Is This A 10 Day Cycle,

[Tonyb111111]

I need to understand something now I am more knowledgeable than when I first wrote a thread about live sand. I believe a cycle is defined as when ammonia and nitrite have zeroed out and nitrates are produced, this could be my first wrong assumption. When I first filled my tank at the start of January with caribsea live sand, i was a newbie and therefore diligently tested my water every day for well over 6 weeks, and my question is based on the results achieved. From day one there was zero ammonia and 0.25 nitrites. No ammonia was added so that would make sense, but i couldn't explain the nitrites, and it wasn't in the tap water which was zero for both. This stayed the same for 10 days, then the nitrite zeroed out. Tested for three more days, no change so added some fish. Monitored for a week and no change, so added some more fish. Continued with this until I was fully stocked, and I have still never seen ammonia in my water, and nitrite only for the first 10 days (ammonia test does work as I tried it on a friends tank). So, could my tank have cycled in ten days as I can't see how, or is there another explanation

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

From a very quick google, I get the impression "Caribsea Live Sand" is meant for marine or at the very least brackish aquaria...

What is your tank's gH, kH and pH compared to tap water that has been left to stand for at least 24 hours in a bucket? I'm expecting you to report that your tank has higher values in every respect.

How are you testing the water, test strips or liquid test kits? Test strips are as much use as a chocolate teapot, giving very inaccurate results.

You did not add ammonia to the tank, maintaining ~4ppm levels before adding fish, so it is only natural to get very low or zero ammonia or nitrite (tap water sometimes contains a little, ~0.25mg/l). So effectively, you "fish-in cycled."

How often were you testing the water after adding fish?

What percentage and how often were you typically changing water?

 

[Tonyb111111]

Hi Nobody, thanks for the response. I am just trying to understand the mechanisms here so here are the answers to your questions. Caribsea do live fresh water substrates as well, see This link, I used Moonlight sand.
The pH was 7.8 at the time of initial fill and dropped to 7 over the course of the week, now settled at 6.6 - 6.8 as i alternate tap with RO water. GH was initially 10, and is now steady at 6-7. I have never done a KH but intend to buy a test kit this weekend, and I'll let you know?
I have always used the API test kit from day one, as I wanted to be sure I got a reasonably accurate one before I started the tank.
I was doing full tests on all parameters every day for nearly two months, this covered the period when 90% of the fish were introduced
No water changes were done the first 10 days as no fish were in the tank. Thereafter, I was doing 25% once a week, with the occasional 50% to help me sort my plants out better and clean easier.
So you can see why I am trying to understand what happened in this period. No ammonia ever recorded, only 0.25 nitrite in the first 10 days. No fish losses (with the exception of DG killing 3 danios protecting the nest), all fish have always been healthy, in fact with lots of ram and dwarf gourami spawning going on without external intervention. I was expecting to see an ammonia rise each time I added new fish but it never happened, can anyone explain what was going on

 

[Tonyb111111]

Bump

 

[lloyd]

This doesnt make sense to me. was your filter brand new when you set up the tank

 

[Tonyb111111]

This doesnt make sense to me. was your filter brand new when you set up the tank

Yep, everything was brand new out of the box. Can you see my dlilemma?

 

[lloyd]

yeah its really confusing. What dichlorinator do you use?

 

[Tonyb111111]

The dechlor came with substrate so something by Caribsea I guess. I really have no idea of how to explain my tests during this cycle. There are certainly all accurate, I even did a neighbours tank while he was cycling to ensure the ammonia test was working right, as I was expecting to see some when I added some fish.

 

[gforce17]

I wish this was happening to me. Very sceptical I'm afraid - no offence!

 

[gforce17]

 

[ian]

was it planted from the beginning?

 

[Mart76]

This is wierd as my tank done exactly the same only my ammonia is stuck at 0.25 ppm nitrite and nitrate all zero and ph is 7.2 brand new tank with everything with it I did use the start up water stuff and the decor went cloudy after 3 days added fish everything cleared the next day after adding fish now all is good apart from 0.25 ppm ammonia

 

[Tonyb111111]

I wish this was happening to me. Very sceptical I'm afraid - no offence!

No offence taken, but what are you sceptical of? Ask whatever you want, the results are correct, I'm just looking for an explanation

was it planted from the beginning?

Hi Ianho, on day 1 it was partially filled and planted with cabomba, Hygrophilia and lileopsis before filling completely, also added easylife fluid filter medium, fert tabs and liquid fert

 

[ian]

this could be said the be a silent cycle



http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/299827-why-we-should-not-fishless-cycle-planted-tanks/

 

[Tonyb111111]

this could be said the be a silent cycle



http/www.fishforum...-planted-tanks/

Cheers for that very interesting read, I am inclined to agree. I initially planted bucket loads of cabomba and Hygrophilia which I believe are fast growing pants. So in summary, if you setup a planted tank, concentrate on getting good healthy plant growth, then you can do a fish-in cycle at an accelerated rate due to the plant take up of nitrogen based compounds. I now understand the mechanism of what was happening, so thanks yet again. On reading this, I couldn't help but wonder why three types of cycles aren't stated, instead of the usual fish-in and fish less cycles, as I think this method is entirely different to fish-in cycling without plants