I Think My Tank Is Cycled?

so yesterday I tested ammonia and nitrites the ammonia was .25ppm and the nitrites were at like .75 ppm. so I dosed the ammonia back up to 2ppm and then I checked tonight and the ammonia and nitrites were both 0ppm. I dosed back up to 2ppm and I'm gonna check again tomorrow morning (12 hours) and tomorrow night (24 hours). also my pH is at 8.0 but I think that's because I JUST added ammonia before hand

 

How long have you been cycling the tank

 

You'll know when it's cycled. You'll have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and about eleventy billion on the nitrates. When you see that a couple of days in a row.... you're cycled! Do a BIG water change and add some fish! (properly temp acclimated of course).

 

How long have you been cycling the tank

a month and a half, the first month was fish in cycling which got it to a point of starting to see nitrites then the fish died and I started a fishless cycle with pure ammonia which ive been doing for about 2 weeks. this past week my nitrites have been maxed out and just yesterday I tested and they went down (I was gone for two days) and now my nitrites are 0

You'll know when it's cycled. You'll have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and about eleventy billion on the nitrates. When you see that a couple of days in a row.... you're cycled! Do a BIG water change and add some fish! (properly temp acclimated of course).

my nitrates have been maxed out for about a week and half now!!! I think I'm cycled that's why I dosed some ammonia again to see if its gone within 24 hours and ill do it again tomorrow to see if it does it again

 

Ah, okay. You made no mention of nitrates in your first post. Carry on!

 

Ah, okay. You made no mention of nitrates in your first post. Carry on!

yeah! my bad, I just automatically assumed that with me thinking the cycle was done that the nitrates would be obvious but in hindsight nobody actually knows how far long I am or if I even knew I needed nitrates

 

I see from your profile you're wanting "a whole slew of tetras". That sounds awesome. But be careful not to fully stock the tank all at one time. I would hate to see it go into a mini-cycle after you just spent all this time on a proper fishless cycle.

Regarding your pH, and whether or not that's from ammonia, what is the pH reading directly from your tap?

 

Hope for 0, 0, bunches at the 24 hour mark.

Thinking you are down.

But continue feeding ammonia until you add fish.

 

I see from your profile you're wanting "a whole slew of tetras". That sounds awesome. But be careful not to fully stock the tank all at one time. I would hate to see it go into a mini-cycle after you just spent all this time on a proper fishless cycle.

Regarding your pH, what is the reading directly from your tap?

the stocking has changed I think, its gonna be 2 german blue rams, 8-12 cardinal tetras, and 8-10 lemon tetras. I'm not quite sure which fish I should add first, the tetras or the the rams

my pH is and always has been 7.4 from tap. its stayed 7.4 most of the cycle, ive seen a couple spikes here and there but I think its due to the ammonia being a base

Hope for 0, 0, bunches at the 24 hour mark.

Thinking you are down.

But continue feeding ammonia until you add fish.

plan on it! I have a job tomorrow where I should be getting some money so I'm gonna go and get a proper heater then friday or sat get some fish maybe (providing the cycle is complete)

 

It's generally advised to add the most aggressive fish last, in this case the rams. Aggressive fish tend to see new additions to the tank as invaders in their space, but fish that are already there when they arrive as part of the environment.

And why not just get like... 25(?) of one kind of tetra, instead of 2 different kinds? The two different species won't school together. In nature, tetras occur in schools of hundreds, even thousands. And they only school with their own species. I know you can't have hundreds of tetras in a 29 gallon tank, but the more of one kind you do have, the cooler schooling behaviors you'll be able to observe. I'm not saying your 2 separate schools won't work, because they will. But I think just picking one tetra species will work better.

 

It's generally advised to add the most aggressive fish last, in this case the rams. Aggressive fish tend to see new additions to the tank as invaders in their space, but fish that are already there when they arrive as part of the environment.

And why not just get like... 25(?) of one kind of tetra, instead of 2 different kinds? The two different species won't school together. In nature, tetras occur in schools of hundreds, even thousands. And they only school with their own species. I know you can't have hundreds of tetras in a 29 gallon tank, but the more of one kind you do have, the cooler schooling behaviors you'll be able to observe. I'm not saying your 2 schools won't work, because they will. But I think just picking one tetra species will work better.

that would look cool, I just kinda want variety yanno? I'm not sure yet at all

 

UPDATE:
so its been about 10 hours since I dosed to 2ppm, the ammonia is at 0ppm, the nitrites are either 2ppm or 5ppm, and my pH is actually lower at 7.2. I'm assuming that over the next 14 hours the cycle will get rid of the nitrites. does that mean that its fully cycled?

 

Let's wait for up to 24 hours since dosing ammonia and see what the nitrites do. If the nitrites also disappear then yes.

 

Let's wait for up to 24 hours since dosing ammonia and see what the nitrites do. If the nitrites also disappear then yes.

how do you think the two GBR’s and 20ish lemon tetras would look?

 

If you want more excitement, you could get some cool “algae eaters”

I have kuhlI loaches that come out at night. 8 I think. They are so entertaining to search for! I sometimes see one swimming around at night and it just makes me so happy! Also they have a pretty low bio load and little care. In my opinion, TOTALLY underrated. Haha sorry to be a crazy fish lady.
You might like some cories or shrimp. I could be totally wrong, but reticulated hillstream loaches? You can have variety AND a big school.

 

If you want more excitement, you could get some cool “algae eaters”

I have kuhlI loaches that come out at night. 8 I think. They are so entertaining to search for! I sometimes see one swimming around at night and it just makes me so happy! Also they have a pretty low bio load and little care. In my opinion, TOTALLY underrated. Haha sorry to be a crazy fish lady.
You might like some cories or shrimp. I could be totally wrong, but reticulated hillstream loaches? You can have variety AND a big school.

I think I'm gonna get some cories, I had that planned initially but completely forgot until you mentioned them. I do like kuhlI loaches but my LFS doesn't have any

 

how do you think the two ’s and 20ish lemon tetras would look?

I think that would look really cool, but what matters is how *you* think that will look

If you're going to add some cories, though, you might want to get less tetras. Cories are another social fish, like tetras, that require a group of their own kind. But since they reside in different levels of the water column, cories at the bottom, tetras in the middle and top of the water, this pairing will work better than having 2 mid-level schoolers like you were saying before.

 

I think that would look really cool, but what matters is how *you* think that will look

If you're going to add some cories, though, you might want to get less tetras. Cories are another social fish, like tetras, that require a group of their own kind. But since they reside in different levels of the water column, cories at the bottom, tetras in the middle and top of the water, this pairing will work better than having 2 mid-level schoolers like you were saying before.

15 tetras 8-10 cories?

 

That would work.

 

for the fish I have mentioned (2 german blue rams, 15ish lemon tetras, 8-10 cories) do you guys think this setup will work? I'm gonna get another one of the dark green plants to put on the other side to keep things symmetrical

 

18 hours later and I have 0 nitrites now. I think its safe to say I'm cycled?

 

View attachment 467807 for the fish I have mentioned (2 german blue rams, 15ish lemon tetras, 8-10 cories) do you guys think this setup will work? I'm gonna get another one of the dark green plants to put on the other side to keep things symmetrical

This looks good to me. The only thing I would recommend is, if you want cories, they prefer sand rather than gravel. It's not a REQUIRMENT to have sand, but it's one of those things that if you have it they will definitely use it, and without it you're kind of missing out on some enrichment and natural behavior. They will literally sift the sand through their gills looking for tiny bits of food. Mine spend all day doing it. See GIF.




And yes, I think you're cycled.

 

This looks good to me. The only thing I would recommend is, if you want cories, they prefer sand rather than gravel. It's not a REQUIRMENT to have sand, but it's one of those things that if you have it they will definitely use it, and without it you're kind of missing out on some enrichment and natural behavior. They will literally sift the sand through their gills looking for tiny bits of food. Mine spend all day doing it. See GIF.

View attachment 467857

And yes, I think you're cycled.

you see the rocks in the back? I was thinking about doing that in the rest of the tank in like a mosaic type thing. I have a 5lb bag of sand that I can use to spread over the top of the gravel but itll all eventually probably go to the bottom.

 

Yeah eventually the sand and gravel will mix...

 

Yeah eventually the sand and gravel will mix...

should I not got the corys then? or what if I got more sand? the other option is I could get saucers and put sand in them, but I don't know if thatd look good/work well

 

Like I said, it's not a requirement, it's just something they'd appreciate. If your gravel were really rough I would say to switch the gravel out entirely. But your gravel doesn't appear rough in the photo, it looks really smooth. A mix of sand and gravel might be okay. Look closer at my gif... that's what I have. I just have a lot of sand in comparison to the gravel. But if you decide against sand altogether that's fine. Like I said, your gravel doesn't look dangerous. They're just going to miss out on some enrichment.

 

Like I said, it's not a requirement, it's just something they'd appreciate. If your gravel were really rough I would say to switch the gravel out entirely. But your gravel doesn't appear rough in the photo, it looks really smooth. A mix of sand and gravel might be okay. Look closer at my gif... that's what I have. I just have a lot of sand in comparison to the gravel. But if you decide against sand altogether that's fine. Like I said, your gravel doesn't look dangerous. They're just going to miss out on some enrichment.

a mix of both couldnt really hurt anything