;614479 said:
I have 3 zebra danios cycling my 29 gallon tank.
I have 2 amazon swords, 2 anachris(getting one more today), 2 snall grass squgily things(don't know the name), and 1 banana plant.
I've ran my tank for a month now, 4 weeks with fish. I'll try to get back as soon as possible.
Firstly, if you care anything for the fish, never ever even consider using fish for cycling.
Link for more information on cycling: the why and how - worth a read, even if you don't agree.
Have you had the plants in there since you bought the fish? It could be just that you've had an unusually quick cycle because of those. At the moment I am overseeing a friend's cycle where (because he added seeded material in the form of plants) it will be finished tomorrow which will make it only two weeks from start to finish. But as mentioned before, I would still have someone else double check the readings for you just in case there's something wrong with the test kit.
Also, have you done any waterchanges and have you washed out the sponges? If you have washed out the sponges, how did you do it?
Regular water changes.....No.
In a heavily planted tank you can definately run out of nitrAte (many people on this forum have to dose several times a week), but if not heavily planted there is no other way to have 0 nitrAte.
Yes you can: if the tap water nitrates are 0 and you do 30% water change on (for example) 20 gallon with 5 neons in it every other day, you are not going to see any nitrates. Really. Given that *guest* did not inform us at the time of the size of his tank, his tap water nitrates or his levels of stocking (if any at all), we should not have assumed that the tank would have had nitrates in it.
KittyKat, if your tank has been up and running with fish... ...that might be able to check your numbers with their kit, etc.
Have I mentioned my tanks? No. We are not talking about any of my setups here, we are having a discussion about why another member's readings. If you wish to talk to be about my own tanks, feel free to email me directly or add me to MSN, I will be more then happy to talk to you, but there is no need to hijack someone else's thread
I am sure you will enjoy hearing the fine details about my 20 odd tanks in your spare time.