New Tank Cycling - Missed Ammonia Spike?

Hello,
I am fairly new to aquariums, and as such I made a few mistakes when setting up my aquarium (54 gallon).

My first mistake was not knowing about the nitrogen cycle. I knew it was bad to add all the fish at once (thankfully), but I didn't know why. So I added some Zebra Danios.

I then immediately found out about the nitrogen cycle, so I panicked, went to the local pet store, and grabbed a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle and dosed the tank. Then I discovered that Nutrafin Cycle uses a slightly wrong strain of bacteria, and so will cause me to be reliant on it for the life of the tank if I don't let them die off and then start the cycle over.

So, about a month later, I have a large (for me) tank with 6 tiny fish in it, and am scared to add more fish. I was testing the water every few days, looking for an ammonia spike, but so far have seen nothing.

Is it possible at this point that I have missed the ammonia spike and that the tank did cycle, or am I still waiting for the Nutrafin bacteria to die off, or is the bio load from the danios so tiny that it will take forever to cycle? (I have been throwing in some algae discs every now and again to help speed things along)

Also, should I do the routine recommended filter media changes while cycling, or wait until the cycle is complete?

Thanks!

 

First of all, DON'T CHANGE YOUR FILTER MEDIA AT ALL! That will completely kill your cycle, if it needs cleaned, swish/squeeze it in old tank water during a water change.

Have you seen nitrites or nitrates?

 

I have not seen nitrates or nitrites.

 

I have not seen nitrates or nitrites.

Then I would assume that your bioload is too small for it to really register anything. I would either return the fish and cycle the tank fishless, or get more fish to start the cycle.

 

Thanks, I will remove the danios and try a fishless cycle. The idea of buying live animals to subject them to the conditions of a cycling tank just seems needlessly cruel to me.

You don't think that I have leftover Nutrafin bacteria? Or should I just not worry about that and assume they will die off in the course of the fishless cycle?

 

I agree, I would never want to do a fish in cycle. Make sure you get some pure ammonia to cycle though.

I have absolutely no idea what Nutrafin bacteria is. But I would assume that it never had enough ammonia to survive but let me do some research on it.

Edit: no, I don't think you would have any Nutrafin bacteria left in your tank. You don't need to get bacteria but if you want to you can. People often use Tetra SafeStart. I used Dr. Tim's Nitrifying Bacteria & Dr. Tim's ammonia

 

Is dr Tim's ammonia the same as Dr Tim's ammonium chloride?

I live in Canada, where it is very hard to find pure ammonia.

I looked into the Nutrafin Cycle after adding it, because I'm smart like that, and it seems that they use land-based strains of bacteria that would need to be constantly added to the tank in order to survive.

 

Is dr Tim's ammonia the same as Dr Tim's ammonium chloride?

I live in Canada, where it is very hard to find pure ammonia.

Yes

 

Depending on where you are in Canada, you can get Old Country pure ammonia at Home Hardware stores. Also there is another brand (can't remember the name) that is available at Dollar Tree in BC, if I remember correctly. Pure ammonia is pretty hard to find here!

 

If you get your ammonia from the hardware store (here in the US lots of folks find it at Ace Hardware) be sure to shake it. If the bubbles don't almost instantly dissipate then it has some kind of soap in it and you don't want that one. You want pure ammonia. It seems the best way to go is Dr Tims ammonium chloride if you can't find pure ammonia locally.