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The readings do look like the tank has completed the cycle process. Did you do a test before or after water change? I reckon you can wait for a few more days and do a test again to confirm.
Hi all.
I am currently cycling my re-scaped planted tank and it has been 13 days.
Some information about tank
Tank Dimension: 30cmx26cmx30cm
Substrate: Brand new Ada amazonian 2 soil
Co2: Pressurized set up at 2 bps
Fert: Ei dosing (Macro & Micro)
Water Change: 30-50% daily for first week, 50% twice for second week.
I just did a test on the water parameters with API reagent test kit and the results are as follow.
pH: 6.4
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm. (In between 0-5ppm but the colour shade is closer to 0ppm)
Is the current reading alright for my tank?
The readings do look like the tank has completed the cycle process. Did you do a test before or after water change? I reckon you can wait for a few more days and do a test again to confirm.
Hi Ingen, I did the test several days back. Reading is similar to that of today's.
But the ammonia reading was at 1ppm. Could that be the case of amazonian soil releasing ammonia?
Ps: I forgot to mention I used the biomedia and sponges from the old tank.
Ammonia still showing readings means the tank is still cycling... so just need to wait until ammonia and nitrite are both consistently zero and only nitrate show readings, then it can be considered cycled.
Hi UA Bro, in this case would the beneficial bacteria be able to populate enough to consistently convert the ammonia release by the ada amazonian soil?
Yes, eventually when the various bacteria populations grow large enough to convert all the ammonia being released, you will see the ammonia levels drop to zero and only nitrate showing levels.Originally Posted by sbladerz
Over time, the ADA aquasoil's ammonia content itself will also naturally decrease as its being consumed by the bacteria and plants too.
Note that you may not see any nitrites at all during the cycling process as it is handled by different bacteria colonies, so its possible that the nitrite is converted to nitrate faster than ammonia is converted to nitrite, so you don't see any nitrite being detected. Think of it like a factory assembly line where the middle worker is faster than the rest.
Thank you for your detailed explanation! Especially the analogy of workers in factory.
Do you reckon the cycling process will be done soon?
I'm thinking of adding algae crew in when cycling is done.
I guess if you re-used seasoned bio-media and sponges from an old established tank, then the cycling process should usually be faster... probably 2-3 weeks? Just have to check the parameters every few days to track the progress.
Will do the checking more frequently! Thank you!
My bad! I don't know how I read it as 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 0-5 nitrate!!! UA is absolute right.
No worries! I will continue cycling my tank!
Let it cycle longer better
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