New 3 Gallon Betta Tank, Cycled Already?

[toomie]

I set up a 3 gallon tank for one of my bettas and am doing a fishless cycle. I only set this tank up less than 2 weeks ago, probably about 10 or 11 days ago to be more exact....I have been checking the stats every other day, today was the first day I checked anything other than ammonia. The highest I saw the ammonia go to was about 1.0 on the card. That was 2 days ago, today it is reading zero. I thought this seemed weird, so I went ahead and checked for nitrites, and the reading was also zero. Don`t know if it was ever spiked at all since I never checked for it until today, I thought the ammonia would go higher first. So after that, I thought I might as well go ahead and check for nitrates, and lo and behold, it shows at least 40 nitrates, probably higher, maybe more like 60? (I have a bit of a hard time deciphering between the reds on the card.)

So my question is, could this tank have cycled this fast, or should I go ahead and add more fish food for a week or so to see if the perameters remain stable? I should mention that this tank has 2 live potted plants in it from an established tank at my lfs. I am using fish food instead of ammonia since I had such a hard time finding ammonia. Would the plants have helped this small tank to cycle so fast? If it isn`t cycled, I shouldn`t be seeing any nitrates yet, should I?

 

[toomie]

Update on this post: After letting the test tube sit out after I did the nitrite test, the color changed, and I most definitely do NOT have zero nitrites yet! It reads 1.0 ppm. I forgot to let it sit for 5 minutes before reading the results. Ooops!

So the nitrites are now spiking, and I`ll continue to check them every day now instead of every other. But it is still happening much more quickly than the last 2 tanks I cycled. I did them the same way, except I only had 1 live plant in each one instead of 2.

 

[Rediahs]

I'm confused. With a fishless cycle, you manually add ammonia. It doesn't just "go up" by itself. Have you been adding ammonia? If not, what's causing the ammonia in the tank Do you have plants in there that are rotting?

If you are using strip tests then this all makes sense because they are ridiculously inaccurate, you've probably had 0 ammonia all along and the strips are just telling you strange things.

If you're using liquid tests then I'm really confused.

 

[arobinson1984]

Sounds to me like the source of ammonia you have been adding is fish food. This is not a very reliable way to cycle a tank and judging by the fact that your ammonia levels have only gone upto 1 at the highest then the cycle will take quite a long time. You need some household pure ammonia really to perform a fishless cycle and you are meant to apply enough ammonia to take the reading upto 4/5 ppm.

Andy

 

[toomie]

Yes, I am using liquid test kit, and I am also using fish food for the cycling. I was definitely confused about how much food I should be putting in, I have only added it once right when I set the tank up. I added more to the other 2 tanks I cycled, and I wrote down that the numbers got up to at least 4.0. It did take quite awhile, probably 4 - 6 weeks. I don`t know why it is showing nitrates already, though, unless it is from the 2 plants I have in there. I actually added 2 more plants today, but these 2 are going into my 10 gallon once it is set up, I just needed someplace to put them for now.

I didn`t remember that my ammonia should have gone up to 4 or 5. I will add more food tonight and check the stats again tomorrow. My nitrite was still 1.0 tonight when I checked it.

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds like you've gained some experience in doing a fishless cycle with fishfood toomie. And you are unusual in understanding to be patient, waiting 4 to 6 weeks. What you tell by the comments of the others is that fishless cycling with pure household ammonia is just vastly easier to understand and get feedback on! It makes the process into a more "testable" thing. Since you can reliably dose the tank to 4 to 5ppm and then time how long it takes to drop both the ammonia and the resulting nitrite(NO2) down to zero ppm (once it can do that reliably in under 12 hours you are home free) its just easier to be confident that you're done. There's nothing wrong with what you've done, its just much harder to know how big the bacterial colonies are and when to expect they are ready for what size stocking load.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[ChiNA MaN]

if everything reads 0 for a couple days its cycled but its very hard to cycle a tank in 2 weeks.

 

[toomie]

One thing I don`t think I have to worry about is wondering if my tanks will support a certain fish load. All I have are male bettas, so there will be one fish per tank, with the exception of the two 10 gallon tanks I have that I have not set up yet. I plan on dividing them in half and will put 2 males in each one. Maybe later on I will experiment with some other fish, but they will have their own tanks, I don`t want to try to make my bettas get along with other fish, I think keeping them healthy is enough of a chore for me right now.

I just thought it was really weird that I`m showing nitrates (between 20 and 40 tonight) already and the nitrite hasn`t gotten done spiking yet. Maybe that`s not unusual, I don`t know......

 

[meguro]

The nitrates could already be in your tap water that you used to fill the tank. Or maybe it's how the food breaks down, as most peoples experiences/posts are in reference to pure ammonia.

I also think plants feed off nitrate to an extent so I doubt they would be your source for it. I suggest testing your tap water. 40 ppm nitrate is nothing anyway.