Jeffs
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi guys, as I have posted several times regarding cycling my new tank, I think my cycle is over, or is it?
I purchased my tank (29 gallon biocube) 4 days ago and bought many of plants and fish at the same time (not recommended by lfs). I set up the tanks and added fish immediately. For bacteria, I used some of the bioballs from my 8 gallon biocube and in addition to that, I used a bottle of Tetra Safestart (yellow bottle I think that's what it's called, bottle instructions said it treats up to 30 gallons), in addition to that, I also bought 2 pouches of biospira (each pouch capable of treating up to 30 gallons). I also got a bag of "dirty water" which is basically water and dirt squeezed from a sponge filter from a healthy tank at the LFS. I have been doing daily 30% water changes so far. My pH is stable at 6.8 and temp 76F.
For the past 3 days, I've been getting .25ppm ammonia and the tank has been really cloudy but today, the cloudiness improved (still a little cloudy though) and I'm getting no ammonia and approx. 10ppm NITRATE and 0 nitrite. I have fully stocked them with fish since day 1 and have not lost anything (hopefully none), does this mean that my cycle is finally over and I can relax on my daily water changes or should I expect more trouble ahead?
Fish list:
6 pygmy cories, 6 corydoras trilineatus, 4 red pencilfish nannostomus mortenthaleri, 10 checkerboard cichlid, 2 tiger hillstream loach, 2 otto cats, 3 apisto trifasciata, 7 bentosii white tip tetra, 7 crystal red shrimp and 5 amanos. (I know I have no algae so I put a piece of zucchini for the loach and oto cats to munch at)
I purchased my tank (29 gallon biocube) 4 days ago and bought many of plants and fish at the same time (not recommended by lfs). I set up the tanks and added fish immediately. For bacteria, I used some of the bioballs from my 8 gallon biocube and in addition to that, I used a bottle of Tetra Safestart (yellow bottle I think that's what it's called, bottle instructions said it treats up to 30 gallons), in addition to that, I also bought 2 pouches of biospira (each pouch capable of treating up to 30 gallons). I also got a bag of "dirty water" which is basically water and dirt squeezed from a sponge filter from a healthy tank at the LFS. I have been doing daily 30% water changes so far. My pH is stable at 6.8 and temp 76F.
For the past 3 days, I've been getting .25ppm ammonia and the tank has been really cloudy but today, the cloudiness improved (still a little cloudy though) and I'm getting no ammonia and approx. 10ppm NITRATE and 0 nitrite. I have fully stocked them with fish since day 1 and have not lost anything (hopefully none), does this mean that my cycle is finally over and I can relax on my daily water changes or should I expect more trouble ahead?
Fish list:
6 pygmy cories, 6 corydoras trilineatus, 4 red pencilfish nannostomus mortenthaleri, 10 checkerboard cichlid, 2 tiger hillstream loach, 2 otto cats, 3 apisto trifasciata, 7 bentosii white tip tetra, 7 crystal red shrimp and 5 amanos. (I know I have no algae so I put a piece of zucchini for the loach and oto cats to munch at)
