Cycling and setting up my 29 gallon tank...comments?

[earthworms]

Set up aquarium:
AquaClear 200/50 biowheel
25 #s gravel
Jager 150 watt heater
All glass fluorescent hood
Aquarium pharmaceuticals master test kit
Tap water 7.6 PH

I put in 5 gallons of cycled water from my 10 gallon tank. I then added tap water to fill it up the rest of the way. Set it the temp to 80 degrees. I then left it alone that night. The second day I added some frozen Mysis Shrimp, tadpole pellets, and I took out my foam media from my 10 gallon biowheel and put it into the biowheel of this 29 gallon. Every day for about 5 days I sprinkled in a little tad pole pellets. Left the light on for most of the time.

Here are my results:

9-27 - set up aquarium

9-28 - NH3 0-.25 ppm

9-29 - NH3 0-.25 ppm

10-1 - NH3 .50 ppm

10-2 - NH3 1-2 ppm, NO2 2+ ppm

10-3 - NH3 1-2 ppm, NO2 2+ ppm, PH 7.6, NO3 80 ppm

10-4 - NH3 1-2 ppm, NO2 2 ppm, 15% PWC

10-5 - NH3 .50 ppm, NO2 .50 ppm, PH 7.8-7.9

10-6 - NH3 0 ppm, NO2 .25 ppm, snails and zooplankton added from near by lake

10-7 - NH3 0 ppm, NO2 .50 ppm

10-8 - NH3 0 ppm, NO2 .50 ppm, NO3 40-80 ppm, PH 7.4

How does this tank look? Was it successful? Is it ready for a couple fish and plants? Is it in need of a PWC now? The gravel was white and is now brown with diatoms. Snails are loving it!

Thanks for reading all that. If anyone has a comment on it or opinion please post one. I really don't know what I am doing here other then I know my cycle is almost complete.

Thanks,

Jake[/list][/code]

 

[Zagz]

You need to do a pwc for sure, your N02 should be 0ppm, and your N03 should be 10-20 ppm. Once your N02 is 0 you can add fish, just keep an eye on the N03. Welcome to AA!

 

[TomK2]

In a seeded tank and filter, you will likely be done any day now. Assuming your tap water has no nitrate, then you have added enough nitrogen to the tank to make quite a bit of nitrate. If you cut back on the ammonia source, your nitrites would quickly go to zero, then you could do a PWC to rduce nitrates and add fish. My logic is that there are enough nitrobacter to make a heck of a lot of nitrate (assuming the tank started out with only a little), so that if the ammonia input was reduced those nitrobacter could easily handle the reduced demand. If your tank could produce 40ppm of nitrate in two weeks, then it is ready to handle a small fish load, once you remove the decaying food and do a water change. However, if your nitrate level was 40ppm at the start, the above conclusions might be wrong.