Fully cycled already?

[Elliriyanna]

our tap is 5ppm too... so i have NO idea what this means for my tank ... maybe i should be changing less water less often?

[drewsuf82]

Typically for me it takes ~1 month for most of my tanks to cycle...

[Elliriyanna]

i was told to change 50% of my water daily and that seems to be what is causing my issue

[Elliriyanna]

Good News!!! todays results 0 ammonia , .25 nitrites

[l8nite]

Looking good. Did you back off the water changes?

[Milkman]

Originally Posted by Elliriyanna

I started cycling my tank on the 13th ... today i did my normal water change and tested the water and was shocked to see 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5+ ppm nitrates

however my tests never read any nitrites ... so i am wondering is my tank truly cycled or not

It cant be hard to tell, the first tropical tank I ever got actually fully cycled within a week. I even took a water sample to my privatised local fish shop and the tests came back perfect. He told me that usually the tests come back "good" after a week, but mine was "perfect". I just did a fishless cycle, adding the liquid bacteria daily and a pinch of fish food once.

[waterwookiee]

Changing that much water is going to slow down the bacterial bloom your looking for. Personally I only do fish cycles without water changes in both salt and fresh. Almost every time 25-30 days without exception. Once your cycled, THEN do a monster water change. Starving your bacterial colony isn't going to improve its growth.

[Elliriyanna]

yes it has been two days since my last change but since its working now i just need to figure out when to change ... how high should i let my nitrites get?

[Elliriyanna]

i was only doing what i was told ...

[waterwookiee]

No harm in that. I just don't agree with the advice you were given. I wouldn't change any more until your nitrites are at zero. Then change almost all of it. You wouldn't starve a fish if you wanted to breed it. Bacteria are no different. Feed em so they grow!

[Elliriyanna]

i dont agree either thats why i stopped ... i am just worried about a nitrite spike hurting my fish

[Elliriyanna]

is it safe to add a mystery snail or should i play it safe and wait until my tank is fully cycled?

[waterwookiee]

You definitely run the risk of harming your cycle fish; it's unavoidable. That's why super hardy species that can hack this sort of thing are best. It's kind of hard to get around that unless you do a fishless cycle. Still, by keeping levels low, you're most likely extending the time measurable ammonia will be around, which stressing your fish in a similar way. By doing an aggressive no water change cycle, when it's complete, the tank is CYCLED and future additions of fish are very unlikely to cause any ugly spikes of anything dangerous. What you want is a bacterial population explosion.

I would definitely wait on any new additions. What you have going now is more than enough to cycle it. Just wait, measure and watch. The day the nitrites vanish (and they will vanish seemingly overnight), do a 90%+ water change (carefully since you have fish and I would skip the gravel vac for a couple months (or forever) since you are presumably planting), double check your water perimeters, and go hit your LFS and get something cool. No worries or doubts at that point.

The only other consideration is that like any other population, your bacterial population will slowly adjust to the amount of ammonia and nitrite is has to feed on. So, the days immediately after the nitrite vanish, you will have an extremely strong bio filter. If your tank stays will a super low bio-load for a longer time (no new additions), you won't have to re-cycle it, but you will want to make future expansions to the population in relatively small groups a week or so apart to allow the bacteria population to keep up with the increase in nutrients.

[Elliriyanna]

all i am adding is 3 shrimp ( decided against a mystery snail)

thanks i was thinking i would wait ... just felt i would ask.

also a side note ... i will be using this tank to cycle my next one in a few months so i dont have to do this again lol

[waterwookiee]

How exactly are you using this tank to cycle another? You can seed the other tank with "dirty" media, but in the end, the surfaces of the new tank will have to get colonized on their own time. Can't rush nature.