NLeigh
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi guys!
So here's my situation. Last week, after weeks of waiting for all our aquarium supplies that we ordered online to be delivered, we finally set up our tank. It's a (I think) 25-gal hexagon. We're running an undergravel filter with an air pump and a powerhead, along with a Penguin 150 biowheel power filter. We have plants: an Amazon sword plant, several stems of anachris and hornwort, and 3 banana plants. We also have a nice tall rock ornament in the center with about 5 little caves.
Saturday we bought our first fish, 3 glofish danios. Our plan was to fish-in cycle with these fish, since a) I know they're hardy fish, and b) my daughters, especially my younger one, fell in love with them.
So I've been dutifully testing the water daily, sometimes twice a day because I'm a worrywart, lol. The odd thing is that my test results have turned out *exactly* the same for 3 straight days. My ammonia is at 0.25 mg/L, nitrites at <0.3 mg/L, and nitrates... well, the card says bright yellow is 0, light orange is 5 mg/L, and the color in my test tube is always slightly orangeish yellow rather than pure yellow, so I'm not totally sure the nitrates are at 0, but they certainly don't appear to be at 5, either.
I'm just wondering... what's happening? I was expecting a higher spike of ammonia by now. Could it be that there's already enough BBs in my tank to be keeping the ammonia low? The only two reasons I can imagine that this could be the case is a) the plants (maybe they arrived with BBs already on them?) and/or b) the biowheel filter. We did use it for the saltwater tank we kept for a couple of months last year, before the tank crashed because we didn't really know what we were doing (ouch, that one still stings). I didn't want to assume there was any worthwhile bacteria on the biowheel, but... maybe there is?
I did a water change yesterday, I think that's the only one we've done since we put the fish in. I'm planning to do another one later this morning. What do y'all think? Is this tank cycling or is it already mostly cycled?
Thanks!
So here's my situation. Last week, after weeks of waiting for all our aquarium supplies that we ordered online to be delivered, we finally set up our tank. It's a (I think) 25-gal hexagon. We're running an undergravel filter with an air pump and a powerhead, along with a Penguin 150 biowheel power filter. We have plants: an Amazon sword plant, several stems of anachris and hornwort, and 3 banana plants. We also have a nice tall rock ornament in the center with about 5 little caves.
Saturday we bought our first fish, 3 glofish danios. Our plan was to fish-in cycle with these fish, since a) I know they're hardy fish, and b) my daughters, especially my younger one, fell in love with them.
So I've been dutifully testing the water daily, sometimes twice a day because I'm a worrywart, lol. The odd thing is that my test results have turned out *exactly* the same for 3 straight days. My ammonia is at 0.25 mg/L, nitrites at <0.3 mg/L, and nitrates... well, the card says bright yellow is 0, light orange is 5 mg/L, and the color in my test tube is always slightly orangeish yellow rather than pure yellow, so I'm not totally sure the nitrates are at 0, but they certainly don't appear to be at 5, either.
I'm just wondering... what's happening? I was expecting a higher spike of ammonia by now. Could it be that there's already enough BBs in my tank to be keeping the ammonia low? The only two reasons I can imagine that this could be the case is a) the plants (maybe they arrived with BBs already on them?) and/or b) the biowheel filter. We did use it for the saltwater tank we kept for a couple of months last year, before the tank crashed because we didn't really know what we were doing (ouch, that one still stings). I didn't want to assume there was any worthwhile bacteria on the biowheel, but... maybe there is?
I did a water change yesterday, I think that's the only one we've done since we put the fish in. I'm planning to do another one later this morning. What do y'all think? Is this tank cycling or is it already mostly cycled?
Thanks!
