Cycling finally finished

[Aylana]

Wheeeeee!!! Just wanted to officially celebrate that my tank seems to now be cycled! Ammonia and Nitrite are finally at 0 and nitrate is at 40. Phew. My ph is 7.1 which seems pretty good to me. I will do a couple of large water changes as I have been cycling with fish food so my tank is full of gunk and I will keep monitoring every day just in case. If all stays good will it be ok to get the first couple of fish this thursday or should I be cautious and stick with it for another week?

I'm so happy I finally feel a step closer to being able to actually get fish!


Aylana

 

[WILDER]

Congrats and well done for being patient

 

[canarsie11]

end of cycle feels good

 

[StarOrbs]

Day 22 here and nitrites have been at .5 for 6 days I'm not a happy camper.

 

[WILDER]

:lol I no it's not funny, but hang in there, I must say i'm not the patient of people either.

 

[StarOrbs]

It's not just the impatience my tank is totally green almost from an algae bloom and I got brown algae all over my plants too and some long strains of it hanging of them too. Its totally gross. I have to have my lights on too or my plants will do.

 

[FoundMoney]

That beginning stage is really tough if you have plants. I was in the same boat. I set up my tank on December 23. This past week I had everything down to 0. I also had a pretty good algae buildup in my tank. I did a good cleaning of it about two weeks ago and then added some hornwort so the tank was pretty well planted. Although some of the algae has come back it's not nearly as bad.

Today I got my first fish! Yeah!!!

I bought 8 Flame (or Von Rio as the LFS, calls them) and 1 Bristlenose catfish. Already the catfish is going to town on the algae.

The bottom line is that algae, although it seems like a problem, really shouldn't be a cause for concern in the beginning, at least IMHO. The main thing is to get the tank cycled. You can deal with the algae later. Also, the way I figure it, algae is just part of the ecosystem so I'm not going to get all worried about having it in my tank.

 

[Aylana]

Thanks guys!

My tank was totally green for several days as well. It eventually went away after I covered my tank with a blanket and kept the light off for 3 days. The algae went away and my plants came out of the experience just fine. Or you could just use one of those products designed to get rid of algae if you are really worried about your plants. Good luck with it!

congrats foundmoney! It must feel good to finally have those fish, I am going to be looking for a bristlenose as well!!

Aylana

 

[FoundMoney]

congrats foundmoney! It must feel good to finally have those fish, I am going to be looking for a bristlenose as well!!

It certainly does! I can't stop staring at the tank. The bristlenose is great. He's not too shy at all. He hides if there are sudden movements near the tank but he comes out in the daytime all the time. He's a really cool fish!