waterdrop
Enthusiastic "Re-Beginner"
Yes, agree with Curiosity101 in this thread. It seems very unlikely that this 60L/16G is likely to have become cycled in 2 short weeks, or perhaps it depends on a person's definition of cycled. On TFF there seems to have been a healthy infrastructure of articles, measurements, discussion and argument that's grown up around the term "cycled." In my opinion its helped this term and process to be more useful to the tropical fish hobbyist than perhaps it was in the past.
Our understanding of "cycled," as I've come to understand it, is when a biofilter/tank system is ready to receive its first stocking, which can be a full stocking (by the rough one inch guideline) and when we trust that the biofilter will be mature and robust enough that the system will not experience "mini-cycles" (ammonia or nitrite(NO2) showing up upon testing.) In order to trust that this will be the case our "test" is that the biofilter is able to process a 5ppm concentration of ammonia down to zero ppm ammonia and zero ppm of nitrite within 12 hours of when the ammonia is put in and to do this repeatedly for a week without fail.
I think the way to check on the particular filter in question would be to simply carry out this test and C101 has done some good posting here on how to get started with that.
~~waterdrop~~
Our understanding of "cycled," as I've come to understand it, is when a biofilter/tank system is ready to receive its first stocking, which can be a full stocking (by the rough one inch guideline) and when we trust that the biofilter will be mature and robust enough that the system will not experience "mini-cycles" (ammonia or nitrite(NO2) showing up upon testing.) In order to trust that this will be the case our "test" is that the biofilter is able to process a 5ppm concentration of ammonia down to zero ppm ammonia and zero ppm of nitrite within 12 hours of when the ammonia is put in and to do this repeatedly for a week without fail.
I think the way to check on the particular filter in question would be to simply carry out this test and C101 has done some good posting here on how to get started with that.
~~waterdrop~~
