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New planted tank cycling


Mariac007
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Hello! I am a little worried I have been cycling my tank for almost 2 weeks now, my ammonia levels are at zero. My nitrite seems to be about 2.0ppm currently, and my nitrate is very high I’d say it looks like it could be 40-80ppm. I am wondering if this is supposed to happen or do I need to preform a water change?   

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WOW, those colors! Are you sure you didn't accidentally spill highlighter into them instead? I'm mostly joking, but I'm used to these as the possible colors:

API Freshwater Test Kit Chart : Aquariums

Maybe it's the light it's under. Someone smarter than me will probably chime in with a better answer, but I'd first start off with verifying you're doing the test per the instructions. A water change won't hurt, but my guess is that it's close to cycling if you're only getting nitrites and nitrates, and you just have to wait a bit longer for the nitrifying bacteria to multiply enough to convert the nitrites into nitrates. It's also tough to know without verifying previous readings (i.e. did you ever see ammonia readings? how did you start the cycle? ..).

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Ah yes I took the picture with the flash on. I have been using the testing liquids as the instructions say! The highest I have tested for ammonia was 5.0ppm then it went down to zero a couple days later. 
 

here’s a picture I took before I took the one with the flash lol 

14C2895F-A6AD-466D-AF7D-56196E577E02.jpeg

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2 minutes ago, James Black said:

Congratulations! Your tank is cycled! I would do a waterchange to lower the nitrites and nitrates. You will want your nitrates at 10-20ppm and nitrites at 0ppm.

I had this exact thing happend to my tank, all I did was a waterchange, and that did it.

Yay! I have a decent sized angelfish I have been waiting to move into this tank, should I give it another week before moving him? 

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12 minutes ago, Mariac007 said:

Yay! I have a decent sized angelfish I have been waiting to move into this tank, should I give it another week before moving him? 

as long as the the nitrates are down at 10-20ppm and the nitrites at 0, you can move him in now. A waterchange willl lower the nitrates and nitrites.

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4 minutes ago, Mariac007 said:

I have the aqueon quiet flow 30. I took out the filter it come with a stuffed it with sponges and filter floss and some ceramic media as well. I get pretty water flow in the tank I think....

Excellent! I also enjoy jailbreaking HOBs. Ceramic media is a good idea we've never tried. Is that Eco Complete substrate?   

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1 minute ago, Fish Folk said:

Excellent! I also enjoy jailbreaking HOBs. Ceramic media is a good idea we've never tried. Is that Eco Complete substrate?   

Yes! I have never used any filter media other then the ones they come with so it is exciting! Yes it is eco complete substrate, I read it was good for beginners and I have had no problems with it so far looks great in the tank as well

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Just now, Mariac007 said:

Yes! I have never used any filter media other then the ones they come with so it is exciting! Yes it is eco complete substrate, I read it was good for beginners and I have had no problems with it so far looks great in the tank as well

We love Eco Complete. It really helps to push through the cycle faster. I agree with all above, you should be very close to adding fish if you do a water change to dial back the nitrites / nitrates. Our recipe for going from 0-60 with aquarium cycling is (1) Either Eco Complete Substrate -- contains beneficial bacteria, or Substrate from another established aquarium + (2) Primed Sponge Filter or filter media for HOB + (3) Tank water from another established tank + (4) One piece of wood from inside a tank at our LFS + (5) Live Plants and snails + (6) One bottle of either FritzZyme or Dr. Tim's beneficial bacteria. Once that settles in for a couple days, it's ready to roll. Of course test water . . . but, the bacteria are "baked into the cake" this way. Some people really discourage using wet wood from tank at an LFS. We've never had problems, but it is a gamble. You get what they're carrying! 

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17 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

We love Eco Complete. It really helps to push through the cycle faster. I agree with all above, you should be very close to adding fish if you do a water change to dial back the nitrites / nitrates. Our recipe for going from 0-60 with aquarium cycling is (1) Either Eco Complete Substrate -- contains beneficial bacteria, or Substrate from another established aquarium + (2) Primed Sponge Filter or filter media for HOB + (3) Tank water from another established tank + (4) One piece of wood from inside a tank at our LFS + (5) Live Plants and snails + (6) One bottle of either FritzZyme or Dr. Tim's beneficial bacteria. Once that settles in for a couple days, it's ready to roll. Of course test water . . . but, the bacteria are "baked into the cake" this way. Some people really discourage using wet wood from tank at an LFS. We've never had problems, but it is a gamble. You get what they're carrying! 

Thank you for sharing! I have so much to learn, the tank my angelfish is in now is small and no live plants/: quite sad but I’ve been saving up slowly but surely to give him the tank he deserves. I’ve just been using seachum stability and some fish food to cycle it so far so good! Can’t wait till all my nitrite and nitrates are good, however I am nervous to move him. Never really moved a larger fish. I figured I’d just pick him up and move him over? Any ideas

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11 minutes ago, Mariac007 said:

Never really moved a larger fish. I figured I’d just pick him up and move him over? Any ideas

Depending on how far you’ve got to go, you could prep a fish bucket with tank water, move your fish there, and carry to new tank. If it’s just across the room, maybe just net and walk over. We use a larger sized net. 

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15 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

Depending on how far you’ve got to go, you could prep a fish bucket with tank water, move your fish there, and carry to new tank. If it’s just across the room, maybe just net and walk over. We use a larger sized net. 
 

I’m not moving him very far, may just try a net and get him to the tank quickly sounds like that’s my best bet. Thank you for your knowledge I appreciate it a lot! 

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Also make sure your two tanks are similar. I assume the pH and all that are similar, but I'd make sure the temperatures are equal and all that too. It's probably overkill for me, but I often drip acclimate for a couple hours when moving between tanks. (I've also just plunked fish between them without issue so 🤷‍♂️).

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1 minute ago, Socqua said:

Also make sure your two tanks are similar. I assume the pH and all that are similar, but I'd make sure the temperatures are equal and all that too. It's probably overkill for me, but I often drip acclimate for a couple hours when moving between tanks. (I've also just plunked fish between them without issue so 🤷‍♂️).

Yes yes! I am gonna look up a video on drip acclimation, never done it before. But both my tanks are at the same temperature- I will be sure to check the PH as well. Thank you! 

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