Hey guys, i'm setting up a tank for the first time, and I just wanted some advice on whether you think my tank has cycled, and on how to clean it before getting my fish!
I started doing a fishless cycle about 8 weeks ago, using fish food as an ammonia source as i couldn't find any ammonia for love nor money! i was adding the fish food on quite an irregular basis, finding the following readings;
Ammonia nI nA
0ppm
0ppm 0ppm 10ppm
1ppm 0ppm 5-10ppm
0.5-1ppm 0ppm 5ppm
1-2 ppm 0ppm 0ppm
1 ppm 0ppm 10ppm
0.5ppm 0ppm 20ppm
so these readings didn't look very impressive to me! i seemed to be getting an increase in nitrite but never seemed to get any nitrate.
Amazingly i found someone with a bottle of ammonia over the weekend, so thought i'd try that to test and see if it had really cycled. Dosed the tank up to a good 5ppm ammonia on saturday, tested on sunday but not much change, tested today with readings of;
Ammonia nI nA
0ppm 0ppm 40+ ppm (it's a strong red)
does this mean my tank has cycled? I've added more ammonia (bout 4ppm) so i'll see what happens to that. Do i need to keep adding ammonia every day until i get my fish?
Sorry that was so long! One more little question, there's loads of old food in the gravel so i'd like to really clean the tank out but don't have a siphon-y thing, could i theoretically put all the tank water into buckets (and put filter in there), clean the tank/gravel, and put it all back in without ruining my cycle, or is there a better way to do it?
Thanks if you read through all this! Just really don't wanna kill my new fish!
I started doing a fishless cycle about 8 weeks ago, using fish food as an ammonia source as i couldn't find any ammonia for love nor money! i was adding the fish food on quite an irregular basis, finding the following readings;
Ammonia nI nA
0ppm
0ppm 0ppm 10ppm
1ppm 0ppm 5-10ppm
0.5-1ppm 0ppm 5ppm
1-2 ppm 0ppm 0ppm
1 ppm 0ppm 10ppm
0.5ppm 0ppm 20ppm
so these readings didn't look very impressive to me! i seemed to be getting an increase in nitrite but never seemed to get any nitrate.
Amazingly i found someone with a bottle of ammonia over the weekend, so thought i'd try that to test and see if it had really cycled. Dosed the tank up to a good 5ppm ammonia on saturday, tested on sunday but not much change, tested today with readings of;
Ammonia nI nA
0ppm 0ppm 40+ ppm (it's a strong red)
does this mean my tank has cycled? I've added more ammonia (bout 4ppm) so i'll see what happens to that. Do i need to keep adding ammonia every day until i get my fish?
Sorry that was so long! One more little question, there's loads of old food in the gravel so i'd like to really clean the tank out but don't have a siphon-y thing, could i theoretically put all the tank water into buckets (and put filter in there), clean the tank/gravel, and put it all back in without ruining my cycle, or is there a better way to do it?
Thanks if you read through all this! Just really don't wanna kill my new fish!
