I Think My Cycle is Complete

[Bettafanatic]

Hello. Recently, I switched from doing a fishless cycle to a fish-in cycle in my 2.5 gallon tank. I have one betta in there. I started three days ago, and testing twice daily. Each time, both ammonia and nitrites has been zero. Out of curiosity, I decided to test nitrates and it turned out to be 40 ppm. I did a water change immediately, of course. I've been cycling for a long time before, but before I switched to fish-in I hadn't added any ammonia in a week. So, does this mean that my cycle is complete? If so, then yay!

 

[librarygirl]

Could be. Keep an eye on the levels for another week just to be sure but you may have grown enough bacteria during the fishless cycle to sustain the betta. Does your tap water have nitrate? 40 is borderline high for fish, you should do a couple of 50% water change to get it lower. Good luck!

 

[Bettafanatic]

Yeah I did water changes and got it down to about 5-10 ppm. Is that still safe? I heard 20 ppm and higher isn't good so I just kept it at that. I'll keep doing twice daily tests just to make sure, but if 0 everything and high nitrates isn't a complete cycle, I don't know what is