My Cycle

[taylorlaud19]

hey guys my tank has been set up for a bit with a fish in cycle (Due to bad info on cycling tank from pet shop) but anyhoo, its been a long drawn out consistant battle with ammonia lol 20% water changes ev 1 - 3 days testing water twice a day and so on, tried so hard to keep ammonia at its level of 1-2 so fish were ok. went on holiday for 2 weeks had my dad looking after the tank came back tested the water the reading for ammonia was 8.0 that was like 2 week ago done a 30% water change then cut down on the water changes the ammonia has been dropping constantly since then and i think my cycle has now complete???

test result:

ph- 7.0 - 7.5
nitrite - 0
ammonia - 0
nitrate - 40 - 80 (has risen alot since ammonia was dropping???)
KH - 40 - 80

um so is the cycle complete? or is it in its final stages ??? hope so

Taylor.

P.S I Lost no Fish through the cycle which was my main concern so woot woot

 

[JenCliBee]

going by the readings yes cycle seems complete a few smallish water changes should get ur nitrate down.

but.... yeh all seems good so congrats

jen

 

[gaz gun man]

keep checking the ammonia and nitrite for a week or so, if it constantly stays at 0, then you are there

 

[minxfishy]

Its looking good, keep up the water testing for at least another week, just to be safe and dont add anymore fish for at least another two weeks, so that the filter can settle down. If you do add more fish, do it slowly so the bacteria can adjust to the extra waste load.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup looks good but don't get complacenet now, need to make sure they are steady so just keep monitoring over the next week, if they both stay at 0 then you're fine.

and make sure you leave it a good few weeks before adding fish, the longer you wait the less chance of any problems

 

[taylorlaud19]

ok i will keep testing the water with little water changes (how often now would you recommend?) not planning on adding fish at the moment as i just got 3 more guppy fry theyre cute,at the moment i wasn't using a trap for babies as i was going through the cycle so i was just keeping an eye out for babies then putting them into the little trap thing and i got 3

so the increase in nitrate is natural yep? and some lil water changes will lower it.

thanks for the replies all !

Taylor.

 

[JenCliBee]

ok i will keep testing the water with little water changes (how often now would you recommend?) not planning on adding fish at the moment as i just got 3 more guppy fry theyre cute,at the moment i wasn't using a trap for babies as i was going through the cycle so i was just keeping an eye out for babies then putting them into the little trap thing and i got 3

so the increase in nitrate is natural yep? and some lil water changes will lower it.

thanks for the replies all !

Taylor.

yeh id say little 10% water changes for a couple of days should lower it u looking for around 20-40ppm ur levels arnt tht high but most recommend no more than 40ppm after its lowered i prob would do say 2 20-30% water per week but monitor levels every day i cant see any problem with doing that way. nd then in say a couple of weeks u should be ready 2 add a few more fish but add a few at a time just so not 2 overload the bacteria


jen

 

[taylorlaud19]

coolio thanks for the help once again.

taylor.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, sounds good. This is a particularly good time to be sure your gravel cleanings and other tank cleanings are done and thus that there are not opportunities for ammonia from debris to make a comeback.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Taylor, those small water changes are in the 20% range, not really that small. You want to change about 50% but not all at once. When you change 20% twice it is like changing less than 40% because some of the water you take out with the second change is the water you just put in. It will take 3 or 4 at 20% each to get the levels down below 40ppm nitrates rather than 80. It would take that many again to get below 20 ppm if there is no nitrate in your tap water.