Is my tank cycled "enough"

[Ryan87500]

I have been doing a fishless cycle for awhile now and have used media from various sources.

I am able to convert between 1 and 1.5 ppm ammonia to nitrites in less than 12 hours.

It takes my nitrites about 28 hours to drop to zero. At the 24 hour mark I was reading about .5ppm and by 28 hours it was zero.

So I know my bacteria is working maybe not as fast as one would like.

The reason I ask is I was planning on picking up Two angelfish tomorrow. I have nothing else in my tank.

Should I be concerned with adding two fish if I can't convert within the 24 hours using ammonia drops?


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[Fresh2o]

I think it will be fine. Just continue to monitor it and perform water changes as needed.
On the plus side, there is conversion going on. Slow but it's working.
On the flip side, it might be an indicator that the filter media is not adequate. But that can be resolved via additional bio-media and/or another filter.
What filter(s) and what size tank?


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[Ryan87500]

I have a 36 gallon tank with a aquaclear 50.

Inside I have a sponge for a 50 a sponge for a 30 some filter floss to fill the width gap a bag of biomedia and also have a pre filter sponge on the intake.

The orediter sponge / filter floss and aquaclear 30 sponge came from an established tank.




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[Ryan87500]

Is it possible the prefilter reduces water flow and that is slowing down the process? I would be reluctant removing the sponge since it came from a seeded tank.


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[Fresh2o]

I don't think the flow is affected to the point where it is slowing down nitrite conversion. I think you'd be safe removing the prefilter sponge since you already have another sponge in the filter chamber. The BB should have seeded the ceramic media by now.
I used ceramic media and a sponge from an established filter and put that into an AC50 and cycled a 20g tank in about 9 days.


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[Ryan87500]

Any reason to squeeze out / rinse the prefilter in the tank so the other media sucks it up.


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