I have a 10 gallon cube. 7 pounds of dry rock . The filter rack in the back had a bag of media in it some a couple weeks ago I took it and the pump and put it in my established tank to build bacteria.
I filled the cube 48 hours ago and added a bottle of bacteria. Set the heater to 78. I turned the filter on and walked away. I also started phantom feeding. I checked my water today,48 hours later, and Nitrates, Nitrites, and Ammonia are all zero. Did it already cycle because of the media and pump being in the other tank and with the bottle of bacteria???????
Please help.
No, it didn't cycle that fast. At least I wouldn't count on it. The phantom feeding will provide an ammonia source, but it first needs to break down. You would also have to feed quite a bit of food in order to reach an ammonia level to be considered cycled in 48 hours. If you really want to see where your cycle is, dose your tank with ammonia to 2 ppm and see how long it takes for both ammonia and nitrate to reach 0 ppm.
Otherwise, I would just phantom feed it for a few more weeks, but don't over do it with the feeding.