Cycled Tank In One Week?

hey all!
So I purchased and set up my first 20 gallon long tank about a week ago. I used eco complete substrate along with gravel and a few plants as well as Seachem Prime and Stability every day since that day. I've tested my water for the last 2 days using SPI Fredhwater master kit and it's been at 0 nitrites 0 ammonia and 5ppm nitrates. According to everything I've read, this means my tank is cycled. Could this be true?!

Forgot to mention I did a fish in cycle with four Zebra Danios.

 

It could be cycled! Because it's so new though don't be too aggressive with cleaning the filter media (in old tank water when you have to!) and don't overload them with too many new fish.

Welcome to the forum!

 

Congrats on cycling so fast. Zebras are a great beginner fish. They are very hardy and can handle many mistakes that you will make. They are almost foolproof. Don't ask how I know.
Aquaphobia said it best.
Only thing you will have to worry about is how long it will take to get your next tank, and how big you can go.
MTS is incurable.

 

More likely would be you have some nitrates present in your tap, and the cycle hasn't started yet.... hate to be the party pooper unless you were using seeded media, it would be impossible to cycle that quickly... first you need the fish to produce enough ammonia to register, then the bacteria start to grow AFTER ammonia has shown up...

Just keep testing your ammonia daily for now, it should be showing up soon...

Welcome to fishlore!

 

More likely would be you have some nitrates present in your tap, and the cycle hasn't started yet.... hate to be the party pooper unless you were using seeded media, it would be impossible to cycle that quickly... first you need the fish to produce enough ammonia to register, then the bacteria start to grow AFTER ammonia has shown up...

Just keep testing your ammonia daily for now, it should be showing up soon...

Welcome to fishlore!

Did you ever get nitrites to register? If not, like Jocelyn have mentioned, the cycle probably didnt even start. If yes, congrats!

 

Did you ever get nitrites to register? If not, like Jocelyn have mentioned, the cycle probably didnt even start. If yes, congrats!

Not seeing nitrites is not a sign that the nitrogen cycle didn't happen, only that you didn't catch them. Sometimes they get gobbled up and turned into nitrates as fast as they're produced!

 

Not seeing nitrites is not a sign that the nitrogen cycle didn't happen, only that you didn't catch them. Sometimes they get gobbled up and turned into nitrates as fast as they're produced!

These bacterias does take time to colonize! The fact that her readings are 0/0/5 after a week is amazing. It took me almost a month to get zero readings. But then again she could have supplemented her nitrifying bacteria from elsewhere.

 

I agree, if you never saw nitrites in your tank, there's a chance the nitrates could be out of your tap. Some areas have a little bit of nitrates in the water. Wait and see if nitrates go up beyond 5 ppm. If they do, you're cycled.

 

These bacterias does take time to colonize! The fact that her readings are 0/0/5 after a week is amazing. It took me almost a month to get zero readings. But then again she could have supplemented her nitrifying bacteria from elsewhere.

She did supplement, she used Stability!

 

I use TSS+ to cycle. My cycles take 6-7 days max. The only reason I see nitrites is because I test daily to see what is happening because I know what's going to happen and won't freak out when seeing my high readings. If I tested only on day 7 like people suggest I wouldn't see any ammonia or nitrites either and my tank would be completely cycled.

 

I also used seachem stability to cycle my tank, along with old filter media.

 

I also used seachem stability to cycle my tank, along with old filter media.

There is everyone's answer. Plus the OP did have fish as well.

 

Hey everyone! I actually had a 10 gallon set up for a six months with various different fish. Used some of the fake plants in my new tank. I have moved the six neons a had as of late in my 10 gallon over to the 20 and everyone seems to be doing fine. going to test again today! Thanks for all of the great feedback.