Week 5 of cycling - question

[HerthaYid]

Hi All, I'm new here and new to the hobby. I've been researching a lot over the last few months but want to get some thoughts on my current progress. So I see a lot of people cycling their tank in 1 or 2 weeks with the use of nitrifying bacteria. I have a 300L tank with a 65L sump and i've been doing a fish in cycle with 2 clowns and nitrifying bacteria. I'm now on week 5 and i'm still getting 0.25-0.5 ammonia showing and 0.25 nitrites.

My ammonia spiked up to about 1 after around 10 days and i was using prime to detoxify it until it fell back down under 0.5. My Ph is pretty low at around 7.5 and seems stable around there. Salinity is 1.026, temperature is 25.4C. I used dry rock and sand which is probably why its taking a bit longer but I thought it would be done by now after using nitrifying bacteria. The test kits i am using are from red sea.

I'm waiting for ammonia and nitrites to drop to 0 before adding anything else but just wanted to get anyones thoughts on these test kits, I see others say that it can sometimes not drop below 0.25, so could I already be cycled? I hope i've given enough information but let me know if you want to know more. Thanks.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

No need to cycle with fish in this day and age anymore, its cruel and can hurt/kill the fish needlessly

Are you using an API test kit? They almost always show .25 ammonia.

What is the nitrate level? Its the nitrate level that really determines if the tank is cycled or not. But the fish are alive 5 weeks after introduction, the tank is certainly cycled by now.

I would suggest to test the nitrate, if the nitrate is higher than 40, do a water change to bring it down to 10-20 ish, and then safe to add another fish.

 

[HerthaYid]

Yeah I'd definitely go the fishless route in future after feedback. A few people in a facebook group were saying that 2 clownfish in a tank this size would not even see an ammonia spike so didn't expect it to get as high as 1. I am using the red sea NH3/NH4 test kit, the one with the colour chart to match to.

I just tested my nitrates with my Hanna tester and they are showing at 13.3. Would you still say that is cycled/safe to add another fish? and should I hold off on a water change until the nitrates are a bit higher?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

maybe wait for others opinion on that one, I'm not sure to be honest. The nitrate is lower than I would expect after 5 weeks, but it could be because of the large tank and large water volume. I don't know the answer, sorry. @brandon429 has a lot of cycling threads and knowledge

 

[brandon429]

It isn’t possible this system isn’t cycled. Fish food alone would do it in a month, we have in multiple threads this example

the fish association sped it up as well, bottle bac was carrying the fish load nearly instantly because a couple clowns isn’t much waste for any brand to handle, this is a testless cycle because it can’t not be done

if there were rocks in the display this whole time, they’re cycled. Fish disease prep skipping was the issue, not the cycling part.

 

[Cell]

If you used bottled bac, this is not considered a traditional fish in cycle. What product did you use?

API ammonia is known to give false 0.25 readings.

Stop testing nitrate until nitrite goes down. You cannot accurately measure nitrate in the presence of nitrite.

Prime does not work as stated.