water parameters

[Adroit]

Ammonia: 0.5
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 1.0

So how far or close am i to the completion of the fish cycle? I recently had tons of dead plants in my aquarium from the bad stock Petsmart gave me, so i removed a lot of the debris that was stuck in my filters and added in some more healthier plants in their place. Do you think I'll be ready in a few days or weeks?

Thank you

 

[Rbishop]

So...do you have fish in there? Dosing ammonia?

 

[dreadboy113]

The cycle starts with ammonia rising from 0. When ammonia starts falling and Nitrites start climbing you are getting there. When nitrites start falling and nitrates start risin you are almost there. As rbishop mentioned, to keep the cycle goin you must keep adding ammonia (pure ammonia or fish waste). Either way when ammonia and Nitrite are zero and you have nitrates then your cycle should be complete!!!. Some1 correct me if i'm wrong!!!

 

[Adroit]

No fish or any addition of ammonia. Pretty much all I've done is added water and plants. Although the one cause in the rise of ammonia could be from the dead plants that was sucked in through the canister filter. But other than that, i haven't done anything else.

 

[OldMan47]

The dead plant material will give you some ammonia to start with. How much depends on how much dead plant material you have decaying. Even a small amount of ammonia will start the cycle but unless there is enough ammonia on the front end, there won't be much bacteria supported. Keep that in mind when your parameters say you are done because it won't support many fish. When you think you are done, remove the decaying plants, including the ones in the filter, and add a very small fish load that you can then build on gradually.

 

[Hooked Newbie]

If there are fish in there, you need to be doing large water changes to keep Nitrite < .25.

 

[jm1212]

it sould like you are about ½ way through the cycle.

plants help a cycle in two ways: they transfer bacteria and they eat up ammoina, nitrite, and nitrate.

 

[Coler]

No fish or any addition of ammonia. Pretty much all I've done is added water and plants.

No fish or ammonia apparently folks...

What kind of test kit are you using ?

Broadly speaking your issue here is in any event that without a source of ammonia, any Nitrate production is incidental and at a very low rate - because you have not fed sufficient ammonia to develop the bacterial colonies from this to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate, to the point where they could cope with a load of fish. In other words, a 'cycle' is only as extensive as the bioload capacity which results, which is defined by how much ammonia can be added to a tank and produced into nitrate in a 24 hour period. You havn't really cycled at all if you have added no ammonia and no fish are in there.

Solution is to fishless cycle using a source of pure ammonia. Or to add very very small amounts of fish, test water twice daily, water change as necessary to maintain ammonia and nitrite below .25ppm

 

[Adroit]

Ok I'll add some cories in tomorrow, and check my water twice daily. Thanks for the info.

 

[OldMan47]

Did I miss something? what does a cory have to do with an unfinished fishless cycle.