some cycling - testing questions

[klfvilla]

Hi, my tank has been up for about a month now. Initially with one male betta, then added two dwarf coral sunshine platys. Tank is a 5 gallon half-hex with two live plants one of which I can't recall the name of, the other is a small java fern. I had purchased a few that were not proper aquatics but I have removed those. I had originally purchased a strip test which was garbage and I was doing tons of partial water changes because I was scared of what might be going on in there. Today I finally gave in and bought the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. So, I have just started doing the liquid testing and have some questions about the results. My biggest question is reading the nitrate results. It looks to me that it is the same colour yellow as on the colour card, showing 0 ppm. But I am supposed to have SOME nitrates, not nothing, correct? Maybe it is a tiny shade darker than on the colour card, but that is negligible. Nitrite is a definate 0 and ammonia, I would say is 0 although it could be a slight shade off perhaps. I haven't done any of the other tests yet. I would like to know about the Nitrates - why would I be showing 0 when the other results look to be good? I could never have imagined that there would be so much to learn with having this little tank of mine! Thanks as always.

 

[liv2padl]

ammonia ---> nitrites ---> nitrates. you won't have measurable nitrates until you've completed the cycle which can take as long as 6 weeks. read these articles on 'cycling' and see if they help you understand the process more thoroughly.

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

http://fish.orbust.net/cycling.html

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/start_up/start_up4.html

 

[Pallen81]

could be possible that you do so many water changes you've emptied out all the nitrates. 5 gallons ain't much and you change water all the time. its not out of the question.

 

[Weezer]

could be possible that you do so many water changes you've emptied out all the nitrates. 5 gallons ain't much and you change water all the time. its not out of the question.

Thats the first thing i thought of while reading the post....Does it normally take just as long to cycle a 5 gal. verses say a 50 gal..Ive never tried to cycle anything smaller than a 20...Just wondering......:dance2:

 

[ct-death]

My 75G took shorter than my 30G... My other tanks have been all between 5 and 10 weeks. Obvioulsy there are a LOT of variables. The 3 things I did differently was; fishless, shut the lights off, and raise the temp over 80.

 

[Rbishop]

5 gal tank...4 weeks old..."tons of PWC"..? Probably not much of nitrates to be seen.

 

[klfvilla]

Thanks for the great replies and excellent information. So my probably slightly neurotic water changes are the likely culprit here. Well, at least I haven't lost any of my 3 fishies during this time (I have PWC down to a fine art) and now that I have an accurate testing method, I can test each day and only do water changes when I can actually see that I need to. I'll record my daily results so that I can keep track and hopefully things will begin to work themselves out. Its such a relief to have the correct test so that I can actually see whats happening in the water now! Thank you all again for bearing with me while I continue to attempt to sort this out.