Cycle Complete ??

[jps39]

Is it safe to say that my tank is cycled when I have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and about 5.0 [acronym:107bd9ea55="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:107bd9ea55] nitrates? Will i always have a little nitrates present? And if i understand correctly, this is controlled with regular water changes.

Just want to make sure before i add more fish

[QTOFFER]

Just wondering - did you do a fishless cycle before adding the fish, or is the cycle currently in progress?

I've read that if you see 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites for three consecutive days, then the tank is cycled.
Nitrates are the endproduct of the nitrogen cycle in aquariums and must be removed by dilution (ie, regular water changes) when the approach levels of 40 [acronym:1dc0fa4043="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:1dc0fa4043]. If you have a planted tank, live plants will absorb some of the nitrates for you

Once the tank is cycled, you have to be careful not to add too many fish at once or you will have a 'mini cycle'. You need to give the bacterial colony time to grow in response to any increase in bioload.

[jps39]

It was not a fishless cycle. I had a full load of fish (9 in a 35 [acronym:f4fe4ee0ea="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:f4fe4ee0ea] hex) to which i used biospira. The bio spira was added two weeks ago, and the levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate have all been pretty much the same. I have a gut feeling that the tank is on the downward swing of being fully cycled, but the nitrate question is my main concern.


Does a "fully cycled" tank have all readings of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate at zero?

[krap101]

cruelty fish cycle thats like **** for fish

[jps39]

Very nicely worded. You are a master of the english language.

[QTOFFER]

If you used the BioSpira correctly by putting it in the tank at the same time as the fish, the tank should be cycled by now. Some members have posted problems with Biopira that can occur if the product had been improperly stored by the [acronym:210603d4bd="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:210603d4bd].

Bottom line: if you are not seeing ammonia or nitrITE, then you are pretty much done cycling - yippee.
NitrATE levels will almost never go to 0. It is normal to have nitrATE in the tank, you just have to do a water change when it gets to 40 [acronym:210603d4bd="Parts per Million"]ppm[/acronym:210603d4bd].

Check out this link. It explains the whole cycling thing better that I could ever hope to.

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html


For obvious reasons, fishless cycling is preferable to using fish to cycle a tank.
However, lots of people still cycle a tank with fish on board since the fishless method is still relatively recent.
This is not necessarily cruel or stressful for the fish so long as the bioload is low, water parameters are watched very closely, and water changes are performed religiously.