Need Clarification regarding Tank Cycling

[Kaushik5916]

Hey guys, it’s been about 21 days now that my tank is cycling, due to evaporation I had to top up some water in my fish tank but when I checked my salinity level before that it was 1.021, instead of topping up with fresh water RO I topped it up with premixed salt water assuming the salinity level would go up little bit and then put in little bit of stability.

1- Was it right thing for me to top up with premixed salt water and put In stability?
2- The last time I checked ammonia it came out to be close to 0.5mg/L How long do you guys reckon my tank would still take to finish the cycle ? because it’s almost been 3 weeks now.
3- Any suggestions what I should do next to speed up things a little? Xd

Thanks in advance :)

 

[Dan_P]

Hey guys, it’s been about 21 days now that my tank is cycling, due to evaporation I had to top up some water in my fish tank but when I checked my salinity level before that it was 1.021, instead of topping up with fresh water RO I topped it up with premixed salt water assuming the salinity level would go up little bit and then put in little bit of stability.

1- Was it right thing for me to top up with premixed salt water and put In stability?
2- The last time I checked ammonia it came out to be close to 0.5mg/L How long do you guys reckon my tank would still take to finish the cycle ? because it’s almost been 3 weeks now.
3- Any suggestions what I should do next to speed up things a little? Xd

Thanks in advance :)

There is leeway with salinity during cycling. Don’t give it another thought.

The ammonia level in the aquarium could be at or below the limit of detection for your test. What ppm did you start with and how fast did it go down? This information would be needed to confidently say the aquarium is ready.

Did you rest for nitrite? This is useful for confirming ammonia consumption when the ammonia test isn’t the best.

Depending on your source of bacteria, it can take days or weeks to consume ammonia. What bacteria product did you use?

 

[Kaushik5916]

Hey guys, it’s been about 21 days now that my tank is cycling, due to evaporation I had to top up some water in my fish tank but when I checked my salinity level before that it was 1.021, instead of topping up with fresh water RO I topped it up with premixed salt water assuming the salinity level would go up little bit and then put in little bit of stability.

1- Was it right thing for me to top up with premixed salt water and put In stability?
2- The last time I checked ammonia it came out to be close to 0.5mg/L How long do you guys reckon my tank would still take to finish the cycle ? because it’s almost been 3 weeks now.
3- Any suggestions what I should do next to speed up things a little? Xd

Thanks in advance :)

There is leeway with salinity during cycling. Don’t give it another thought.

The ammonia level in the aquarium could be at or below the limit of detection for your test. What ppm did you start with and how fast did it go down? This information would be needed to confidently say the aquarium is ready.

Did you rest for nitrite? This is useful for confirming ammonia consumption when the ammonia test isn’t the best.

Depending on your source of bacteria, it can take days or weeks to consume ammonia. What bacteria product did you use?

Thanks for your response Dan, firstly I only started testing for Ammonia from the past 1 week. Didn’t do any test for the first 2 weeks. The first time I tested, I got the same results pretty much. The pic you see on my thread was the 2nd time I tested after a week later.

Didn’t do any tests for the first 10 days or so, my bad ig :(

Not sure what you mean by resting the Nitrites, do you mean Nitrites testing which should be Zero?

I didn’t use any bacteria products, just used Stability about thrice now. Also threw in few pallets of fish food (just lil).

Any suggestions on a budget friendly Bacteria which could help with the Cycle?

Thank you.

 

[Dan_P]

Thanks for your response Dan, firstly I only started testing for Ammonia from the past 1 week. Didn’t do any test for the first 2 weeks. The first time I tested, I got the same results pretty much. The pic you see on my thread was the 2nd time I tested after a week later.

Didn’t do any tests for the first 10 days or so, my bad ig :(

Not sure what you mean by resting the Nitrites, do you mean Nitrites testing which should be Zero?

I didn’t use any bacteria products, just used Stability about thrice now. Also threw in few pallets of fish food (just lil).

Any suggestions on a budget friendly Bacteria which could help with the Cycle?

Thank you.

Sounds like the cycling method is a bit off the beaten trail. Seachem Stability advertising says that it contains spores of nitrifying bacteria and your ammonia source is rotting fish food.

It’s possible that you will never detect the appearance of ammonia with so little fish food but may detect nitrite or nitrate if ammonia consuming bacteria are growing. Typically, a fishless cycling approach adds sufficient ammonium chloride to achieve about 2 ppm total ammonia in the aquarium. This level of ammonia stimulates the spores to grow. A sign that bacteria are growing is the decline in ammonia concentration and the increase in nitrite. Detecting nitrite would be another, more sensitive way to detect the presence of a small population nitrifying bacteria.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

You’re going to for sure want an auto top off. Don’t buy the cheap Amazon ones I had one fail and I’ve heard many others also have.