Tank cycled!

F

FLNGroovy1

Acute angler
Aug 10, 2003
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Carrboro, NC
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I've seen several posts asking how long it will take for a tank to cycle. I'm happy to report that my 29g (my first "real" aquarium) has finally cycled! I started up the tank on August 9 and ammonia and nitrites both read 0 on September 6, so a little less than one month. I cycled the tank with 3 black tetras and 2 dwarf gouramis with no casualties (or even any discomfort that I could detect).

I don't know if it was the fact that the tank was planted, or twice weekly partial changes, but the cycling process was actually pretty painless...ammonia never got above 0.5ppm and nitrites never above 2ppm.

Anyhow...just added some new fish...how exciting! Patience to all those still waiting to cycle....it really will eventually happen! :)
 
Congratulations on getting the tank cycled. Be careful with new additions, as they will increase the bio-load and it will take the bacteria time to catch up with the increased wastes. Having plants definitely helps out quite a bit. Getting them established before adding more fish will probably help out, since they preferentially will use ammonia, reducing the odds of nitrite spikes. Regular water changes surely helped the fish out, and proves that water changes does not extend the time needed to cycle.

And, please do not take this the wrong way, but I would like to emphasize an important point.

Nitrite levels of 2 are harmful to fish. Mostly in ways that are not visible to the naked eye. We can't see the gill membranes in enough detail to detect the damage, and while many fish will survive the process, their life has likely been shortened. This is not criticism, but fact, and one of the reasons fishless cycling is so strongly encouraged.
 
Originally posted by FLNGroovy1
I've seen several posts asking how long it will take for a tank to cycle. I'm happy to report that my 29g (my first "real" aquarium) has finally cycled! I started up the tank on August 9 and ammonia and nitrites both read 0 on September 6, so a little less than one month. I cycled the tank with 3 black tetras and 2 dwarf gouramis with no casualties (or even any discomfort that I could detect).

I don't know if it was the fact that the tank was planted, or twice weekly partial changes, but the cycling process was actually pretty painless...ammonia never got above 0.5ppm and nitrites never above 2ppm.

Anyhow...just added some new fish...how exciting! Patience to all those still waiting to cycle....it really will eventually happen! :)
Click to expand...

Adding plants must help since although it took roughly 28 days to fully cycle my first tank, my ammonia and nitrite never reached even 1ppm. In fact, my nitrite never reached higher than 0.5... Never lost any fish during the process, and was relatively painless except for the duration. I would recomend others to drop in one or two balls of java moss before cycling...
 
Originally posted by OrionGirl
Congratulations on getting the tank cycled. Be careful with new additions, as they will increase the bio-load and it will take the bacteria time to catch up with the increased wastes. Having plants definitely helps out quite a bit. Getting them established before adding more fish will probably help out, since they preferentially will use ammonia, reducing the odds of nitrite spikes. Regular water changes surely helped the fish out, and proves that water changes does not extend the time needed to cycle.

And, please do not take this the wrong way, but I would like to emphasize an important point.

Nitrite levels of 2 are harmful to fish. Mostly in ways that are not visible to the naked eye. We can't see the gill membranes in enough detail to detect the damage, and while many fish will survive the process, their life has likely been shortened. This is not criticism, but fact, and one of the reasons fishless cycling is so strongly encouraged.
Click to expand...

I was greatly concerned about adding fishes too fast after cycling, so I created a "plan" to add fishes, and calculated how much (in %) additional bioload I am introducing to the tank, based on the actual size of the fishes (as oppose to the fully grown up size, which is more useful for figuring out the entire stock). So far, I am trying to stay below 20% new addition per week, and never saw any ammonia or nitrite spike... Hopefully, this will work for me all the way...
 
When I read the 2ppm nitrite level, I had been gone over the weekend so there wasn't a water change for 3 days. It had been 0.5ppm when I left. Of course that reading of 2 alarmed me greatly, so they immediately got a water change! I just really was surprised at how painless the cycling process was with just a little routine work.

However, now that I know about fishless cycling, all of my tanks from now on will be cycled that way...much easier!

Is fishless any faster than w/ fish?
 
Actually, shouldn't the question be "will we go through any major cycles again now that we already have a cycled tank?"

I am in the process of setting up another 33g tank now. I guess I will find out how long it will take for the second one, but if you take the sponge media nd some gravels, I'm not supposed to see any significant levels of ammonia or nitrite at all... I guess I'll find out soon enough... :D
 
Good point...

I guess once you get your first tank cycled, the rest are easier since you have the bacteria-rich substrate at your fingertips.

I added some new fish and have been monitoring nitrite, ammonia, and nitrate levels....everything has stayed 0. I assume it's my plants keeping the nitrates zeroed out.
 
plants

For two weeks I had a very cloudy tank with lots of algae and high nitrate levels. From siphoning the tank-one quarter change in water-I now have perfectly clear water since the last four days, but with high nitrate levels. I'm seriously contemplating going with live plants. Any suggestions?
 
From my limited experience, what type of plants you want depends on how much light you have. I started out w/ a 20w bulb on my 29g and most of my plants turned white and lost their leaves. I upgraded to a 55w CF bulb, and now all of the plants I have put in seem to be doing fine.

Good low light plants are java fern, java moss, and possibly amazon swords if the light's not TOO low. I also really like my hornwort...it grew FAST, but I never tried it under low light conditions.

Hope this helps!
 
the hornwort in my tank isnt doing all that great really. its pretty low light and although the tops of the plants are growing rapidly they are also spread out thin and the bottom of the plants look a bit pale. the crypts in my tank are doing fine and my girlfriend dropped a lotus bulb into the tank a week ago and im very surprised to see that not only is it staying alive in the low light is actually thriving.
 
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