Hello,
I've been cycling a new tank for almost two weeks now, but I cannot get the ammonia to spike.
The tank has 4 pink rotala stems, 2 small crypts and a dwarf hair grass. It's about 32 Liters or 8.4 gallons (I'm just going to put a betta in it) and has a HOB filter. I've been adding a good pinch of tropical fish flakes twice a day and testing for ammonia once daily, but the water won't show any sort of spike (I potentially got a 0.25ppm but the colour was hard judge so may have been less). I'm assuming the plants are just consuming the ammonia as fast as I'm putting it in.
I'm wondering how I will know when the tank is cycled and safe to add a fish to. Is there something else I should be doing? Should I just wait for nitrAtes to be present or will the plants just gobble them up too?
Thanks in advance!
I've been cycling a new tank for almost two weeks now, but I cannot get the ammonia to spike.
The tank has 4 pink rotala stems, 2 small crypts and a dwarf hair grass. It's about 32 Liters or 8.4 gallons (I'm just going to put a betta in it) and has a HOB filter. I've been adding a good pinch of tropical fish flakes twice a day and testing for ammonia once daily, but the water won't show any sort of spike (I potentially got a 0.25ppm but the colour was hard judge so may have been less). I'm assuming the plants are just consuming the ammonia as fast as I'm putting it in.
I'm wondering how I will know when the tank is cycled and safe to add a fish to. Is there something else I should be doing? Should I just wait for nitrAtes to be present or will the plants just gobble them up too?
Thanks in advance!