Is my tank cycled?

[Vmanzella22]

Hi guys thanks for the help I’m new to the site and a fairly new fish owner.

I just bought a 30g fresh water tank and a Red tail black shark. (I’m upgrading to 30g from my currently running 10g) i transferred 3 gallons of water, a few decorations, my 2 phantom tetra, 1 candy cane tetra and my used 10g filter to start and hopefully speed up the cycling process. (Which probably also started a mini cycle on my 10g, that I believe already finished cycling) I’ve been adding microbelift special blend daily. Added water conditioner when setting up the tank. All fish seem to be doing great.

My plan is to move the rtbs into the 30g tank and put the 10g in storage. The problem is when I check the water parameters, everything reads 0. Nothings expired. I started the process 3 days ago on Sat Jan 2 2021.

Tested everyday
Both tanks read as follows:
Temp 78F
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrates 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
PH 7.0

Does anyone know if my tanks are cycled?
How long should I wait to throw my rtbs in the new tank?

 

[Aiken Drum]

You cant tell from those readings whether your tank has cycled or not. All you can say is that the current low level of stocking hasnt produced any noticable waste in the short time the tank has been running.

Either.

The filter media you transferred has carried over sufficient bacteria to cycle the tank, the small bioload isnt producing enough nitrate for your test kit to read.

The filter media hasnt carried over sufficient bacteria to cycle the tank, the small bioload isnt producing enough ammonia for your test kit to read.

The reality is probably somewhere between the 2. You have carried over a small amount of bacteria, enough to process some waste, but not enough to cope with a fully stocked tank. I would keep testing daily, if you see ammonia + nitrite combined go above 0.5ppm then do 25% water change. If you are consistently seeing 0ppm ammonia + nitrite say over a week, you can do a small water change and safely increase the bioload by another 30% stocking. Rinse and repeat with the testing, water changes as needed to control ammonia and nitrite and adding new fish. As you increase the bioload you should start to get detectable nitrate too.

Edit: Your new 30g isnt big enough for your red tailed shark.

 

[fishwonder]

What you have not said is how long your 10 gallon tank has been up and running. We will have to assume 6 months so the media can be used to try to cycle a new tank. That media is best to be squeezed into the water of the new tank so the filter media of the new filter can seed quickly and use it.

Here is information on cycling a new tank.