What am I doing wrong?

[Ellie Potts]

I've been cycling my 55 gallon tank (as many of you have seen me posting about ) but I'm a little confused...
I just got it cycling a week or so ago, but I don't think my test results are right. 2 days in a row I got 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates (granted I did do a water change before testing and used quick start a while ago when I set up the tank). Should I not have higher numbers? I've been "feeding" the tank with fish food twice a day.

 

[Retired Viking]

Do you have live plants in the tank? If you have enough live plants they will absorb the ammonia and you will have 0 readings. You would be doing a planted/silent cycle instead.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Do you have live plants in the tank? If you have enough live plants they will absorb the ammonia and you will have 0 readings. You would be doing a planted/silent cycle instead.

Ooooh yeah I have plenty of plants that could be it. Does that mean I can go ahead and add fish...?

 

[mbsqw1d]

If you decide to do a planted cycle, you could add fish, but only a small number of hardy fish. You would be doing daily water changes though

 

[Ellie Potts]

If you decide to do a planted cycle, you could add fish, but only a small number of hardy fish. You would be doing daily water changes though

I'm just not sure when I can safely add them (without crazy water changes). How do I know?

 

[Ellie Potts]

I'm just not sure when I can safely add them (without crazy water changes). How do I know?

I read that I have to wait for my nitrite levels to fall and for my nitrate levels to rise but I don't have any nitrites/nitrates

 

[EllRog]

Pretty sure I've seen @essjay help people through their cycle before. I'm not as good at explaining things and would probably confuse you further

 

[Ellie Potts]

Pretty sure I've seen @essjay help people through their cycle before. I'm not as good at explaining things and would probably confuse you further

Lol! Apparently I was over-confident in my understanding... whoops

 

[Collusalbuzz]

Ooooh yeah I have plenty of plants that could be it. Does that mean I can go ahead and add fish...?

You could start by adding a few hardy fishes and see how they fare for a week so you can see if your tank is cycled and has good stable water conditions.

 

[Retired Viking]

With a planted/silent cycle you rely on the plants to absorb all the ammonia. There will be no nitrates or nitrites to worry about because the plants absorb the ammonia and do not break it down like bacteria. I do planted cycles on all of my tanks. Having fast growing floating plants like salvina, anacharis, moneywort, hornwort, water sprite and frog bite is important because they adsorb ammonia at a higher rate than ferns and anubias plant do. I started out with letting my plants grow for about 2 weeks before I added my first shoal of fish. I like small fish like glow light tetra so I add around 6. I then tested my water after a week and if it still 0 I added more fish. It all depends on the type and size of fish and number of plants and size of tank. Hope this helps.

 

[Ellie Potts]

With a planted/silent cycle you rely on the plants to absorb all the ammonia. There will be no nitrates or nitrites to worry about because the plants absorb the ammonia and do not break it down like bacteria. I do planted cycles on all of my tanks. Having fast growing floating plants like salvina, anacharis, moneywort, hornwort, water sprite and frog bite is important because they adsorb ammonia at a higher rate than ferns and anubias plant do. I started out with letting my plants grow for about 2 weeks before I added my first shoal of fish. I like small fish like glow light tetra so I add around 6. I then tested my water after a week and if it still 0 I added more fish. It all depends on the type and size of fish and number of plants and size of tank. Hope this helps.

Yeah I have a lot of duckweed and water wisteria so that explains it. I'll add a few fish and see how they do.

 

[Retired Viking]

Yeah I have a lot of duckweed and water wisteria so that explains it. I'll add a few fish and see how they do.

Both are very good at absorbing ammonia, my first tank that I tried a planted cycle was a 55 gallon tank. I had plenty of hornwort and anacharis. I ended up having 4 shoals of tetras along with a couple of cory. What type of fish do you plan on adding? Pictures of my first 55 gallon tank. Good luck

 

[ClownLurch]

Just to back up @retiredviking on the silent cycle stuff. Fill the tank up with the named plants,take a pic. Wait until the plants are visibly growing then test. Add fish.
Sorry but my eyes were glazing over trying to get my head around cycling.
Its silent for me from now on.

Heterandria Formosa only tank to start silent cycling in the next couple of weeks. Cant wait.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Just to back up @retiredviking on the silent cycle stuff. Fill the tank up with the named plants,take a pic. Wait until the plants are visibly growing then test. Add fish.
Sorry but my eyes were glazing over trying to get my head around cycling.
Its silent for me from now on.

Heterandria Formosa only tank to start silent cycling in the next couple of weeks. Cant wait.

My plants have actually been growing in the tank for quite awhile. Especially the water wisteria! I added 2 siamese algae eaters today so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Ellie Potts]

Both are very good at absorbing ammonia, my first tank that I tried a planted cycle was a 55 gallon tank. I had plenty of hornwort and anacharis. I ended up having 4 shoals of tetras along with a couple of cory. What type of fish do you plan on adding? Pictures of my first 55 gallon tank. Good luck

Love how the hornwort looks! I'm not entirely sure yet... I really have wanted to try a betta sorority with 9 bettas and then harlequin rasboras as dither fish but I'm aware it's a controversial set up.