Mini cycle

[El_diablo]

Last night my girlfriend noticed a slight tear in 1 of out swordtails fins so tonight I gravel vac'd my tank changing around 50% of the water jus in case it was a case of fin rot and just out of interest I tested the water immediately after the PWC (I normally do it a few days after a PWC) but when I tested it there were no nitrAtes showing which is concerning me a little, hav I vac'd all the good bacteria away and might this result in a mini cycle or will the nitrAtes take a few hours to show in my test? I'm using a Hagen nutrafin liquid test kit and the ammonia and nitrite r both 0. Should I be concerned?

 

[rich311k]

It is very possible you have little or no nitrate. How big is the tank, how much stock? Is the tank planted?

 

[Viper]

Last night my girlfriend noticed a slight tear in 1 of out swordtails fins so tonight I gravel vac'd my tank changing around 50% of the water jus in case it was a case of fin rot and just out of interest I tested the water immediately after the PWC (I normally do it a few days after a PWC) but when I tested it there were no nitrAtes showing which is concerning me a little, hav I vac'd all the good bacteria away and might this result in a mini cycle or will the nitrAtes take a few hours to show in my test? I'm using a Hagen nutrafin liquid test kit and the ammonia and nitrite r both 0. Should I be concerned?

There are a couple questions that need to be answered first:

• How big is the tank?
• How many fish are in it?
• How long has it been set up?
• How old is the test kit?

The vast majority of the beneficial bacteria live in the filter due to the high oxygen content of the water due to it being directly exposed to air so you shouldn't have been able to vacuum enough out to cause a mini cycle.

 

[El_diablo]

It's a 30G lightly planted with 6 swordtails 2 mollys 7 rummynoses 4 black skirt tetras and 1 pleco

 

[El_diablo]

It's bin setup around 18months now and the test kit is only around 2 months old

 

[El_diablo]

I did rinse the filter media in the PWC water which lookin back maybe I shouldn't of at the same time as gravel vacuuming

 

[rich311k]

I do not think you have anything to worry about. I would test for ammonia and nitrite the next few days to be sure, but I doubt you are having a mini cycle.

 

[El_diablo]

Cool, thanks for the info guys