hope it goes well and you enjoy it!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[jdubs]

Changed the water and added my Betta yesterday AM. This morning everything looks beautiful (ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 5ppm) . . . and Fishie-Go (that's his name) is super happy!!!

Thank you, Thank you everyone for helping me out!!!

PS. Just for reference the fishless cycle for this 10 gallon tank took about 6-7 weeks.