Is my tank done cycling?

katsreef

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I am at 3 weeks into cycling my tank with Dr Tim's one and only plus his ammonium chloride. My 20g tank is cycling 2ppm of ammonia to 0 in 24 hours. My nitrites are around 0.5-1 24 hours after adding ammonia. My nitrates have been at 50-100ish ppm but I have not done a water change. There is no algae growth in my tank but I hear that could come later. Since my tank is converting 2ppm of ammonia to 0 in 24 hours, am I done cycling now? Is it time to do a water change and add fish or clean up crew? A bit confused as I do not have algae growth since I was going to do the CUC first. Thanks!
 

James5214

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That's really high for nitrates I would do a WC first and re test everything. If your reading 0ppm ammonia and your nitrates go down after WC and re test then yes your tank is done cycling. What test are you using?
 
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katsreef

katsreef

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That's really high for nitrates I would do a WC first and re test everything. If your reading 0ppm ammonia and your nitrates go down after WC and re test then yes your tank is done cycling. What test are you using?
What % WC should I do? I read that the nitrates may be showing higher as nitrite is not actually at 0 so it may be skewing results. I am using salifert for all three parameters!
 
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James5214

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I would do a 50% if possible and test from there. Ok good atleast you aren't using API and nitrites don't have to much to do with salt that's more freshwater. And if your still showing ammonia the tank isnt cycled you should be getting 0ppm but like I said first do a big WC if possible and dona few more rounds of testing
 
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Garf

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What % WC should I do? I read that the nitrates may be showing higher as nitrite is not actually at 0 so it may be skewing results. I am using salifert for all three parameters!
Correct, nitrites are messing with your nitrate test. It’s impossible to have nitrate that high with an input of ammonia at a few parts per million.
 
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brandon429

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yes

then begin reading the fish disease forum/I sound like a broken record/ but isn't everyone's cycle advice aimed at discerning when a tank can carry fish

if we give advice that only lets fish live eight months on average/that advice needs an addendum

per disease forum there's a new set of reads now due before you add fish or they'll just dieoff one by one over this coming year, or maybe all at once. Your tank can carry a lot of fish actually/evidenced in bottle bac threads that didn't wait 3 weeks but added five fish on day one and they did fine/bacteria works great.

but if you want them to live until next summer, there's real work due in jays disease forum.

the reason you don't need to verify your cycle is no bottle bac cycle takes 3 weeks/per Dr Reef's bottle bac thread.
 
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katsreef

katsreef

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I would do a 50% if possible and test from there. Ok good atleast you aren't using API and nitrites don't have to much to do with salt that's more freshwater. And if your still showing ammonia the tank isnt cycled you should be getting 0ppm but like I said first do a big WC if possible and dona few more rounds of testing
Okay thank you!
 
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