New Tank, Cycle Questions

[supersuzie]

i am cycling my very first tropical fish tank and due to not trusting myself and letting my LFS tell me what to do, i am doing it with 4 very lovely zebra danios.
the fish seem fine, very active and feeding well and i've been monitoring the tank daily. today the nitrates were between 10 and 25, and the nitrites were 0.
my question is, does this mean my tank has cycled or should i check the ammonia just to be sure?
thank you!
ss x

 

[BigIan]

how long has the tank been running??

yes you should be testing for ammonia as that is the most lethal of all. you want to keep ammonia below 3ppm,
also what have the nitrite tests been in the past have they risen and fallen to 0 or have they always been 0?

 

[supersuzie]

right, i'll get a kit tomorrow. i got an all in one testing kit but it doesn't have ammonia (dumb eh?).
the tank has been running a month and was set up with plants in. the fish have been in two weeks.
the nitrite was at 1 for a couple of weeks but today it is zero.
annoyed i overlooked ammonia

ss x

 

[BigIan]

its hard to say, uintill you get an ammonia kit, how large is the tank?

 

[supersuzie]

60 litres (sorry i only know metric!)

 

[supersuzie]

just tested and its zero! absolutely nothing! thats good right? has it really cycled in 1 month?

 

[Rooster]

just tested and its zero! absolutely nothing! thats good right? has it really cycled in 1 month?

Sounds like ! Are you getting zero in both ammonia AND nItrates ? (these test can be fooled by water changes... I would not change any water until cycled)

 

[TerraDreamer]

just tested and its zero! absolutely nothing! thats good right? has it really cycled in 1 month?

The average cycle time with fish is 4-6 weeks, so you may very well have cycled. However, it is important that you did indeed monitor the ammonia spike, followed by the nitrite spike. The ammonia should have reduced to near zero 8 to 12 days after initial fish introduction, followed by Nitrite which can last 4 weeks or longer beyond. It is important to limit water changes while cycling with fish unless things get critical. Based on the information you've supplied, your tank may very well have cycled. If you add additional fish, continue monitoring for ammonia and nitrite, and add only a few fish at a time. If your tank has indeed cycled, it will have cycled based on the amount of existing fish in the aquarium as well as your feeding schedules. Adding more fish and increasing feeding will always cause another ammonia/nitrite spike. Take it slow.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it does sound like your probably cycled, but there's an important factor to consider.

your filter now has enough beneficial bacvteria living in it to cope with 4 danios..... that's it. if you go ahead and add more fish it will quite possibly start cycling again. so you need to add fish very slowly and gradually. test your water at least for ammonia and nitrite every day, if you get any reading other than 0 do a 20% water change that day.

once you have some bacteria there it is quicker for it to catch up to the extra bioload, but you do have to be careful

 

[supersuzie]

thank you everyone!
i'm gonna test nitrates and nitrites tonight and i know i have to be patient with the new fish. i'm just very happy things have gone smoothly and very chuffed i have a cycled tank! i've read some horror stories and only found out about fishless cycling after i got the danios so i'm glad everything is ok. thanks for all your help.

ss x