# Is it cycled?



## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

My 2.5 gallon planted tank has ammonia and nitrite both reading 0 ppm. But it's only been 6 days? I've been throwing food in and watching it rot. The ammonia was at 1 ppm day one, 0.5 ppm on day 3, and 0 yesterday and today, but I never got my nitrite spike. Am I done? Is it over? Do I need to test for nitrates to be sure or can I get my fish now?


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## Lettuce (Jul 12, 2014)

If you are seeing 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, there should be nitrate present. Test for nitrate and that should tell you something. 


I don't know enough about the cycle first hand to tell if it can happen that quickly. My tank has been up for 8 weeks and still hasn't cycled lol


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

Hmm... I'm really suspicious of it now. I was told plants make it go faster but I wonder if there could be anything else going on making my levels stay at 0, like my kit being broken or something. I guess I'll go get my water tested at petco since I don't have a kit for nitrates anyways.


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## SeaKnight (May 24, 2013)

Personally, I have never done a fishless cycle however, I do know that in order for you to have a completed cycle you need to be seeing nitrates, and in order for there to be nitrates you would first have to have an adequate ammonia source and then nitrites.... If you are sure you are adding an appropriate amount of fish food (to create the appropriate amount of needed ammonia) and are continuously getting a constant readings of 0ppms on both ammonia and nitrites for the next week, with a rise in nitrates then chances are your cycle is done.. Even with smaller tanks this usually takes a few weeks BUT it is not unheard of for it to take less..... The Big thing here is to determine whether or not there are nitrates and if so, to remember to continue to add the ammonia source until you get your fish....

Oh and to also remember to syphon out the left over food just before adding your fish.....


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## StrangeDejavu (May 1, 2014)

The easiest ways to cycle a tank is to add the fish and do partial water changes while dosing Prime. The other is called Tetra SafeStart, dump the bottle in and the next morning your tank is ready. I used it on my 55g and it went from 2ppm nitrite to fully cycled in 24 hours.


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

I have nitrates! And still 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. I'll keep monitoring but I'm gonna consider this basically cycled since the other parameters haven't varied in a few days.
Now my only problem is my tap water itself always reads .25 ppm on ammonia. :/ Not much I can do about that I suppose.


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## yogosans14 (Jul 14, 2014)

Probably is. I'm bout ready to give up on my fishless cycle 10 gallon and turn it into a hermit crab tank. It's just so confusing but for now I just throw some tropical flakes In there for ammonia lol.

Already lost 6 neon tetras and2 guppys


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

Oh no! I was really winging it with my cycle. If it helps, I used pellets rather than flakes and have what looks to me like a decent number of live plants. I hope your's works out soon.


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## yogosans14 (Jul 14, 2014)

I have 1 live plant In there lol. My ammonia ATM is 
.25 but nitrates r 0


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

Are you measuring your nitrite? You wanna see ammonia hit zero then nitrite hit zero and then look for nitrates. 
if you can afford more live plants I'd say get some if you wanna speed up your cycle.


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## yogosans14 (Jul 14, 2014)

I only have a ammonia and nitrate test kit...do I have to buy that bottled ammonia stuff At the pet store?


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

I didn't buy bottled ammonia. Just throw a bunch of fish food in and let it rot. I just kept adding more in and since there was no fish I let it get fuzzy and moldy and gross but it worked.
You're gonna need the nitrite test kit. I figure nitrite is actually toxic so you want it out. Nitrate's presence only indicates the nitrite is being eaten. You want to make sure it's gone.


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

Also lo and behold did a water change and the ammonia went up from 0 ppm to 0.25 ppm. Let it sit overnight, checked again this morning and it's back to 0 ppm. The bacteria is good at its job but the tap water certainly isn't. Maybe I should have just used water changes as my ammonia source lol.


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## yogosans14 (Jul 14, 2014)

Ok and u have plants in 2 different tanks. Should I take them out and put them in my ten gallon for now?


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## yogosans14 (Jul 14, 2014)

I have*


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## Lettuce (Jul 12, 2014)

StrangeDejavu said:


> The easiest ways to cycle a tank is to add the fish and do partial water changes while dosing Prime. The other is called Tetra SafeStart, dump the bottle in and the next morning your tank is ready. I used it on my 55g and it went from 2ppm nitrite to fully cycled in 24 hours.


I am going to try my _fourth_ bottle of safestart later this week, and hope it finally works out for me. The first bottle didn't do anything. The other two bottles showed nitrites 24 hours later, nitrates 48 hours later, but then ammonia kept rising instead of falling, and eventually all nitrites and nitrates were gone after doing a few water changes to combat the dangerous ammonia levels. I don't understand what went wrong. I am past 2 months of the tank being set up, and it will not cycle.


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## phantas (Sep 5, 2014)

yogosans14 said:


> Ok and u have plants in 2 different tanks. Should I take them out and put them in my ten gallon for now?


I think if you have fish in the other tanks you should probably leave a couple plants in there. But putting plants in the tank you're cycling should clear out some ammonia and help your cycle because plants eat the stuff you want to get rid of. I think if you have plants from a tank already cycled it might also carry in some of the bacteria you want.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

I agree with StrangeDejavu: Fish-in cycling is the way to go. If you do it right the fish are exposed to .25 ppm for a very short period of time.

Test your water once a day; do a 25% water change when Ammonia and/or Nitrites reach .25 ppm. As Hallyx advises add one drop of Prime per gallon every day. You have to be religious about the testing and water changes. Sometimes you may have to do two or three changes per week.

Leave equipment alone; do not wash, rinse or replace filter media.

Check your parameters 24 hours after a water change and 24 after adding Prime; never immeditely or you could get a false reading. BTW, Seachem Prime doesn't help with cycling like Tetra SafeStart; Seachem Stability does. I have never used SS but have had great results using Stability with fish-in cycling on seven tanks from 2.5-20 gallons.

Also, plants do help but you'd need a veriitable jungle for them to have much impact; one or two don't cut it.


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## yogosans14 (Jul 14, 2014)

Well I guess that's why my guppies died. The ammonia was 1.0 be for I got the chance to do a water change


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## BettaMummy87 (Jul 26, 2014)

Better off seeding than using plants to transfer bacteria. As Russell said, the amounts on the plants are so small you would need to be heavily planted, back to front, top to bottom. 

If you have another tank, that is already cycled (or a friend who does!) you can use some old media from the established tank in with the new tanks filter. 

For example, I have seeded my 64L with the old coarse sponge from my 80L, as that was what I was replacing that week. I just cut it up into little cubes and stuffed it right on in the external filter for the new tank. So long as you keep it wet (in a little of that tanks water so the bacteria isnt lost) and get it in there asap it should work. (I have read no more than an hour, but i would say no more thank half an hour if you can help it) or the ammonia eating bacteria die. 

Sure enough, the day after seeding, I had 0.5ppm in my new tank. I am boosting with household ammonia too as it can cut cycles down to a week at best. 

You cant use media from smaller tanks and expect it to cope, though. So a 15litre tank probably couldnt start a 64litre.


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