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confused on tank cycling

4K views 27 replies 6 participants last post by  Mikaila31 
#1 ·
Can someone Please example to me how tank cycle works I am kinda confused I know alittle about it but I am just confusing myself. My water parameters are ph=7.8 ammonia=.25 nitrite=0 nitrate= about 5. This is after a water change I think I am going about this wrong and I need some help please. This is in my 55 planted tank that is well planted and has 5 colmbian tetra in it thanks
 
#2 ·
how long has your tank been cycling? Since it is a fish-in cycle how often and what% are you preforming water changes. Fish produce ammonia which is converted to nitrite then it is to nitrate which is removed via water changes. After a tank is cycled ammonia should stay zero, nitrite should stay zero, nitrate should stay as low as you can get it.
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#3 ·
Its been cycling since last Thursday (I know it is still really earlier in process) done two water changes already and about 25% when I do them and everytime I check the lvl they never changes Soo I am just wondering if I am doing something wrong?
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#5 ·
To me it sounds like your doing alot right. Just keep doing those water changes. Test frequently. One note, try to resist the urge to add new fish for awhile. The fish you have are doing their job producing ammonia and adding more can spike ammonia levels, overload the bacteria( (biofilter) causing the cycle to take longer. Just do what your doing and stock slow and you will be fine.
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#6 ·
I don't think you've done anything wrong really. 55g is a big tank and can take a while to fully cycle. I'd say you have two options really. 1, keep doing frequent water changes to help reduce the stress on your fish or 2, return the fish and allow your tank to fully cycle. Also I'm not sure if you have real or fake plants but lots of real plants could help quite a bit.

*edit* Pufffreely just beat me haha and said pretty much the same thing.
 
#11 ·
Well see thats just it I am not sure if I am actually doing the test right first time using the kit so it possible I am doing that part wrong cause I was thinling the samething how could there be .25 ammonia with just 5 fish and that many plants especially right after a water change? The plants were in a day before the fish was added.
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#16 ·
I can explain the nitrogen cycle better since noone really did lol and sice you have live plants which is awesome however ..its not good to add a lot of plants at once kinda like you wouldnt add 20 fish at once you wouldnt add 40 plants at once either ...indeed there are advantages to the staggered approach. the overall display should be the result of a build-up of plants that become gradually established. ANYWAYS lol Plants convert light, co2 and nutrients into biological matter > plant material and foods are consumed by fish > fish waste is excreted directly and indirectly as ammonia ( thats the bad stuff lol) highly toxic! > soooooooooo nitrosomonas bacteria in the filter and aquarium subtrate use oxygen to break down ammonia into nitrites > nitrobacter bacteria in the filter and subtrate break down nitrites into nitrates > nirates are only toxic at high levels and are partially taken up by plants as a source of nutrients> the majority of nitates are removed by water changes although some are converted by subtrate bacteria. and it takes more then a few days for the bacteria to get established prob 4-6 weeks but keep testing your water you should always wait the longest you can before adding fish min a week !!! keep testing every few days and only add a few fish at a time obv/ since you already have some which is cool i love those tetras i have some as well :) just make sure that ammonia gets to 0 before you add anything else :)

so Ph is 7.8 . do you know what the hardness is and the acidity/alkalinity is? because that affects plants

what lighting do you have? very important

do you have a CO2 canister??

do u plan of putting liqid fertilizer in every week or so?

what filter do you have? cuz if carbon in the filter is not needed that often in plated tanks as it takes out the GOOD nutrients as well as that bad stuff..

how deep is the tank? there are SOOO many factors lol i would just like to know so i can help better :)
 
#17 ·
I can explain the nitrogen cycle better since noone really did lol and sice you have live plants which is awesome however ..its not good to add a lot of plants at once kinda like you wouldnt add 20 fish at once you wouldnt add 40 plants at once either ...indeed there are advantages to the staggered approach. the overall display should be the result of a build-up of plants that become gradually established. ANYWAYS lol Plants convert light, co2 and nutrients into biological matter > plant material and foods are consumed by fish > fish waste is excreted directly and indirectly as ammonia ( thats the bad stuff lol) highly toxic! > soooooooooo nitrosomonas bacteria in the filter and aquarium subtrate use oxygen to break down ammonia into nitrites > nitrobacter bacteria in the filter and subtrate break down nitrites into nitrates > nirates are only toxic at high levels and are partially taken up by plants as a source of nutrients> the majority of nitates are removed by water changes although some are converted by subtrate bacteria. and it takes more then a few days for the bacteria to get established prob 4-6 weeks but keep testing your water you should always wait the longest you can before adding fish min a week !!! keep testing every few days and only add a few fish at a time obv/ since you already have some which is cool i love those tetras i have some as well :) just make sure that ammonia gets to 0 before you add anything else :)

so Ph is 7.8 . do you know what the hardness is and the acidity/alkalinity is? because that affects plants

what lighting do you have? very important

do you have a CO2 canister??

do u plan of putting liqid fertilizer in every week or so?

what filter do you have? cuz if carbon in the filter is not needed that often in plated tanks as it takes out the GOOD nutrients as well as that bad stuff..

how deep is the tank? there are SOOO many factors lol i would just like to know so i can help better :)
GH = 9 KH=8 is as before the water change today didn't check after the water change Sunday it was GH=7 KH=7

2 48" T8 bulbs umm 32watt a piece at 6500k each

NO CO2

Have used flouish Comperhensive liquid fertilizer

Eheim 2213 no carbon pad I took that out before starting the filter

and I forgot the depth of the tank LoL I know the width and length 48x12x? and I am at work right soo I could tell you the depth tomorrow
 
#18 ·
Stop feeding and just give everything a few days. IMO you should of waited at least a few days before adding the fish. Newly setup planted tanks sometime produce ammonia at first due to the high organics in the water and lack of an established system. The plants will deal with your ammonia, though I assume they were only recently shipped and planted. It is likely the are still stressed. The reason we wait and let the tank just sit planted it to allow the plants to adjust and begin establishing. Also to monitor how well they grow and water quality in the tank. Its not uncommon to have certain substrates leech ammonia initially, eco complete though is NOT known to do this. Still I feel something in the tank besides the fish is producing your ammonia. Just keep an eye on it and do a wc if it gets above 0.5ppm. I would expect if to subside within a few days at the most.
 
#23 ·
Okay Soo I've been doing some reading and I think I know what part of my problem might be when I do water changes I have been cleaning the gravel alittle bit also :-? I will stop doing this for now untill the tank cycles completely I am thinking this part of my problem as for the rest am hoping y'all can tell me. I know I am probably doing something else that is wrong just haven't figured it out?
 
#24 · (Edited)
there's nothing wrong with your test results. probably due to your tank being so heavily planted. the amount of ammonia your fish are producing is being directly consumed by the living plants, therefore leaving only small, acceptable amounts of ammonia in your water. the small amounts of remaining ammonia will work on starting the cycle process. plus 5 tetras doesn't seem like that many fish for a heavily planted 55 gallon aquarium, but i still wouldn't increase it yet. keep in mind i'm still new too, but i think i have it figured out.

and if your tank has only been set up less than a week, that's not even that long.
 
#25 ·
Boredomb I agree that cleaning the gravel isn't necessary. A densely planted tank needs no gravel/substrate cleaning. Usually what I do is suck up anything on top of the substrate, no need to actually pull the gravel up into the gravel vac. I'm not sure how you added the eco complete, but if you still have cloudiness issues you can do WC to help with that. I often find it helpful to do a couple large WC on new planted tanks to simply keep nutrients low while plants are establishing in the first week. Helps avoid algae issues IMO.
 
#26 ·
Okay thanks as of right now I don't have cloudiness issus nor do I have any algae. Just seem to the paremeters off? Didn't have time to check them today will check them first thing in the morning and see what I got. Thanks for the help!
 
#28 ·
How does the number of plants effect growth?

Its not the plants that effect growth its the amount of light and nutrients available. Plants grow and you trim them back when you feel like it. You have too many plants only when your fish have no where left to swim. When a planted tank is first setup, especially with a plant specific substrate lots of nutrients are initially present in the water. The guaranteed recipe for algae is lots of light/nutrients + low amount of plants or low amount of growth. It doesn't matter too much in a low light tank, but moderate and high light you are asking for algae if you don't plant heavy initially. Lots of plants and lots of fast stem plants specifically is considered good.
 
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