What are the readings for a cycled tank?

Question

What are the readings I should be getting for a cycled tank? I am giving cycling a second try after the system almost killed my fish. I am getting .25 in ammonia and 0 nitrites. I don't have anything to read nitrates accurately yet besides those little strips. Is it something like 0 ammonia, .5 nitrites and 10 nitrates?

Answer 1

ammonia = 0 nitrites = 0 nitrates = any present is a good sign. Green algea starting to grow on the glass a good sign the tank is cycled. Yours has just begun the cycle. Watch ammonia very closely and don't let a day go by without changing water if it gets above 1ppm, same with nitrites. Leave your filter alone for the first 6 weeks. Do 50% water changes when ammonia or nitrite is above 1ppm. You don't have to vacume the rocks heavily each time you change water if you are changing water daily or every other day. Don't worry you only have to keep up the heavy water changes for the first few weeks then you can switch to a regular maintenence schedule. Like Magic Man suggests get some gravel from a cycled tank to put in yours to speed up the process. Don't waste your money on products that claim to cycle your tank instantly. The cheap ones don't work at all. The expensive ones do, but its too much money to pay for refrigerated filter sludge. Good luck.

Answer 2

In a fully cycles tank your readings should be ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and something in nitrates. What that is in nitrates will depend on your tap water and when your last water change was, but something below 20 is good. It sounds as if yours is just getting started. Watch for the ammonia to go up, then begin to come down again. Once it starts to drop nitrites will do the same thing. Eventually (usually a few weeks) both will have dropped to 0.

MM

Answer 3

You are probably half way through your cycle. A cycled tank will have no ammonia, no nitrites and nitrates will be in the 5-20 ppm range, depending on when you did your last gravel vac and water change. If you are above 20 in nitrates, it is definitely time to do a 25% water change. If you want to speed things up a little, it is not too late to use something like StressZyme or Cycle. These products contain bacteria spores that will "re-activate" in your tank and shorten the cycle time about 30%. Too many water changes will remove too many beneficial bacteria and slow your cycle time down. You may also notice a fine white cloudiness after too frequent water changes. This is a bacteria bloom and it will go away on its own in about a week.