Newbie cycling question

[Jharvey]

Hi. I'm brand new to the forum and fish keeping. I have a 10-gallon tank (freshwater, heated to 78, ph 7.4)and After over three days of fish-in cycling I have seen no ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. Is it just too soon? The fish - 3 small zebra danios - are very active and seem healthy. One does seem to be a bit of a bully and chases the other two.
Background:
Ran the new tank 1 day and got two plants (one with plant wool that I left on) and three guppies who all died within a day. I unfortunately thought the advice at our chain store would be enough... I know better now. I emptied the water, refilled, replanted, added bottled bacteria (have since read that was probably useless but oh well), waited a week and Bought an API master test kit. Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates tested at 0. I added a piece of filter (the cloth-like kind) from my sister's established tank to mine and bought 3 small zebra danios. I also bought a plant from the lfs that was growing in a rock and had been living in one of their fish tanks. I have been testing daily and have seen no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Shouldn't I have seen something by now (3 days)? Or could the the seeded filter, plant wool and/or plant rock have provided enough bacteria to cycle immediately?

How long should I wait to add a couple more danios and a Molly if my daily tests still show no ammonia or nitrites? I'm hoping adding more danios will help calm the aggressive one. Or should I not worry about that? I can't tell if he ever manages to actually nip the other two. They have some good hiding spots with the five plants and a little castle.

FYI, I have a HOB filter that came with the tank and I stuffed in a replacement pack of the biofilter media that goes with different filter kit (aqua something?) just to give the bacteria a better place to grow. This was by recommendation of lfs.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!

 

[mrfishybetta]

It is unlikely that you insta-cycled, otherwise you would see some nitrate being produced. The one plant isn't enough to suck all of it up to give you that 0/0/0 reading. I would wait to add more fish until you get some readings (of any kind).

Are you shaking the crap out of the kit bottles? Sometimes they can give false readings if they aren't mixed well.

Honestly, I think you just need to wait a bit longer, you'll start seeing reading soon

 

[scuba dude]

Be patient and as mrfishy suggested hold off on adding more fish. Yeah it is a hard thing to especially with a new tank. We've all been there.

 

[BethanyBee]

You added in a filter replacement thing in addition to filter already in there? I wonder if I shouldn't try that. Does it help? I have a fan tail goldfish and an doing a fish in cycle right now as well. What do ya'll think?

 

[sinibotia]

You added in a filter replacement thing in addition to filter already in there? I wonder if I shouldn't try that. Does it help? I have a fan tail goldfish and an doing a fish in cycle right now as well. What do ya'll think?

Nah, it won't help much IMO. It gives bacteria more place to grow, but you need to grow bacteria in the first place before you need more places for them. And I've yet to run into problems with having enough biofiltration as long as your filter is strong enough

 

[ScotJudd]

You added in a filter replacement thing in addition to filter already in there? I wonder if I shouldn't try that. Does it help? I have a fan tail goldfish and an doing a fish in cycle right now as well. What do ya'll think?

I think that a piece of filter media from an established tank was put into the filter of the tank being cycled. This wasn't done to increase the amount of filter media but rather to use the 'dirty' media ( loaded with bacteria ) to kick start the cycle. IMO this is the best way of starting the cycling process as the bacteria is where you want it, in the filter, and it is already proven to be the right bacteria as its from an established cycled tank.


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[Jharvey]

Still nothing today. I have been meticulous about the test kit directions but did some extra shaking today just in case. I doubt that it matters, but I do have 5 plants (not one).

Could it be that I've been feeding them too little? Most people say to watch out for over-feeding so I've been giving them a very small pinch every other day - then again, other people suggest a pinch multiple times per day...

BethanyBee - I added the aquaclear biomax filter insert mostly looking toward the future when my current filter insert needs to be replaced - not really as a way to improve my current cycling. As Scotjud said, I also added piece of an old filter from a well-cycled tank - that is supposed to help a new tank in it's initial cycling.

 

[libertybelle]

with only 3 fish that small they don't need that much food. You could probably start to feed them every day though, if you want but still tiny amounts and only what they eat very rapidly.

When I quarantine new fish I turn off my filter for a minute so the water is still and literally put just a few pellets in so I am sure they are eating and no waste is blowing around the tank. I watch to be sure each fish gets a bite and thats all they get. Fish need way less food than people think!

Since you had established filter media it could be providing enough bacteria for the three fish since they're so tiny. On the low end of the nitrate test it can sometimes be hard to tell if you only have a few ppm of nitrate. Perhaps you could take some water to a pet store to test... just to rule out a problem with the test kit?

 

[Jharvey]

Thanks. I had it tested at the lfs and 0 on everything there, too. I guess sitting tight is the answer