On the right track..

[Fish are friends]

In the process of cycling and I think I’m almost there.the tank has been running about a week. Ammonia and nitrite are lower than the previous test and nitrates are slightly higher than what comes out of the tap. Out tap water has 40ppm nitrate reading so I make mine out as 80ppm which means a water change tomorrow. Then possibly leave it till the weekend and maybe add fish. ?

 

[Essjay]

How much ammonia have you added?

 

[Fish are friends]

At the moment I’m not adding ammonia. I have a layer of flora base pro under the gravel which produces ammonia for the first 2 weeks before settling down. When I tested the water a few days ago, both ammonia and nitrite were higher than that. Not planning on adding fish yet but would be good to know when the tank is cycled.

 

[Essjay]

The flora base may produce ammonia but will it be enough to grow enough bacteria for a whole tankful of fish? How high did the ammonia reading get? A cycled tank is one which can clear 3 ppm ammonia in 24 hours.


But.....
If you have a plant substrate, presumably the tank is, or will be, quite heavily planted? In this case, you just need to wait until the plants are showing signs of active growth, then add fish a few at a time. It is advisable to check ammonia and nitrite every day after each batch of fish until you are certain they are remaining at zero.

 

[663]

How much ammonia have you added?

essjay, is it better to form a biological filter naturally or does it matter?

 

[Essjay]

By naturally, do you mean using fish to cycle a tank? It is much better to do a fishless cycle or a plant cycle. The reason is simply that fish-in cycles are hard work to stop the fish coming to harm - daily water changes for the first few weeks are inevitable, and if too many fish are put in the tank it might even mean multiple water changes a day.

Fishless cycling involves just testing and adding ammonia following the method on here until the cycle has finished.
Plant or silent cycling involves watching the plants grow, then daily testing after each batch of fish. This method is the easiest where a planted tank is intended. The plants take care of the water rather than bacteria; bacteria do grow but only at low levels in the background.

 

[Sgooosh]

a natural biofilter is better mostofthetime.

 

[Fish are friends]

@Essjay it will be a moderately planted tank. There is already active growth on the plants i do have in the tank but I’ve realised I need to upgrade my lighting. I will plant low light plants and once I’ve got the hang of it I’ll upgrade the lighting and step up to medium lighting and plants and then start to look into co2 etc. As far as adding fish, it will be slowly done and monitored regularly and the necessary action taken for a spike of any sort.

 

[Essjay]

That sounds the right way to go

 

[663]

By naturally, do you mean using fish to cycle a tank? It is much better to do a fishless cycle or a plant cycle. The reason is simply that fish-in cycles are hard work to stop the fish coming to harm - daily water changes for the first few weeks are inevitable, and if too many fish are put in the tank it might even mean multiple water changes a day.

Fishless cycling involves just testing and adding ammonia following the method on here until the cycle has finished.
Plant or silent cycling involves watching the plants grow, then daily testing after each batch of fish. This method is the easiest where a planted tank is intended. The plants take care of the water rather than bacteria; bacteria do grow but only at low levels in the background.

Naturally in this case means without fish (or plants) being present. Sorry for the confusion. In the past I've shied away from using fish in the cycle-up process because I see it as cruel and potentially wasteful of life. The last time I did it without fish or plants, I just added a pinch of finely chopped/crushed fish flakes. This approach worked but it took a while to complete. When I tried to use fish in the process, I read and then tried using tiger barbs. The viscous little guys are indeed very hardly and all 12 survived. I intent to have a planted tank sometime soon and I'll try it your way, minus the ammonia.