Could my tank be CYCLED??

[boggerscott]

Ok my tank has been up and running for 2 to 3 weeks now its a 75 gal. I have put in 120 lbs of eco complete and 40 lbs of Carib sea natural sustrate Black in the tank. The Mag 250 has been runnen for 2 weeks also. I have a 18 watt uv turbo twist hooked up but not runnen but ready to go. Temp on the tank is at 72 degrees. Ph reads 7.0 - 7.5.

Can I put a couple fish in the tank???

 

[Sonomakid]

have you tested ammoina, nitrite and nirates ?

 

[boggerscott]

Tested all three just now. All at ZERO "0"

What u think??

 

[timwag2001]

how heavily planted is it?

 

[supradupafast]

Tested all three just now. All at ZERO "0"

What u think??

Your tank will be , and stay at 0 Readings until you introduce a Bio Load. You need a source of ammonia to start the "Cycle"

 

[boggerscott]

Ok so introduce a fish and watch levels daily and if they go up do a partial water change or is there a set amount , like 10 gals or 20??

 

[boggerscott]

No plants yet

 

[timwag2001]

Ok so introduce a fish and watch levels daily and if they go up do a partial water change or is there a set amount , like 10 gals or 20??

no. you need to start the cycle without the fish. your levels of ammonia and nitrite will rise and are toxic to fish. read this Fishless Cycling
if you have any questions about fishless cycling after you read that repost and we'll try to help you out.

 

[timwag2001]

basicly you dont want to add any fish untill your ammonia and nitrite is at 0 and you should register nitrate

 

[timwag2001]

oh yeah. ace hardware brand ammonia is the ammonia that you want. its pure ammonia without any other detergents

 

[Guyver]

DO NOT add fish unless you're willing to see them suffer for awhile with toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite. If you're planning on adding plants, do that instead. The bacteria colonies on the plants will help things get going. If not, you can drop some fish food in there on regular intervals, or start the bioload some other way. I had the work done for me when adding some rocks to the tank - bought them at the LFS and they had moss on them. Didn't realize it till I added the rocks to the tank and the moss died and began decaying. With a fully planted tank and the moss-action, I did daily water tests and watched the ammonia spike, nitrite spike, then nitrate spike. Did a 50% water change, and had my tank cycled in 2 weeks. Ran full filtration the whole time, as well.

Kudos on being so patient! It took considerable effort not to start throwing things in there like a kid in a candy store for me.

 

[boggerscott]

ok so i cant lie I went and got 10 feeder gold fish and some plants. they have been in there for about a week or more and I have not been testing the water like I should. I have not lost any fish yet. could I have cycled yet or should I just test the tank and go from there and if all looks good , is it still maybe to early yet?? here is a pick of the tank

 

[Guyver]

I would say do a daily water test each day for a week to see if there's any drastic changes. If you're registering low ammonia and low nitrites but some nitrates, your tank may be cycled. If you register an ammonia spike, your tank is definitely not cycled and you should begin doing pwc's often. imo