Is my cycle complete?

[ijaco]

Hi everyone, I've been fishless cycling my new 60 gallon tank for a couple weeks now. Had a bunch of seed material from another tank I have, and ammonia started to drop quick. For the past 8 days, ammonia has been dropping from 4-6 ppm to 0 ppm within 24 hours. When the ammonia started dropping (8 days ago), Nitrites were off the chart, but they have since gone down to about 1ppm, and have remained for the past few days. Nitrate has been steady between 5 and 10 ppm for the past week. i didn't start testing for nitrates until nitrites were high. PH has been steady at around 7.6. I did a 30% water change a couple days ago, and have been putting in a pinch of ground fish food every couple days. It has about 10 assorted amazon swords, java ferns, and anubias nana. So basically I was just wondering why I haven't got a huge spike in nitrates yet like most people described. Do you think my tank is cycled yet or does it need more time? Thanks

 

[Patty1980]

If you're still getting nitrites at all I would wait. Maybe test again in a couple of days. Sounds like you're close B-)

 

[Mebbid]

Personally, I would just call it good and add fish. That much ammonia is an obscene amount to be produced by fish in a day, in general fully stocking a tank wouldn't even come close to that much daily production. The 4ppm ammonia is an arbitrary number that people choose to cycle a tank to.

 

[Patty1980]

^^^ knows more than me

 

[ijaco]

Haha alright thanks, looks like I'll be stocking 50% tonight or tomorrow night. Anything I should do before hand? Another water change?

 

[Mebbid]

A 100% water change is standard procedure after a fishless cycle.