newfishlover

it has been 3 weeks now and i just tested my water using test strips, i know i know, with the strips it shows my nitrates about 20 or less, less pink than the 20 mark, my nitrite 0, don't know ammonia it doesn't test for that. last week my nitrite was 3.0

Lucy

It's hard to advise you correctly without an ammonia reading.

Shawnie

without an ammonia reading, you wont know for sure..and the reliability on test strips isnt enough to say for sure either ....I dont think after 3 weeks its cycled tho unless you used some tetra safestart or some established media from another cycled tank...what did you use to get the cycle going?

newfishlover

i used fake plants from another tank and used jungle start right with allantoin. I also have some live plants i heard they help the tank too.

agabr123

yeah, i'm with Shawnie and Lucy, an ammonia tester is really the only way you'll know if you're cycled or not.

newfishlover

okay im gonna go buy a test kit for ammonia and i will let you know.

Shawnie

Im not sure fake plants can hold enough bacteria needed to cycle that fast..and other than tetra safestart, ive not heard of another one that sucessfully cycles and has the right kind of bacteria to do the process...Im sure if others have heard of jungle start, they will chime in...I would purchase the API liquid master test kit as its very accurate and has everything in it you will need...

newfishlover

i have 0 ammonia

Lucy

If your readings are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites with some nitrates showing your tank is cycled.
However, from personal experience, I really don't trust the strips.

pepetj

I would say your tank is cycled. Congratulations.

From my own experience, test strips for Nitrites and Nitrates are not so reliable (the quantity measured might be inexact) but I doubt you would get a false negative with them. The validity of Nitrite and nitrate strip tests (they measure what they are supposed to measure) has been fairly good for me.

That usually means that a test strip measuring zero nitrites or nitrates is likely telling the truth. Problems begin when they actually pick some readings. They usually exaggerate the actual PPM in the tank. That's why I use them as screening test. I use liquid reagents test for reliable readings.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

newfishlover

well i guess i did something right then, thank you

namehater

congo rats!