Cycled Tank In 11 Days!

[Lawrence]

I know many of you wont believe this but I did indeed cycle my tank in 11 days.
ok lots of you wont believe me but others might be interested as to how i did this. this is why im posting, so i can inform you as to what i have done.

i bought my tank on august 30 and i added everything. Water plants substrate and 3 goldfish.
4 days later i went to a lfs and bought more plants and a piece of wood and some water testers, when i got home i realised the ph was a bit high to i added oak extract, and took the 3 goldfish out and put 2 swordfish, 5 neon tetras, and 4 tiger barbs (i was impatient and also bought these fish).

many people said my fish would die as a result of nitrite poisoning, but all fish are happy and thriving.

when i tested the water it was 0.25ppm, the next day 0.5ppm (tested the nitrite), and the day afer 1ppm i needed to do somthing about this so i did lots of water changes and i went out and bought TetraAqua Bactozym...now this is a product which i believe had helped cycle my tank. When i got home i added a tablet into my filter, and supposedly this introduces 20million nitrite bacteria and other things. the next day i tested the water and it was still the same so i added another tablet. the day after this i checked the water and it was a little over 1ppm. i was not sure if the product would work, so i left my tank for a few days without testing the water. yeaterday i tested the water and it was 0.1ppm and today:0!

i have now snails in my tank and 2 pregnant fish ...and i think the snails came from the plants i bought one week ago...could this be possible as i didnt see them before yesterday!!!

p.s. i only have testers for nitrite and ph that is why i only mentioned those two

 

[aly_starh]

i thought something went wrong the first time you 'quickly cycled it'.

 

[Lawrence]

i thought something went wrong the first time you 'quickly cycled it'.

nothing went wrong...

 

[fatheadminnow]

What value is at 0 ppm? Is it Nitrite?

Also, what test kit are you using? Is it a strip test kit?

What are the rest of your water parameters at? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH?

How many plants do you have in your tank? Because plants actually use ammonia and nitrate as an extra source of nutrients/food.

So, if you have enough plants in your tank, your plants could be using most of your ammonia, if not all, of your ammonia up.

Ans with no source of ammonia, then there is going to be no nitrite or nitrate.

-FHM

 

[Lawrence]

What value is at 0 ppm? Is it Nitrite?

Also, what test kit are you using? Is it a strip test kit?

What are the rest of your water parameters at? Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH?

How many plants do you have in your tank? Because plants actually use ammonia and nitrate as an extra source of nutrients/food.

So, if you have enough plants in your tank, your plants could be using most of your ammonia, if not all, of your ammonia up.

Ans with no source of ammonia, then there is going to be no nitrite or nitrate.

-FHM

i am using a professional testing kit and i have 10 plants in my 15g tank...

i only have testers for nitrite and ph and 0ppm is meant for the nitrite values...

 

[ellena]

So there could be very high ammonia and you wouldn't know? although there must be some processing going on if you had nitrite of 1ppm.

 

[Lawrence]

So there could be very high ammonia and you wouldn't know? although there must be some processing going on if you had nitrite of 1ppm.

yea exactly...tht is what i thought

 

[fatheadminnow]

You need to get a test kit to test for ammonia!

Try to get the API test kit, it is easy to use, accurate and very affordable.

You need to know what you other water parameters are as well!

-FHM

 

[Lawrence]

You need to get a test kit to test for ammonia!

Try to get the API test kit, it is easy to use, accurate and very affordable.

You need to know what you other water parameters are as well!

-FHM

yea i have API test kits

 

[fatheadminnow]

You need to get a test kit to test for ammonia!

Try to get the API test kit, it is easy to use, accurate and very affordable.

You need to know what you other water parameters are as well!

-FHM

yea i have API test kits

I would use that to find what the ammonia and the nitrate reading is then.

Post your findings.

-FHM

 

[dave_oddballs]

you need to test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph, until you do that you can't try and tell us you cycled your tank in 11 days

 

[Lawrence]

ok but nitrate is not that important...only for the plants...and if nitrite is 0 that means ammonia must be 0...nitrite is usually higher than ammonia...and the guy in the lfs said that i needed nitrite and ph only...although from previous research i knew i also needed ammonia testers although i never bought it as he said i didnt need them...next time when i go to the lfs i will buy it...

 

[Jonty]

and if nitrite is 0 that means ammonia must be 0...nitrite is always higher than nitrit

???

If no ammonia is being processed, there may not be much nitrite

 

[BryceHockey]

...and if nitrite is 0 that means ammonia must be 0...

This is false, it could very well mean that the ammonia is not being processed and thus not turning it to nitrite.

Edit: Sorry, someone beat me to it.

 

[Lawrence]

yeah but my ph is 7....ph would be high if there was ammonia present