10 gallon cycling question!!

[shanna4013]

About 2 months ago I got a 10 gallon tank from a woman on craigslist with 2 green corys,3 guppy's,3 zebra danios,3 black neon tetras and 3 serpae tetras.I immediately transferred them all to a bucket and completely emptied the tank and put new gravel,a new filter and new decorations then refilled the water and added the stress coat that the woman gave me. I did some research on how to care for all of them which led me to discovering about the nitrogen cycle! So because of my need to clean and re-decorate the tank,any kind of cycle that was going on with the tank was completely wiped outSince then I have been doing 30 % water changes with prime everyday religiously and none of the fish have died and they all seem to be doing very well,they all get along and there is no sign of aggression or stress what so ever I feed them once a day with flakes blood worms and a algea wafer... I know they need to be in a bigger tank and should be in groups of 6 or more and I will be upgrading to a way bigger tank ASAP.I just got the API Master test kit yesterday so for the last month and a half I have had no idea what my water perimeters were... yesterday they were PH 7.4 Ammonia .25 Nitrite 0 and nitrate 0. I waited 24 hours to test again so the prime could ware off and today they were PH 7.4 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 0.My question is could I have a cycled tank already or would the .25 ammonia reading yesterday mean that it is no where near being cycled.If you have a cycled tank will you ever test positive for ammonia?? I know that you should always keep your nitrate under 40 PPM but does it ever get down to zero or is there always some nitrate present? Is it possible that my tank could be cycled and I just missed it because I didn't have a water test kit? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AdamsAquarium]

Your tank is cycled. It's rare to see nitrates so low. Did you do your 2nd test after a water change or before?

If you did it before a water change, then your tank is completely cycled. The only concerning thing is your ammonia levels. It seems like you have your tank pretty well stocked, just keep an eye on it because you don't want your ammonia to get much higher than what it was in the first reading for 2 reasons. The first will cause stress on the fish and the 2nd will cause another cycle to happen if you have too much ammonia for a prolonged period of time. If you ever see your ammonia get any higher, then simply do a water change and try to get out as much fish poo as possible.

It looks like your tank is good! And happy to hear that you will be upgrading to a larger tank. They are easier to maintain than the smaller tanks as well

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