Yet Another Cycling Question

[jrussuk]

Hi everyone must get bored of these questions!!!! I have been cycling my planted tank for bout 3 weeks now and im a little confused!!! i add 4ppm ammonia which gets eaten up in 12 hours but my nitrites seem to only read .5ppm I use a API test kit and as far as i can see the closest colour looks like .5ppm im reading nitrates as well about 50.is the tank cycling correct I think its cycling ok as im getting a little brown alge but could do with a little advice also when it is cycled can i get about 6 inch of fish to start of with then a couple of inch of fish every other week till stocked? (the tank is a 18 gallon). Many thanks as always

 

[rdd1952]

It's odd that you wouldn't have seen a nitrite spike but if your nitrates are at 50 (and you tap water isn't that high), then the tank is cycling but isn't finished yet or the nitrite would go to zero. Keep adding ammonia until the ammonia and nitrite are both able to go to 0 in about 10 to 12 hours. Once you have finished and done your water change, you can add all your fish at once. No use to do it slowly as you have the bacteria present to handle their waste. If you do add them slowly, the bacteria will die off until there is just enough to support the fish load present so it will have to miltiply everytime you add more fish.

 

[jrussuk]

i thought it was odd that i havnt seen a nitrite spike unless im reading the test kit wrong!!!my tap water reads 20pmm of nitrates

 

[rdd1952]

It definitely sounds as if it is cycling. Just keep adding ammonia and testing nitrite and nitrate.