New Tank With Fish :(

Smells a bit fishy said:

Have you performed a water change yet? If so I would say your tank has cycled, if not I'm still confused lol.

Lovely looking tank also

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troptank said:

hi
well here tonight's readings.
will do water change tomorrow

also pic of tank with the light on (crappy iPhone quality camera) i know the plastic plants kinda suck but they are a temporary measure until i know exactly how i would like to plant it all

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riogal_11 said:

troptank said:

hi
well here tonight's readings.
will do water change tomorrow

also pic of tank with the light on (crappy iPhone quality camera) i know the plastic plants kinda suck but they are a temporary measure until i know exactly how i would like to plant it all

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Definitely confused... If you hadn't done the water change yet, there is no way your nitrates could be lower than in the first pic, (unless I'm missing something)as I understand it that nitrAtes can only be removed by water changes. It would make sense for it to look like that after the water change, but not before. Hopefully someone with more knowledge pops in with an explanation on that.

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Smells a bit fishy said:

I would agree that your tank has cycled. But still test daily for a week, classed as qualifying week, that's just to make sure it wasnt a fluke or false reading.

So how long did it take to cycle once you had fish in?

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Prime Ordeal said:

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

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troptank said:

Prime Ordeal said:

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

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as stated all the plants but 2 are plastic ones,
3 days was since the fish went in..

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Prime Ordeal said:

troptank said:

Prime Ordeal said:

I'm not convinced it's cycled at all.

Looking at the picture of the tank there are enough plants in there for that amount of fish, and the volume of water, for the plants to be doing all the work (at this stage). Also his tank has not been going only three days but three plus the five before any fish were added, but during which the Nutrafin cycle had been added, so eight days - and water changes have been done. I don't know, but I suspect that the Nutrafin cycle contains ammonia in some form or another to feed the bacteria while there are no fish in.

Of course, it's academic really as long as something is keeping the ammonia/nitrite in check until it really has cycled.

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as stated all the plants but 2 are plastic ones,
3 days was since the fish went in..

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Ah ok, I didn't see that most were plastic. (Edit: actually from your first post and in later postings you said you added live plants - doesn't matter though).

The fish have been in for three days but the tank has had bacteria for eight as you dosed Nutrafin cyle on day one, didn't you?

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