Am I cycled??

Newbie alert, everyone take cover!!... :lol:

I have a tropical tank (about 170litres) and have been cycling with fish for about 4 weeks. I have 3 honey guaramis, a bristlenose catfish and about a dozen tetras of various types. It is well planted with live plants which are doing really well. The tank is filtered and I have been doing small water changes day.

I dont know if I have a problem or not though. I have been doing water tests every coyuple of days and have yet to see any ammonia or nitrite and so dont know if I amcycled or not. A few days after I added the fish the ammonia did go up to about 0.5 for a few days, but then went to 0 and I have NEVER recorded any nitrite at all.

Why would that be? Is my tank cycled? Can I add more fish now? I have read that a well planted tank does alter how the cycle goes, is this the case here? I just dont know what is going on. All the fish are really healthy.

Can anyone help?? Thanks everyone.

Hello egan, and welcome to TFF. Hope you like it here.

I think a heavily planted tank can use up all the nasties from your tank almost as soon as it is produced, so I suppose it is possible that you are fully cycled. Certainly after a month I would have thought you were anyway.

If you are thinking of adding any more fish, I would do it slowly and just keep a close eye on your water.

What is your Nitrate level by the way - is that 0 too?

Well with your stocking levels, if you haven't seen ammonia and nitrite levels by now, then it suggests that it is cycled. Especially as you get a mini-spike when you add a fish. So long as you do water changes when this happens, you should be ok.

i am cycled now thanks for all your help it took time with the fish in the tank but its done now. i now add two or three fish each week all is going well,

Oh well done monty, what sort of fish are you stocking with then? Its great when you can visit the lfs and actually walk out with a few fish isnt it? :lol:

at the moment i have 4 tiger barbs,3 blackwidow tetras, 10 cardinal tetras, 2 dwarf, 2 golden and 2 kissing gouramis and 3 ruby barbs all fish are doing well no problems with the tiger barbs they were my first 4 fish

Bet youre glad you are able to look at a tank ful of fish now :lol:

you bet i am i wish i had room for another tank.

monty wrote:

you bet i am i wish i had room for another tank.

Don't we all - and I have seven as it is...

mary you must have lots of room, i would like a 400 ltr tank for big fish

Me too. My largest tank is only 165L but I'd really like a 3-400L one.

Sorry to come to this thread a bit late but can I clarify things a bit? I am not sure I understand. Has egans tank cycled because he has loads of plants and so although he has fish in it producing ammonia, the plants are using all the bad stuff up and so it doesnt register when the water is tested??

If that is right then how does the bacteria build up in the filter - or doesnt it?? If it doesnt, then is it not important because the plants are taking out all the poisons.

If the plants are acting as a big filter ( removing all the poisons) wouldnt this be a good way for everyone to do it - put in a load of plants and then just add fish?

Hiya Benny. I hope you dont mind me starting this from scratch - it might help me keep things straight!

Firstly, the tank needs to be cycled to build up a colony of Ammonia and Nitrite munching bacteria, leaving you with the end result of Nitrate. Cycling with fish has been replaced by the fishless cycle, a kinder way to prepare the filter, by adding an artificial source of ammonia, but both take roughly the same length of time. People who planted their tanks and then did the fishless cycle found often that the plants would use up the ammonia before the bacteria had a chance to convert it. This means that the bacteria load would increase very slowly if at all.

Some aquarists now say that setting up the tank and then packing it with fast growing stem plants allows you to add a medium load of fish immediately, and that you dont see any rise in ammonia or nitrite levels.

The thinking is that because plants love ammonia, they use it all up and so it never grows to any level that would be toxic to fish. The plants then get covered in the good bacteria and kickstarts the cycle, allowing the bacteria to build up in the filter, but all the time keeping levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at a safe level.

Apparently you need to use about 4 - 6 bunches of plants for every 20 litres or so using specific plants -

Foxtail
Hygro
Red Ludwigia
Moneywort
Wisteria
Egeria

The plants must be fertilised to keep them healthy and make sure they dont die off and apparently it is quite common to have some algae while the tank is settling down.

I havent dont this type of cycling at all, but it does sound an interesting way to prepare things. Perhaps it will take over from fishless cycling in the future.

After about 3 months, when the tank is all settled, you can replace some of these plants with others you like.

Hope that helps

That does sound like a really good way to do things. what are stem plants exactly - i know theres a list of them but what would make them be labelled as stem plants - do they grow longer than others?

i think if i was going to do another tank i would have a go at this way, sounds ideal.

I have never heard of this before, I wonder why it isnt done more often? Mind you with my goldfish I dont think any of the plants would have survived the experiment! :lol:

That does sound like a good way to prepare the tank. I think it would be an ideal way to get things going. You would have a good looking tank and fish right away too.

I wonder if you have to wait for the plants to get to a certain size though? Perhaps you put so many of them in that its not that important.

Sounds good though