Is My Tank Cycled?

[cuthy123]

I Have taken the following readings over the last 3 days:

Monday Ammonia 0.1 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Ph 7.2
Tuesday Ammonia 0.1 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0
Today Ammonia 0.2 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0

Would these figures suggest that the tank is fully cycled???
The tank has being setup for 6 weeks & is in a fish with cycle
If so any suggestions for fish to go with my 5 Zebra Danios would be welcome

Many Thanks

Ben

 

[Skins]

I Have taken the following readings over the last 3 days:

Monday Ammonia 0.1 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Ph 7.2
Tuesday Ammonia 0.1 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0
Today Ammonia 0.2 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0

Would these figures suggest that the tank is fully cycled???
The tank has being setup for 6 weeks & is in a fish with cycle
If so any suggestions for fish to go with my 5 Zebra Danios would be welcome

Many Thanks

Ben

Going by the stats you have posted i would say no. when your nitrogen cycle is complete your ammonia & nitrite levels should be zero with an increasing level in nitrates. Nitrates will only decrease if you have live plants and when you do your weekly water change.

Skins.

 

[cuthy123]

Cheers skins where abouts would you say i was at with my cycle going off the stats???
I have live plants so the nitrates shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Skins]

Are you using the api master test kit?
Because you have no nitrate present i would say your right at the beginning BUT if your using the Api nitrate test this has been known to give false readings. I will explain that to you after your next post.

Skins.

 

[Skins]

Are you using the api master test kit?
Because you have no nitrate present i would say your right at the beginning BUT if your using the Api nitrate test this has been known to give false readings. I will explain that to you after your next post.

Skins.

A good tip, is to test your tap water parameters(this way you know what your water supplier is putting in the water)

 

[cuthy123]

I am using a nutrafin mini master test kit, but i had a fluval U3 internal filter running on the tank from the start but i then decided i wanted to put an external filter so i bought a fluval 305 which has been on since week 2 i kept them both running upto a couple of weeks ago when i took out the U3 But i have put the media out of the U3 and put it in the 305.

I was getting readings of nitrite & nitrate (not 100% sure on nitrate didnt keep a log until this week but definatly was getting readings of nitrite). up until this week when they have stayed at 0 so iam a bit confused if i seem to have gone backwards!! Is this Possible

Other info that might point out an answer

Have had a nutrafin natural co2 system setup for a couple of weeks
Have also put a snail treatment in last week

 

[Skins]

Thats a good sign that you had nitrite readings and now you don't.
Have you tested your tap water yet(ammonia,nitrite,nitrate)?
Do you use Seachem prime to dechlorinate your tap water?
I'm not sure if the snail treatment would effect your water, never used it personally.

Skins.

 

[cuthy123]

No not yet planning to do it tonight when i get in from work.
Have not used Seachem prime before currently using nutrafin aqua plus i think.
should i be testing every 12hours because iam only testing every 24 Hours


Cheers Skins

Ben

 

[waterdrop]

My guess is that you are still experiencing some bounce in the mini-cycle that followed the transfer of your young media from the U3 to the external cannister filter. Biomedia does not always continue to work perfectly when transferred between filters. If the media is several years mature it is very different from media that is less than a year and thus considered to be very young. The young media biofilms are more easily disturbed I feel and more likely to lapse in processing when moved.

This is all very common however and simply means that you should fall back on your Fish-In Cycling skills. The traces you are reporting put you on the borderline for 12-hour checking on the safety of your danios. If you never see what you consider to be a 0.30 reading on the Nutrafin kit then your water-changing pattern is probably keeping the danios down to minimal gill damage. Your biofilter just needs you to help it out with some extra water changes for a while until it catches back up to match the bioload of the little danios. As soon as you see solid double-zero ppm readings for a week I'd go ahead and get a couple more danios in there so they will feel even more comfortable at having reached the minimum 6 or so. Then continue to test a wait a couple more weeks before your next stocking addition. Your Fluval 305 will eventually build up a wonderful biofilter and you'll be off and running. Also be sure your CO2 tester shows you are not getting CO2 too high for the fish, although that's probably unlikely from a DIY setup (just thinking that fish getting some ammonia and nitrite traces don't also need high CO2!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Skins]

No not yet planning to do it tonight when i get in from work.
Have not used Seachem prime before currently using nutrafin aqua plus i think.
should i be testing every 12hours because iam only testing every 24 Hours


Cheers Skins

Ben

I would have a look at your snail treatment bottle just to see if it refers to removing nitrates from your water, like i said in my last post i've never used snail treatment so i'm a bit in the dark with its effects.

Skins.

 

[waterdrop]

The snail treatment is unlikely to be involved in the cycling problems I think. The main concern with snail treatments (which usually contain copper compounds) is that they kill inverts, including shrimp. WD

 

[Skins]

My guess is that you are still experiencing some bounce in the mini-cycle that followed the transfer of your young media from the U3 to the external cannister filter. Biomedia does not always continue to work perfectly when transferred between filters. If the media is several years mature it is very different from media that is less than a year and thus considered to be very young. The young media biofilms are more easily disturbed I feel and more likely to lapse in processing when moved.

This is all very common however and simply means that you should fall back on your Fish-In Cycling skills. The traces you are reporting put you on the borderline for 12-hour checking on the safety of your danios. If you never see what you consider to be a 0.30 reading on the Nutrafin kit then your water-changing pattern is probably keeping the danios down to minimal gill damage. Your biofilter just needs you to help it out with some extra water changes for a while until it catches back up to match the bioload of the little danios. As soon as you see solid double-zero ppm readings for a week I'd go ahead and get a couple more danios in there so they will feel even more comfortable at having reached the minimum 6 or so. Then continue to test a wait a couple more weeks before your next stocking addition. Your Fluval 305 will eventually build up a wonderful biofilter and you'll be off and running. Also be sure your CO2 tester shows you are not getting CO2 too high for the fish, although that's probably unlikely from a DIY setup (just thinking that fish getting some ammonia and nitrite traces don't also need high CO2!)

~~waterdrop~~

Hello WD,
Can you explain to us why there are no nitrate readings?

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, that's his plants. If you look at his posts, he's been over in the planted section trying to ramp up his success with plants, which to me means he may have a fair number of them in the tank (not sure of that though because the number of plants looked fairly sparse in the only picure I saw.)

Its quite difficult to predict how much ammonia, nitrite or nitrate will be absorbed by plnats because it varies enormously by plant species. Nitrate and ammonia absorption is by far the greater effect, nitrite absorption being both rare and small in amount.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Skins]

Yeah, that's his plants. If you look at his posts, he's been over in the planted section trying to ramp up his success with plants, which to me means he may have a fair number of them in the tank (not sure of that though because the number of plants looked fairly sparse in the only picure I saw.)

Its quite difficult to predict how much ammonia, nitrite or nitrate will be absorbed by plnats because it varies enormously by plant species. Nitrate and ammonia absorption is by far the greater effect, nitrite absorption being both rare and small in amount.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanks WD, This will strongly support your zero readings of nitrates Ben.

Skins.

 

[aly_starh]

Hey!
Basically when your Ammonia and Nitrite read 0 for atleast 7 consecutive days then it means it cycled. So keep an eye on the stats!

Good luck