Ammonia and cycling

[AquaNewby182]

I am currently cycling my 29G tank w/ AquaClear 200 power filter and an aerator. First day added 1 Red Wag swordtail and 1 Gold Mickey Mouse Platy. After a week I added 4 zebra danios... Waited another week and just added two fancy guppies today (one male, 1 female) .

I've read alot about the pitfalls of adding fish too quickly (new tank syndome), so have tried to slowly add fish while keeping track of the ammonia ad nitrite levels. The thing that has me baffled is that during this time my home test kit has not detected any ammonia or nitrite. I assumed my kit was not working so have brought several water samples to the LFS.. Their tests show very low levels of nirite and ammonia (below the .5 ppm ammonia and .25 ppm nitrite that my kit will detect)..

The tank is kept at 78 degrees, PH is 7.0..

Initially I added PH 7.0 powder to the water prior to adding the first fish... The initial water was treated with water conditioner and I have not done any water changes. I had to add 1 gallon recently (due to evaporation and lost water when adding fish)..

The fish are fed once a day with Tropical flakes and there is fish waste floating around the tank..

Any clues why I am not seeing ammonia in the tank? Has the tank already cycled or has the cycle not even started yet?

Thanks!!

 

[BigTank]

If you have no amonia in your tank, well that's a good thing...Generally for a new tank you may not experience elevated right away...Usually takes a few months for you tank to go through it's biological process.....

W/ a new tank check your levels about every other day, if your levels are high, do a small water change. If there fine leave it alone..

Once your tank is established you only have to check you levels every so often...Bi-weekly to once a month depending your preference...But in the begininng keep a close eye on it..

 

[AquaNewby182]

But I thought the buildup of ammonia was due to the fish respiration and waste and that the bacteria buildup would eventually convert the ammonia to nitrite.. I would expect that after two weeks of fish waste and minimal bacteria growth that there would be ammonia.. Do I need to increase the fishload to jump start the ammonia buildup and bacteria growth?

Thanks

 

[BigTank]

Sounds like your off to a good start...Sometimes it could take a little longer than that b4 you start seeing spikes in your levels..All depends on how mcuh you feed your fish, how many fish you have, filtration, etc....If your fish seem look happy in the mean time..
Just relax & let your tank run its course...& follow what I suggested in prior post..


...

 

[RedTurquoise]

The factor is 'time'. It take time for the ammona to build up. Because the fish are 'small' fish and you dont have very many in the tank, you will not get much ammonia (which is a good thing).

I would wait 2 weeks or until you get 0 nitrites and another a couple more fish. Nitrites is the longest stage of the cycle as the nitribacter only multiply every 12-24 hours as opposed to nitrosomonas that multiply every 6-10 hours or something like that.

 

[FroggyFox]

Patience patience patience I understand where you're coming from though because I expected the levels of everything to go up and down like clockwork...yeah right It took my 10 gallon a week to start showing any ammonia.

I think how fast the ammonia shows up is a good tell as to how many fish your tank can handle. Because its taken so long for the levels to go up at all...it means that your tank has a pretty low bio load (amt of fish) and good filtration. I don't think it means that your tank has cycled already...because it doesn't sound like the nitrites or ammonia has spiked at all. I have 8 danios in my 15 gallon...it just started cycling on Saturday (2 days ago) so I would say just be patient...or a couple more fish might speed up the process a bit. You might want to wait a day or two and see how the two guppies affect the levels though.

 

[GuppyGuy]

Watch the guppies they are not as hardy as the other fish you have and could show signs of stress as the levels of ammonia and nitrite rise.