Fish in nitrogen cycle

Hi guys! I’m a new fish and snail mom. I have had my 6 glofish tetra, 4 mystery snails, and 2 nerite snails for a few months now. I just upgraded to a 20 gallon tank a few weekend ago from a 10 gallon ( 5 glofish and 2 mystery’s at the time) but anyway, I’m pretty proud of myself, I finally got this nitrogen cycle completed. It was a fish in cycle using seachem stability and seachem prime. It took just two weeks to complete the cycle. this is what I did

I used the old substrate from the old tank to give the bacteria a head start along with two cap fullls of Stability on the first day. Then 1 capful for 6 more days. I did a 25-30% water change every 2-3 days when the ammonia or nitrites got to be high. I use the API MASTER TEST KIT. with every water change I used Prime to dechlorinate the water.
during the first 7 days I only got ammonia levels and no nitrites. The ammonia would range from.5-1 until after the 7th day the ammonia went down to .25-.5 and got nitrite reading of .25. The nitrites never got higher than that for the last 7 days, and the nitate went up to 10 , the ammonia got down to .25 until today. Today is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 5 nitrates ( I did a 20% water change this morning) so I am assuming I completed the nitrogen cycle???? any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.

 

Once ammonia and nitrite are 0 for more than a few days and nitrates slowly rise until a water change you've cycled the tank! Congrats

 

Hi guys! I’m a new fish and snail mom. I have had my 6 glofish tetra, 4 mystery snails, and 2 nerite snails for a few months now. I just upgraded to a 20 gallon tank a few weekend ago from a 10 gallon ( 5 glofish and 2 mystery’s at the time) but anyway, I’m pretty proud of myself, I finally got this nitrogen cycle completed. It was a fish in cycle using seachem stability and seachem prime. It took just two weeks to complete the cycle. this is what I did

I used the old substrate from the old tank to give the bacteria a head start along with two cap fullls of Stability on the first day. Then 1 capful for 6 more days. I did a 25-30% water change every 2-3 days when the ammonia or nitrites got to be high. I use the API MASTER TEST KIT. with every water change I used Prime to dechlorinate the water.
during the first 7 days I only got ammonia levels and no nitrites. The ammonia would range from.5-1 until after the 7th day the ammonia went down to .25-.5 and got nitrite reading of .25. The nitrites never got higher than that for the last 7 days, and the nitate went up to 10 , the ammonia got down to .25 until today. Today is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 5 nitrates ( I did a 20% water change this morning) so I am assuming I completed the nitrogen cycle???? any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.

Congrats!

While your most recent test results would suggest you’re cycled, I’d continue to test every day or couple days just to be sure.

About nitrites, it’s not unusual to see low or even no nitrites when using bottled bacteria.

 

I would assume it did complete. Just keep a eye on it because you added more fish than the other bacteria was grown for.

 

Awesome! I will test again the next few days to make sure. Yeah I’m pretty proud of myself. Not sure if the old tank was ever cycled. I had no clue what I was doing. Thanks to this site I have learned so much. Thanks!

 

Welcome to Fishlore BTW.

 

Awesome! I will test again the next few days to make sure. Yeah I’m pretty proud of myself. Not sure if the old tank was ever cycled. I had no clue what I was doing. Thanks to this site I have learned so much. Thanks!

How long was the old tank running? You didn’t have any filter media from the old tank to transfer to the new tank?

 

I am assuming I completed the nitrogen cycle????

Yeah sounds like it.

 

How long was the old tank running? You didn’t have any filter media from the old tank to transfer to the new tank?

Oh yeah I had the white ceramic media. I forgot the name of it. I also transferred it to the new tank as well

Oh yeah I had the white ceramic media. I forgot the name of it. I also transferred it to the new tank as well

It was runni be about a month. Maybe two. But I had no idea about testing the water and all that. It may have cycled on its own but I never tested to know for sure

 

Oh yeah I had the white ceramic media. I forgot the name of it. I also transferred it to the new tank as well

It was runni be about a month. Maybe two. But I had no idea about testing the water and all that. It may have cycled on its own but I never tested to know for sure

Even if your old tank wasn’t fully cycled, the stuff from it definitely gave the cycle on your new tank a jump start.