help... am i finally fully cycled? confused....

[yankeeslover]

thanks for reading..i think im finally done w/the cycle.... 29 gallon..... 5 danios... started tank about 30 days ago..api liquid test kit.....i test the water daily... about 4 days ago i noticed the ammonia start going down and finally hit 0, also 4 days ago i first noticed the nitrite in the tank and i also started noticing nitrates in tank.... been testing nitrites every day and since I first noticed them 4 days ago they peaked at .25ppm, last night i checked again and they were almost gone, this morning i just check and nitrites are at 0.... im alittle confused as my ammonia levels peaked really high for a couple weeks and after numerious pwc i finally got under control and now to 0 but my nitrites only registered for 4 days before they went back down to 0, nitrates are about 6 ppm...shouldnt the nitrites have went sky high also like the ammonia did? they never went above .25ppm and that was only for a few days... tested a few times since last night and all results showing ammonia=0,nitrite=0 nitrate=6ppm..... now for my last question, im using a aquaclear 70 with the three pieces of filter material that came with it.... im due to change the carbon next weekend, if my tank is indeed cyceled will i hurt it by changing the carbon so soon? i still have the foam and the bio pellets in there.....also when can i add a few more danios or my dwarf qoumie that im looking at? thanks again...

 

[Gawang]

Number one fact to learn: Activate carbon is not very important at all. Unless your trying to get tannis out of your water or medication it really does not aid the filtering process. Personally, I dont even use carbon in my aquaclear 110 and use an extra bio bag instead.

 

[jlk]

I would test for another week to make sure your ammonia & nitrites stay steadily at zero before considering adding another fish. At this point, I would not touch the filter with the carbon other than to give it an occsional swish in some old tank water to remove debris. Carbon is not needed but as this filter now houses a bunch of bacteria, I would not remove it. What you can consider doing is opening/slitting the area with the carbon & dumping it out & filling it with some polyfill. Or you can place another foam insert with the carbon filter to seed the foam insert & in a couple of weeks, you can discard the carbon portion of the filter & just use the added foam insert. Hope this helps!