Seems cycled but never saw NO2 !!! ???

[kostasonia]

Hi all, I give you the short history of the cycling of my tank:


4Aug:
*** Filled up the tank with 50L of distiled water and 60L of tap water.
The characteristics of my tap water are:
pH = 8.0
kH > 10
GH > 16
NO2 = 0
NO3 = slightly detected
*** threw some bacteria they gave me in the local store like Basillus, Lactobasillus, Streptococcus.

10Aug:
I decided to put 1 small danio zebra in my tank, since then I´m feeding it with very few food, 3 or four times stayed 1 day without eating.

12Aug:
Put 3 Anubias enanas and 1 Microsorum pteropus
pH = 7.2
kH = 3
GH = 10
NO2 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)
NO3 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)

17Aug:
pH = 7.0
kH = 3
GH = 12
NO2 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)
NO3 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)

20Aug:
pH = 6.8
kH < 3
GH = 12
NO2 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)
NO3 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)

22Aug:
Added 2 Egerias densas, 2 Vallisneria spiralis

25Aug:
pH = 6.8
kH < 3
GH = 12
NO2 = slightly detected (<1mg/l)
NO3 = 10mg/l

============================

So, 21 days after setting it up, the NO3 starts to go up but I NEVER detected NO2!!!

Should I consider the tank almost cycled????

Should I start slowly adding fishes???

 

[Guest]

it can take up to 6 weeks cycling a tank with fish. with one small zebra danio, your not getting much ammonia to feed the bacteria.

 

[kostasonia]

Should I feed it a bit more then?

Or should I put 1 or 2 more fishes??

Or simply wait??

 

[Guest]

you can either add more danios, or remove the one in there now and go with a fishless cycle. cycling with fish takes longer and is more work. there is good information on cycling a tank in the 'getting started' forum on this site.

 

[kostasonia]

Well...remove it now is somehow difficult. The truth is that I have an other small tank with 6 guppies. I was waiting for the new tank to cycle in order to add them.

Do you think it´s better to add them now or it´s a risk?

 

[JRagg]

What kind of stuff did your LFS give you to use? I'm guessing you got your filter seeded from something they gave you. It honestly looks like you've completed a low bioload fish cycle (one danio in 29g isn't much), which if done correctly and seeded isn't too painful. Assuming zebra danios are what you want, you can get more of them, but it will require slowly adding fish over the next few weeks and monitoring parameters.

What I would do is keep feeding as you are until you see NO2 go away completely and then slowly step up the feeding to a once daily routine. If Ammonia and NO2 remain at 0, you can slowly add more fish. When adding the extra fish, keep an eye on Ammonia and NO2 to make sure that you don't see a significant spike while your bacteria reproduce to meet the demand of your bioload.

**EDIT**
And technically you didn't see "no NO2" just very little.

 

[Guest]

im not sure how hardy guppies are. more danios would be better since you have one in there already and will be better than one fish doing all the work. and i wouldnt cycle with my favorite fish if thats what your guppies are.

 

[kostasonia]

What kind of stuff did your LFS give you to use?

It was bacteria to speed the cycling, it contains what I said above...

I didn´t have the tests in the beginning so I don´t know if NO2 had a pick days ago already..

 

[JRagg]

The bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate are nitrosomonas and nitrobacter. I could swear streptococcus is what causes strep throat, hence my question as to what they gave you. My question was more as to what they gave you. Was it in a bottle, a bag, was it gravel, used filter media, a cough?

In any case, it looks like your cycle is very close to being complete. Like I said, when NO2 hits zero, step up your feedings to normal and slowly add the rest of your fish to make sure you don’t have a large ammonia spike.

Also, there's no point in adding more danios if you don't want to keep danios permanently.

 

[kostasonia]

Ah! Soory, didn´t catch it! (you see I´m not native english speaker). It was a liquid that the instructions say that it can be used every time you make a big change of water. I had to add almost half pot, 5-10ml per 10L I think.

Which is a "significant pick" in ammonia?? 0.5mg/l for example?

I would like to add guramis, escalares, RAMS and something else I haven´t decided yet. Something for the top of the tank. Danios...mm...they may make crazy everyone by chasing each other, I don´t know..

Thanks to all anyway!!
Your answers were very usefull!!

 

[Guest]

let me ask something. im not sure about this part. i am reading his tests and he never really had much no2. when i cycled with fish, i had a large no2 spike and i dont see that in his record. also its only been 21 days with one danio, so if he added bacteria, what kept it fed and alive to the point of multiplying to cycle his tank, and with no no2 spike, and this fast? im asking because this has me confused and i am under the impression he has a long way to go.

 

[kostasonia]

I added the danio 6 days after setting up and I took the first measurements 8 days after the starting. It´s possible that NO2 had a pick very early, no?

Otherwise how is it possible to take NO3 if I never had NO2?? This makes me think the tank is cycled, perhaps for the bioload of 1 danio as JRagg says, or something mysterious is going on.

The tests I´m using are the 5 in 1 of SERA. The sticks..But I would say that the tendency is clear. I perform the tests always at 6 o´clock in the afternoon, 3 hours after the lights have switched on.

 

[JRagg]

@kostasonia

The word “pick” is cracking me up. You crazy Brits .
Yeah, the idea would be to do a water change if you ever see ammonia or nitrites over 0.5 ppm (to get them back below 0.5 ppm). I don’t think that you would see too much if you take it slowly. Do you remember the name of the product you added? Stress Zyme? Stability?

@aquarious

A standard cycle with fish usually includes people putting a full, or close to full stock of fish into a tank. When you do something like that you have a fairly high bioload and will most definitely see ammonia and nitrite spikes. The fact that kostasonia is doing a very low bioload cycle (1 small fish in a 29 gallon tank) means that the ammonia production is not very high, so the spikes are no where near as large and sometimes are completely nonexistent. Here’s an article on low bioload cycling by TomK2.

What is different in this case is the addition of something that may have helped along the cycle (stuff like Stress Zyme, and Stability) have been known to reduce cycle times significantly. Something like Biospira is an instant cycle, but I’m about 99% sure that’s not what kostasonia added.

**EDIT**
Oh no, not the sticks
They tend to be a bit inaccurate, but I still believe the situation.

A good liquid reagent test kit is a great tool, and will be a good deal cheaper than the strips long term.

 

[kostasonia]

Ok, here it goes what I put. It´s called "AZOO 11 in 1 SUPER BIO-BACTERIA".

Description:
(AZOO 11 in 1 SUPER BIO-BACTERIA contains Bacillus sp., Lactobasillus sp., Streptococcus sp., Aspergylus, Fungi, Yeast, Yucca extract and enzymes. It will remove harmful material in the water (Ammonia, Nitrite and hydrogen Sulfide) and promotes better digestion, metabolism and anti-stress abilities to your fish. The super bacteria will as well aid to the prevention of disease and decrease the death rate of fish.)


ps. haha! Im not a Brit at all but ok. spikes then!
ps. I think when the strips finish I will but AP products for the tests.

 

[Guest]

thanks jragg. that explains it, i had almost full stocks of fish in my tanks. now i am un-confused, at least on this. now i can continue being confused about everything else.

 

[JRagg]

Whoops, I got confused. Someone somewhere else had mentioned they were from the UK.

I’ve got to say that’s a product that I’ve never seen before. Maybe someone else here has. It looks like it has done some good though.

And Aquarious. I’m still confused . This is one of the few hobbies where you never stop being confused, you just have brief moments of being less confused. There’s so much to learn.