This this tank cycled?

[yhbae]

Well, I have a mature tank already, cycled months ago and I seeded the 10g tank from the mature tank to kickstart the cycling process.

I have some java moss in this tank - it fills almost 50% of the tank in volume (to let fries survive), and I also have a sponge filter and Aqua Clear Mini (with 2 sponge media). This tank was initially used to grow platy fries, but now I am using it as a breeder tank.

The original fries were there over 7 weeks ago, and about a month ago, they were removed, and replaced with adult platies, starting initially 1, gradually increased to 4 now. There's also 2 otos residing in this tank as brown algae is present all the time.

I just checked the water parameter for the first time in about 3 weeks and here's the reading:

- Ammonia = 0
- Nitrite = 0
- Nitrate = 0

Hmm... Now I am getting a little nervous - did java moss suck up ALL of the above before the bacteria even got a chance to colonize? Do I have any bacteria in this tank?

I could have been running this tank for months without any problems just because I have enough java moss to absorb everything!

Does anyone have any opinion on what could be happening?

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

Honestly, if you have this type of water parameters you shouldn't worry, since your filter media have bacteria colonized, your gravel bed, rocks and any decorations that are coarse. I suggest for you to slowly add the desired fish one by one in order for your tanks bio load to get accustom to the new addition.

 

[Allivymar]

Its quite likely the java moss is sucking up the extra nitrogenous waste. Not a bad thing tho

As for your nitrifying bacterial colonies, the gist is to keep ammonia/nitrites/nitrates at a healthy level for the fish. Even if the colonized bacteria levels are a bit low (and I'll guarantee there are SOME in there), the java moss is keeping things in check. I would be careful however, if you decide to pull all the java moss; it will take a lil bit for the bacteria to catch up with the now available levels of nitrogenous waste.

 

[yhbae]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I don't see why I would pull out the java moss anytime soon since that is essential in this tank to function as a breeder tank for platies. It will only get "worse" since I was going to let it grow much more! (Until it forms a dense bottom 2/3 layer of the whole tank)

Just checked the water parameter for my community tank and it too has settled at zero/zero/zero! (Nitrate level used to hover just under 5ppm for a while...) Hmm... that's weird since I don't have THAT much plants in the tank - mostly java moss and java fern. (Allivy, this is the tank that I treated ich with your help recently!). There's quite a few fishes to the point where I think I am close to overstocking it, but zero nitrates. All this on a 25g tank with only 20w of lights...

Do plants like ammonia and nitrite as much as they like nitrates?