When do I know if I'm fully cycled? (FISHLESS CYCLE)

[dwarfpuffs]

So after three long weeks , my tank has started its (FISHLESS) cycle. I just got a master test kit today. The tank has been eating the ammonia for about a week now. I add about 2 ppms ammonia a day and it is at zero by the next day. I went to the pet store and had them test the water a few days ago. When they tested it the nitrates were in the 40 ppm range . but now when I test it the nitrates are between 5 and ten ppms. Did I miss the nitrate spike? or did the pet store test wrong. hmm. my levels now are.

Nitrate:between 5 ppm and 10 ppm
Nitrite: between .50 and 1.0
Ammonia : 0 ppm (im about to add some to feed the benifical bacteria) <---- should I be doing this?
PH:7.0 (after I just buffered it. I'm planning on breeding Dwarf puffers , so im getting my ph lower but it keeps rising, I bought some driftwood. hopefully that helps.

I included some pictures one is of my live plants dying. I'm pretty sure they need food but its expensive and i just bought a 30 dollar test kit
Thanks to anyone that helps me out on clarifying all this.:grinno:

 

[avionics30]

A cycle is complete when the nitrogen cycle begins to produce NITRATE.

Looks like youre there but wait for the nitrite to drop to zero before adding fish.

 

[loser]

Simply put, when your nitrite levels drop to zero you're fully cycled. Right now there's not enough bacteria to keep up with demand.

 

[dwarfpuffs]

Thanks can anyone see if they have an idea why my ph is so high? it is higher than my tap water so i buffer it every day. I'm shooting for 7 ppm i keep adding every day will it eventually become stable at 7? Anything cheap I can do about the plants dying?

 

[avionics30]

It's likely that your tap water has a high concentration of CO2. An easy way to test this is to draw a container of tap water and test the pH. Record that pH level and add an airpump with an air stone to the container of tap water. Wait 24 hours and retest the container of water. The pH after 24 hours of airation is your TRUE tap pH and you should age your water to avoind pH swings in the tank.

Never buffer pH. Just about every aquairum fish will be fine in tap water as long as the parameters (including pH) are stable. The more you mess with pH (or any other parameter for that matter) the more your fish will stress, become ill and die.

Plants are a whole different story and they should not be affected too badly by pH. Substrate, lighting fertilization schedule, etc have to be known to give any guidance on that subject.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I wouldn't even concern yourself with the pH unless it's a specific breeding project your after. Fish will adapt to the tank pH. The last thing you want to do is swing the pH up/down by adding chemicals. The swings are what would be harmful to fish from what I understand. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are what's important. I wouldn't dose your ammonia more than 1-2ppm at this point. Looks like you're pretty much cycled. Congrats!

 

[dwarfpuffs]

I wouldn't even concern yourself with the pH unless it's a specific breeding project your after. Fish will adapt to the tank pH. The last thing you want to do is swing the pH up/down by adding chemicals. The swings are what would be harmful to fish from what I understand. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are what's important. I wouldn't dose your ammonia more than 1-2ppm at this point. Looks like you're pretty much cycled. Congrats!

I am after a specific breeding project hahaha, as I said in the first post. I read that Dwarf puffers like a PH of 7. And my ph is always at like 8. do you think they will still breed?

 

[ktrom13]

Dwarf puffers are so cool! If you get them to breed let me know how it goes because i love them. And dont buffer the ph. Because its better to have a consistant ph than to constantly buffer.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[authmal]

I am after a specific breeding project hahaha, as I said in the first post. I read that Dwarf puffers like a PH of 7. And my ph is always at like 8. do you think they will still breed?

If anything, try adding some peat instead of chemical additives. There are peat granules, that I'm aware of, that you just put into a media bag and then toss into your filter. That should lower your ph. The problem is, if you actually need to use that for the breeding, water changes will be accompanied by a spike in ph. I guess you could run a second filter with peat inserts on a bucket or other container you'll take water out of for your changes, but that seems tedious.

 

[dwarfpuffs]

Simply put, when your nitrite levels drop to zero you're fully cycled. Right now there's not enough bacteria to keep up with demand.

OK i added 2ppm of ammonia and a day later there was no ammonia and no nitrites am i good to add fish? thanks.