Question Re Newly Cycled Tank

[Greygal]

Hi everyone,

I have a newly cycled tank and have added my first 2 fish at the weekend (1 red wag platy and 1 Mickey mouse platy) and they seem to be settling in quite well.

I am really looking for a little reassurance from you more experienced fish keepers so does this sound ok to you:

Fish less cycle took just over 6 weeks and my ammonia and nitrite were 0 and nitrates 5 (ph 7.6 and I did the high range test too to confirm that it wasn't any higher) when I added the fish.

Fish added on Saturday and I tested on Monday (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 5 & 10). Just tested again this morning and readings are the same although nitrate looks closer to 10 than 5 this time.

Does this sound right? I'm a little paranoid here but I worry that I've missed something obvious. Would ammonia start to show up already if my tank hadn't cycled properly? The fish are swimming around and feeding quite happily but I guess it'll take me a while to chill out and stop worrying that I'm doing something wrong.

Any words of wisdom would be appreciated

GG x

 

[Rickzayne]

Up to 150ppm is fine for nitrates

But 20 under 20 is perfect

A weekly water change and some plants will keep this down.

Plants are not nessessary but they do help and fish love them.

 

[Miles_hot]

All looks fine mate, you're right in thinking that ammonia or nitrite showing up would be a bad sign. Nitrate movement isn't worrying - have you got real plants in there? If so as they establish you'll see the nitrate dropping again but 10 certainly isn't something to worry obout. Keep testing till you're happy its a table situation and then test less frequently

 

[Greygal]

Thanks. I'm a bit paranoid as I've never kept fish before so it's great to hear from your guys on here. I do have some real plants in there but didn't realist that they helped quite so much so that's cool. I'll keep testing.....

GG x

 

[Rickzayne]

Plants like to eat ammonia, nitrites and nitrates

Thats why some people(me) do a silent cycle where you heavily plant your aquarium and add fish straight away as the plants eat the poisons while your filter still cycles