Am I cycled?

[JulieB]

Hi everyone!

I'm doing my first fishless cycle and am not sure if I have arrived. It's a 3 gallon bowl with an undergravel filter (frequent water changes are not a problem.) I seeded the tank with filter media from my established 56 gallon tank.

I started my cycle about one week ago. Two mornings ago (that would make it Tuesday morning), I had to add some ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. I added about 2-3 ppm's of ammonia. On Wednesday morning my ammonia was 0, nitrIte was .25, nitrAte was between 40 & 80 (I swear the colors are identical!) Wednesday morning I added about 2-3 ppm's of ammonia again. Thursday morning, today, my ammonia was 0, nitrIte was 0, nitrAte was between 40 and 80. Am I cycled? Is my nitrate too high?

thanks in advance!!

 

[fishb0ne]

You should be. Nitrate is a little high, best to keep it 40 or lower but that can be easily taken care of by pwcs which is pretty much the only way to lower it.

 

[Jchillin]

Unless someone recently changed the formula, zero's across the board and +20 NO3 is the "cycle is complete" formula. Just a note: I believe you could have stocked the tank immediately since you used media from the 55 gallon.

 

[JulieB]

Cool! Thanks Time to buy some fish. Hooray!