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My 20 gal tank appears to be close to the end of the cycle. However, opinions on the following test results--

Ammonia 1.0
NitrIte 0
Nitrate 10
PH 7.1

Am I feeding too much or is it just not finished cycling yet? The nitrItes were about .5 yesterday which was before a 25% water change today. The readings above were after the water change today. Perhaps anothere useful(?) note is that Bio-spira was added mid cycle-about 10 days ago.

Is there anything in the tank?

How long has this been set up?

Water changes are usually not recommended during the cycle

Sounds like you're almost done from what you've posted, but we'll wait to see.

Yes, there are 5 danios in there (at the suggestion of lfs-nothing was mentioned about fishless cycle when I asked lfs what to do!). The ammonia spiked off the chart so that's why the bio-spira was added! Thanks for your help.

The tank has been set-up about 5 weeks.

Last edited by tetrasrcool at 03-Jan-2006 07:30

tetrasrcool,

Interesting question and I don’t have a simple answer for it.

Usually during cycling first the ammonia rises, then the nitrites rise and the ammonia begins to fall, then the nitrates rise and the nitrites fall and that is when the cycle is complete.

Now you have ammonia and nitrates, but nothing in the middle, which is a little odd when just considering the cycling process.

You say you had some nitrites yesterday, which leads me to believe that you are at the end of the cycle.

I would assume that your ammonia readings (not good, btw) come from overfeeding. How much and how often do you feed? Usually one should feed as much as the fish can eat within a maximum of 5 minutes after adding the food to the water. Also, what do you feed?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Tetra,

Whhat did you add as a chlorine/chloramine neutralizer or water conditioner for your water changes? Many of those products will give you a false positive for ammonia.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

I feed twice a day and only as much as can be eaten in about a minute. I used Stress Coat to remove the chlorine.

I thought that maybe the Bio-Spira being added mid-cycle might have something to do with the weird test results.??

Bio-spira greatly increases the available nitrifying bacteria a tank has, and most likley the ammonia spike you're seeing is either die-off from the spira, or waste produced by it. Give it a few more days at your current routine until ammonia reaches zero, and you should be cycled up and ready to slowly add fish.