The Cycling Of My 1000 Litre

[dave_oddballs]

hi i set up my 7 foot 285 gaallon aquarium a few weeks ago, added some mature media, there is a few fish in there now, but i expected to see at least some ammonia and nitrites until the bacteria built up, but i haven't.
just done a test now with the nutrafin mini master test kit, i did ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
results are;
ph - 7.0
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 5
would it show nitrate even if it wasn't cycled? i haven't seen any ammonia or nitrite but nitrate at 5.
does this meen the mature media i put in was enough to handle the load?
it is 285 gallons, has 2 eheim pro3 2080 filters, currently home to; 1 pink tailed characin, 1 hujeta gar, 1 mystus leucophasis, 1 wild caught synodontis multipunctatus, 3 pictus cats and a channa sp. platinum.
surely these fish are enough to be chucking a noticeable amount of ammonia about?
i can't think of any explanation other than it is a cycled tank but i was just certain to expect something in the ammonia and nitrite tests!

what are your thoughts?

cheers, dave

 

[onebto]

All I can say is 1000 litres you lucky git

Want one

 

[fatheadminnow]

Looks like it may be good to go! As for showing nitrates even it it wasn't cycled, this would only be the case if you have nitrate in your tap water, if not, then no.

-FHM

 

[dave_oddballs]

ok when i get back later i will test the tap waters stats, then i should have a better idea.
I will report back with my results later, cheers
Dave

 

[Schmill]

At a guess I would think that with the fish load, the volume of water, and the fact you used mature media the filter has probably cycled enough to cope with the current fish load.

 

[dave_oddballs]

ok just did a nitrate test on the water from my tap, waited 5 mins for the results and its nitrate level is 0.
yeah so you reckan as long as i add fish slowly and steadily all will be well?
i will keep adding fish until about febuary and then the rays will be going in, by that time the filters should be pretty mature and i will remove all the other fish when i add the rays. sound good to you guys??

cheers, Dave

 

[fatheadminnow]

ok just did a nitrate test on the water from my tap, waited 5 mins for the results and its nitrate level is 0.
yeah so you reckan as long as i add fish slowly and steadily all will be well?
i will keep adding fish until about febuary and then the rays will be going in, by that time the filters should be pretty mature and i will remove all the other fish when i add the rays. sound good to you guys??

cheers, Dave

Sounds good, just keep checking those water stats once a week roughly to make sure nothing goes out of wack from adding fish.

-FHM

 

[dave_oddballs]

yeah im quite experienced in fish keeping and already do weekly tests on all my tanks so that won't be a problem.
cheers for the help guys and i shall let you know in a few weeks if everything is still going well, or vise versa lol

cheers, Dave