Seeded cycle

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Metatron

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
56
Location
Rhode Island
Hello...so I seeded my new 54 gallon tank with very used filter media from my 10 on Sunday and Prime...I didn't test the water until Tues, I didn't see an ammonia spike but I did have elevated nitrates, only about 10 or 20 ppm and slightly elevated ammonia .25. Nitrites are 0 and ph is low, about 7.0 or 7.2...we have pretty high ph in the tap water so that's low. There's only one little plant so I wouldn't say it's quite planted. It is foggy like a bacteria bloom. Oh and no fish. I am writing this on Thurs, could it really have cycled that fast that I missed the ammonia spike? Should I do a water change? Any expertise is appreciated...Thanks in advance :)
 
It's possible. To be sure, I would add ammonia, test it (I would target 1-2 ppm), and then test all three over the next several days.
The water change is optional at this point since the nitrates are not very high.
If you miss the nitrites, don't be surprised; same thing happened to me. Always reading zero while testing once per day. Decided to test every 3-4 hours one day during a fishless cycle and managed to catch the nitrite spike. It rose and dropped in a short amount of time.
 
Ok great..I'll try that...I'm so excited it could be this quick [emoji23][emoji106] but don't want to jump the gun
 
Sooo..Apparently not....I dosed it up, maybe a lil high 24 hrs ago, 2/4.0 and it has yet to go down but both nitrates and nitrites are now 0 and ph has gone even lower, about a 6.....thoughts????
 
Hmm, that pH has dropped quite a bit. I water change might be in order. There is a point at which nitrification may slow down if the pH gets too low (under 6 I believe).
Yes, those are odd readings.
 
Right?! So I did a small water change, added my bubbler and turned up the temp a bit and added a moss ball from my 10...glad I have to work tomorrow so I don't test obsessively ...LOL! The ph did go up a bit to about 7...ammo is the same
 
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