MY 6 IS CYCLED???? ( I think) Now What ??

[voiceless_kat]

I did readings on May 8th: Ammon 0ppm; Nitrite 0ppm; Nitrate 0ppm. I waited and redid them tonight: Ammon 0ppm; Nitrite 0ppm and Nitrate 0ppm.
I will do them in the morning to be sure. Does this mean my 6g, Neptune's tank is finally cycled?? ;Dand he can move home??? ??? 3 months...wow! Well because he was on meds for so long.

So what do I do with the tank now, just put him into it?? Do a 30% water change and then put him in?? He just finished Maracyn Plus today and I can either put him into the cycled tank with Vita Chem or leave him in his Q for another week with Vita Chem, water changes and NovAqua. Please advise. No need to use AmQuel + in the cycled tank, right??

So once he is in there, then what? If he is healthy do I just keep checking water parameters, do I do water changes every couple weeks @ 50% or what..

Also, for those of you using NovAqu, do you just use it as the conditioner??

So when Neptune moves, I am going to try cycling Storm's new tank with Zymbac as well............Thanks, Val

 

[COBettaCouple]

Actually, it means you have to start all over again.... just kidding! Sounds like it's cycled. I'd do a pwc before putting him in and keep up the vitachem, treating his water with novaqua+ or prime.

We do 25% water changes weekly in our tanks.

 

[genie]

I read on another board that you aren't cycled until you have nitrates because the only thing that gets rid of them is water changes, and if you don't have them then there is something missing in the cycle.
Now, I am very unexperienced with the cycle because in all of my years of fish keeping, no one ever explained it to me. I knew nothing about it until FishLore.
But I read the thing about Nitrates on one of these boards and I remember it coming from one of the moderators. Can't remember which one.
You may want to ask questions on the cycle board.

 

[COBettaCouple]

yea, i'm not sure about the nitrates thing.. but our tank has had nitrates the whole time. kat - are you shaking the 2nd bottle 30 seconds and then shaking the tube for 1 minute and then measuring at exactly 5 minutes (assuming you do the API test)?

 

[voiceless_kat]

yikes....while I hope that isn't the case ( something missing from the cycle) - I must find out prior to putting Neptune in. I will go on the cycling board, and read, maybe post, and perhaps others will help out here. ****, what could be missing besides the fish?? LOL I hae been "feeding" it, topping up evaporation ( 2 times, just a small bit)..............oh well, wish me luck. Val

 

[genie]

Good Luck! ;D

 

[COBettaCouple]

yikes....while I hope that isn't the case ( something missing from the cycle) - I must find out prior to putting Neptune in. I will go on the cycling board, and read, maybe post, and perhaps others will help out here. ****, what could be missing besides the fish?? LOL I hae been "feeding" it, topping up evaporation ( 2 times, just a small bit)..............oh well, wish me luck. Val

Maybe you shouldn't add water to it after you've started cycling a tank? i'm not sure but i think it could in essence be diluting your nitrates. our tank is probably down an inch or so in the 9 days it's been cycling but we filled it to the max when starting the cycle.

 

[voiceless_kat]

I posted onthe cycling board, only one answer - he thinks it is cycled. I only added about 3 cups of water, hardly any, and that was way back .......I am going to hold off on putting Neptune in until I hear a few more opinions. Neptune is looking really good right now, I don't want to screw it up!

Kay, now I have to go tell Neptune.....he was already packing up his bridge and favourite plant for the move.............LOL

 

[Jendayi]

I have posted a few questions over on the cycling board. There don't seem to be many people who answer questions over there. You do have to wait for a while for answers, unlike here with the betta fanatics

I hope your tank is cycled finally, keeping my fingers crossed for you!

 

[voiceless_kat]

thanks, Jendayi. ya the activity is really slow over there...and have you noticed that people read all the fun stuff on the betta board and then buy bettas and join this board??

I may have to start a new thread later tonight or tomorrow on this board. Hopefully Rose is out there and will see this.

 

[COBettaCouple]

Hmm.. yea, that's not a lot of water.. what substrata do you have in there? any decor and/or plants? how's the flow from the filter?

 

[voiceless_kat]

Geez Dave...all these hard questions...................like regular blue substrate........silk plants...............eclipse 6 with bio wheel and filter with carbon removed............a rock thingee that he can drive through..heater at 80..............a tv, a dvd player, mood lights, swim up bar...........you know the regular ;D

 

[COBettaCouple]

Geez Dave...all these hard questions...................like regular blue substrate........silk plants...............eclipse 6 with bio wheel and filter with carbon removed............a rock thingee that he can drive through..heater at 80..............a tv, a dvd player, mood lights, swim up bar...........you know the regular ;D

There's the problem - it's impossible to cycle a tank when you have a dvd player in it. something about the laser eats all the nitrates.

It doesn't sound like you have anything in there to eat nitrates really. Plenty of surfaces for the good bacteria. You can accelerate the cycle some i believe by maxing out the water temp, but you seem to be almost done. I'm at a loss to the 0 nitrates, you look to be all good with the eclipse 6. To be honest, i've never gotten a 0 on a nitrates test. I suppose the only thing to do is keep feeding it and hope some nitrates pop up. Maybe someone who knows more on nitrates can chime in on this one?

 

[Phloxface]

I would put your fish in and keep doing readings every day. If you see ammonia and nitrites then your tank is not cycled. Otherwise, if they stay at 0 then you are fine. The nitrates will probably rise a little when the fish is in there pooping and so on. Don't add any Amquel+ you need to be able to see if the ammonia levels rise or not. Neptune will not be hurt by going over to the new tank. Just test the levels each day. If you find it really is not cycled you can always put him back in the hospital tank.
Smaller weekly water changes and gravel vacs are better than bi-weekly large changes. I do a 20-25% change every week for mine.

 

[voiceless_kat]

There's the problem - it's impossible to cycle a tank when you have a dvd player in it.  something about the laser eats all the nitrates.

Now see, I thought he would get in trouble with the swim up bar.....I did try to talk him into VHS, but he would have none of it, so I caved, you know how we all do! LOL

Back to business: SCREAM, SCREAM , SCREAM,

Well, I thought I would just retest prior to Neptune's move home,,,,,good thing I did. Here is what I found Ammon. .5 ppm
Nitrites...25 ppm
Nitrates 0ppm

What the **** does that mean?? ??? I fed the tank on Friday, can't remember if I did yesterday. Obviously it is gone wacko............I do have a notebook for each of my tanks: green for cycling; red for Storm & blue for Neptune....ya, anal I know...............whatever..........Neptune will have to unpack ( again). I will keep doing daily tests, should I also keep feeding the tank??

Here I go now to the swim up bar for a sip of something to soothe...........all the while yelling, ****, ****, ****!!!! > ??? :-[ :'( :-\ >

 

[Jendayi]

I was told that you keep feeding the tank every day until you put the fish back in, even after it cycles. The bacteria have to have a food source or they will die eventually...

Still wishing you luck!!

 

[voiceless_kat]

Well, I added 2 tablespoons of ZymBac and will feed for the next few days. ****, this really upsets me, however I am thinking it is God's way of saying " No you cannot have an extra empty tank and a new fish to put into it-- Please be patient!" Well ya can't mess with God, so I guess I just carry on as though I was normal. :-[

 

[PrayforMojo]

your tests sound normal for a cycling tank. next the nitrates should rise and you start doing water changes to keep them down. patience is a virtue. good luck.
mojo

 

[COBettaCouple]

i could be wrong, i'm not the cycling expert but i think part of the problem is that you have to feed the tank at least once every 12 hours. The bacteria has a life cycle of about 15 hours and perhaps you're getting those ammonia and nitrite readings from a break in the ammonia source. Try resuming the feeding and see if the ammonia and nitrites will go back down in the next few days, hopefully with an increase in nitrates. I'm not sure but i wonder if the zymbac is causing the nitrates to stay at 0, ours are at 80 now and we're just reaching the nitrites peak (5.0).

 

[genie]

Holy ****-- 80! that means that I have a long way to go. And would you believe that even though the ammonia is 8, Nitrites 2 and Nitrates 5, I found 2 LIVE snails in that tank. EVIL little creatures.