Final cycle test results?

[Lilt Man]

Posted in the beginner section as well

Hi all can you please comment on these results

Test results this week so far second week of cycling after adding live re-fridgerated bacteria (ABIL) to the tank:

Monday:
Ammonia .25ppm
Nitrite 5.0ppm
Nitrate 15ppm

Tuesday
Ammonia .2ppm
Nitrite 2.0ppm
Nitrate 20ppm

Weds
Ammonia .1ppm
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate 20ppm

Today
Ammonia .1ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 25ppm


After testing the water parameters today i have zero Nitrites, 25ppm Nitrates and 0.1 ppm Ammonia.

Can i do a water change and clean the filters now or should i wait a few more days?

Is it normal to have a low reading of ammonia or is the tank still cycling?

Thanks in adavance.

 

[HawkEye]

I'm in the same boat you're in LiltMan but I am waiting a full month or so before I do a water change...ffrom my research I do get mixed opinions but the results are in favor of waiting until your tank completely cycles before doing a water change...

I know some here will disagree...and if you still have some ammonia I not sure your tanked finished...even though it is only a little bit...

we'll let the experts comment...since I am still new to cycling myself

 

[impur]

I would wait until the ammonia zeros out. What kind of filtration do you have? I question cleaning out the filter after the cycling is complete. You will have most of your bacteria in the filter so cleaning it defeats the purpose of cycling.

 

[beltdrive]

How many weeks has your tank bin running.

sorry i cant help you because im new to this, and im trying to get all the info i can.

 

[Dragonslair]

I would say that you could do a 10% water change just to freshen up the water, leave the filter in tact. When you do the W/C take the water from the bottom of the tank. It should be safe enough to do that.

 

[Lilt Man]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

The tank has been running for 2 weeks now and last week i added some live bacteria to the tank called ABIL, it basically is a similiar product to Bio Spira which is widely available in the US and needs to be kept refrigerated at approx 6c.
After adding the live bacteria cultures last week i made records of the test results i carried out and posted them earlier.

Filtration consists of 2 x Ehiem external 2213 power filters and the tank has a capacity of 43 UK gallons.

Inhabitants consist of 2 platies, 5 zebra danios and 5 white cloud minnows.

I think the cycle is over now due to the live bacteria cultures i added last week as the test results indicate.

What do you think - am i jumping the gun here or is my tank cycled?

This product i used claims to control ammonia and nitrate and it seems as though it has done this over a six day period.

Thanks for the constructive replies so far.

 

[gadazobe]

I don't think your tank has completely cycled - 2 weeks is very quick for your size tank - the cycling process is normall quite a bit more - anything up to 4-6 weeks. I would carry on doing the tests and wait till your ammonia is 0, nitrites 0 before I would consider the cycle to be completed. I'm not a fan of adding bacteria and only time will tell if it has completed it's cycle. When you do complete, don't wash out the filter - it defeats the object - a lot of your bacteria live in the filter media.

 

[Lilt Man]

Thanks for the reply gadazobe

The nitrites peaked on Sunday\ Monday and i tested everyday until thursday. On thursday the the nitrite readings were 0 and ammonia was reading 0.1.

WWW suggested i test the tap water for ammonia or the test kit could be faulty. I tested the tap water and the reading was 0.3

Bought a new test kit today and tested the tank for ammonia - guess what?

The reading was 0.0 - my ammonia test kit was inaccurate all this time

I can confidently say that the tank is matured now as i have used this product in the past to mature marine tanks with similar results and the fish\plants are a lot happier combined with the partial (45%) water change i did yesterday.

I shall keep you posted if anything changes for the worst although i don't think there is anything to worry about now.

Kind Regards