Where am I at in the cycle?

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ksfishguy

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
340
Location
Hutchinson, Kansas
I have read many threads in the forum and still have some "unique" questions to my situation. I setup my tank over a month ago and put old filter media in a Millennium Power Filter and also am running a Magnum 350. I put six rasboras in on July 19th and they have done incredible. After I read posts and articles I decided to by a test kit and I tested the water yesterday. Here are the results:
Ammonia = .25
Nitrite = .25
Nitrate = 5.0

I also tested my tap water which I treat to remove chlorine. Results:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5.0

Any thoughts on the process. My tank was really cloudy at first but has since cleared to an incredible level of clarity. The tank is an Oceanic 42 gallon hexagon.

After testing the tank I performed a ten percent water change and am waiting to test the water tonight or tomorrow.

Any suggestions or help would be great.
 
It looks like you're not cycled at all since your tap nitrates equal your tank nitrates. Did you add any sort of ammonia locking chemical or ammo-lock type carbon to the filter ? That would stall your cycle completely since you wouldn't have any ammonia to feed any good bacteria trying to grow.
 
was the old filter media taken right from an existing tank? if so, you may not see much more than a mini-cycle. of course, the cycle ends when ammonia and nitrite are 0, so you have a little ways to go at least. i would just keep testing and doing regular water changes to keep those numbers LOW. even a mini-cycle can take some time when there are fish present, so be patient!

welcome to aa! best forum around!
 
Joannde is right on top of this, however, I caution the use of nitrates as "visible" means of identifying a complete cycle. I have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates, and have had that (verified by LFS and AP FW Master Test Kit) for over 2 weeks. I even added 5 new fish, and still show no nitrates. I think that my situation is more the exception to the rule, than the rule itself, but keep it in mind.

Continue testing. If your tank starts to show any ammonia, then you're not cycled. If however, these attributes stay stable, I would conclude that you probably are cycled.
 
The old media had been dry for quite awhile. The only treatment I have added is Stress Coat. You guys are getting me excited by saying it might be close to getting over, but I would think my nitrate's would be elevated, but then again, the tap water around here is hard, very hard. He Joann, I used to live in Clearwater, Florida!!!
 
Silly question, but did you have fish in there prior to putting in the rasbora?

If not, then you have a long way to go before you're cycled.
 
Using dry filter media didn't help any. The bacteria need to be wet and need a source of ammonia to stay alive, so if you took it from an established, cycled, and running tank, then it would help.

To me it looks like you are in the middle of the cycle. Ammonia is .25, so it should be going down to 0 soon. I can't tell by only one test result if the nitrIte is rising or falling. If its falling, then the cycle is almost over and you should see an increase in nitrAtes soon. If nitrItes are rising, then it may be a little while before you see anymore nitrAtes.

I think the cycle may be a bit slow because you only used 6 rasboras. Those guys are small and don't add too much to the bioload, so in order to see a significant cycle (high ammonia) you'd need more than 6. But that is good for the fish. You say they have done great so maybe ammonia didn't get too high.

Anyways...stick with it and post more results to see where you are in the cycle.
 
JustOneMore20 said:
To me it looks like you are in the middle of the cycle. Ammonia is .25, so it should be going down to 0 soon. I can't tell by only one test result if the nitrIte is rising or falling. If its falling, then the cycle is almost over and you should see an increase in nitrAtes soon. If nitrItes are rising, then it may be a little while before you see anymore nitrAtes.
Click to expand...

I guess I figured that if he/she still has ammonia, then nitrite would be on the way up, not down.

6 rasbora might be a good thing. A very low bioload cycle can be completed with very few PWC's for a large tank. I don't have the link handy to TomK's post about it, but it's floating around if you do a search.
 
Thanks for all of the great dialogue, this is truely a great resource. I tested again late last night:
Ammonia - .5 ppm (up .25)
Nitrite - .25 ppm (no change)
Nitrate - 10 ppm (up 5)

The test results were decisive and not hard to read. I am hardly feeding these fish at all. I am going to conduct another 10 percent water change today.

Thanks again, I look forward to hearing from all of you.

David
 
TomK2,
I read your article this morning with my coffee. It is a great resource for those wanting to understand the nitrogen cycle. My neighbor was so pumped about my tank that he is heading to Wichita to buy a setup. I am going to print a copy of your article for him to read before he puts one drop of water in his new tank. Your article is very well written and easy to understand, thanks for taking the time to put it together.

My situation is similar to yours, a great hobby from youth revisited. I am now sharing it with my two sons and now my neighbors.

Now, time to start looking for an small aquarium for the office...

Have a great weekend!

David

P.S.

Did a 15 percent water change. Ammonia and Nitrite seem to have gone done slightly, but not a large percentage. I would say between .1 and .25 ppm on both. Nitrate around 7.5 to 10 ppm. Again, my tap water has 5 ppm nitrate (zero ammonia and zero nitrite). Tank has been running for well over a month with cycle fish in tank since July 19th.

Fish are very happy and colorful. They go crazy after a partial water change. I checked water temp on my tap before adding to tank, newbee's, don't go by "feel", check temp., it was much warmer than I thought. In other words, 78 degrees feels cooler on your finger than you would think.
 
Keep it up. It takes a number of weeks to have a bacterial filter strong enough to dispatch ammonia and nitrite eficiently, regardless of the method chosen of cyclig. Your friend is starting from scratch, make sure he looks into fishless cycling too, so he can make a well informed choice.
 
Okay, "it's on!"...

Ammonia - .25 ppm
Nitrite - .50 ppm
Nitrate - 20 ppm

Going to do a big water change this evening to lower nitrite, cycle should be getting closer to end!

It is fascinating to go thru this process.
 
I hope so, my tap water has 5 ppm nitrates so that may be a little deceiving. I check water again last night, ammonia and nitrite down to .15-.25. I changed more water as well. Went home for lunch today and the fish seem to be going crazy (as in healthy). Golden Rasboras look very colorful. Any suggestions on some tank mates? I'm thinking dwarf gouramis and or some rainbowfish.
 
Ammonia almost 0 ppm, nitrites .5 ppm and rising. Going to do another "big" water change, should be close to finishing the cycle. I believe that once my ammonia and nitrite levels hit zero I will still wait a week or two before adding more fish.
 
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