mbrigha1

My tank is still cycling and I tested the ammonia today and the reading is 1.0 ppm. Should I do a water change at this point or leave it be? I did a 50% change about 4 days ago. By the way, I have 3 longfin blue danios and 2 ghost shrimp in the tank.

mlinden84

Definately do a water change asap. you need to get the ammonia readings down. i know some other members use prime to detoxify the ammonia while cycling, but you still need to do water changes, maybe even daily if neccessary. how big is your tank?

mbrigha1

its a 20 gallon tank.

-Also, at what point will I know that my tank has cycled?

sgould

You should be testing regularly for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. You will know you are cycled when you see both ammonia and nitrite spike upwards, then fall back to 0. The ammonia spike will happen first, and will begin falling at the same time your nitrite begins rising. Once the nitrite begins to fall you will start seeing nitrate readings. Once nitrite also comes back down to 0, you are cycled. Nitrates, however, will not come down on their own. You will need to do regular water changes to keep them under control. With fish in the tank, you do not want to let either ammonia or nitrite get above 1ppm...so as mlinden said, you should do another change right away. Since you have fish in the tank, you may want to consider adding some Prime or Amquel+ to the tank. They will detoxify the water and protect the fish from both ammonia and nitrite levels, while still allowing your cycle to continue.

mlinden84

Couldn't have said it better myself!

-Michelle