Todays Water Tests

[Eclectic Ukulele]

Hopefully these will stay the same for a long time.

No fish as yet.

Apologies for the bin aka teabag tidy.

 

[Archerfish]

Looks good! How did you cycle the tank?

 

[Eclectic Ukulele]

Looks good! How did you cycle the tank?

Weekly water change added the water conditioner which came with the tank.

Other than that just the plants.

 

[Archerfish]

I was so busy during the holiday season that I must have missed your earlier posts. Please forgive me if you already know this. Plants alone will not cycle your tank. Some of us have used plants (very heavily planted), plus seeded substrate from existing tanks and a filter from an existing tank plus a source of ammonia together to essentially eliminate or greatly reduce the time required for a complete cycle. But plants alone will not cycle your tank. You need a source of ammonia. We have many links on this site for learning how to cycle a tank. Ask away, we are here to help!

 

[Eclectic Ukulele]

I was so busy during the holiday season that I must have missed your earlier posts. Please forgive me if you already know this. Plants alone will not cycle your tank. Some of us have used plants (very heavily planted), plus seeded substrate from existing tanks and a filter from an existing tank plus a source of ammonia together to essentially eliminate or greatly reduce the time required for a complete cycle. But plants alone will not cycle your tank. You need a source of ammonia. We have many links on this site for learning how to cycle a tank. Ask away, we are here to help!

Bacto Start?

 

[Essjay]

This won't cycle a tank on its own. It may not even contain the correct bacteria. Even if it did, the bacteria would need to be fed with ammonia. Bottled bacteria should be used to kick start the cycle; they won't do everything.
The only way to be sure that there are enough bacteria to remove the waste from the future fish is to add ammonia or ammonium chloride. If enough is added to get a reading of 3 ppm then 24 hours later both ammonia and nitrite are zero, the tank is cycle. If one or both are not zero, it isn't cycled.


Unless the fish keeper is 100% certain there are enough bacteria he could well find himself doing a fish-in cycle, with all the risks that poses for the fish.