Tank 6 Weeks Old - Fully Cycled Or Not Quite ?

[stevet]

Hi, new to the forums and have a small question which i would like clarification on.
 
I have a new tank running, it has been about 6 weeks or so now, started with some water, plants and substrate from my old tank so it has a reasonable start. The smaller tank has now been decommisioned for a couple of weeks and the fish moved into the new one. The water readings have been pretty stable, Ammo .25ppm, Nitrites 0.25ppm and Nitrates 40ppm. I would like to bring the Nitrates down alittle to <20ppm and the PH is around 7.4 (tap is bang on 7) so its alittle high. I've been doing partial (20%) water changes every couple of days but the trace readings on Ammo and Nitrite is still there, with the Nitrate still between 20-40ppm.
 
I am not sure if the filter is fully matured yet, it is an external trickle one with ceramic and sponge along with a 'wool/carbon' pre-filter. Fish seem happy enough and are feeding well just not sure on where to go now .......
 
Sorry for the essay ;-)

 

[eaglesaquarium]

No essay at all.
 
No, I wouldn't say that's cycled.  Close though...
 
Its not cycled until you have zeros for both ammonia and nitrite.

 

[stevet]

Hi, thanks for the reply, that was my understanding too. Although the Nitrates seem quite high too even with some reasonable planting in there.
 
Would you say it is correct to keep doing partial water changes until i see steady 0ppm on Ammo and Nitrite ? Once these are down i am hoping the Nitrate will steady and i can maybe add some more livestock.

 

[Essjay]

Regarding the pH - is the tap water measurement for freshly run tap water? If it is, leave a glass of water to stand for 24 hours then test it. It'll probably have gone up.

 

[stevet]

Hi essjay, it was freshly run from the tap, will try that and see what the readings are.

I have checked the tap water for nitrates too tonight and they are 40ppm out of the tap ! This is the south coast of the uk ...... Is it worth trying to reduce this with chemicals ? Dont like using them if i can avoid it