Source
r/Aquariums•
Pyramat

8 weeks into fish-in cycle, no progress

Help/Advice

So, I started trying to do a fish-in cycle (not ideal, I know) about 8 weeks ago. I've been doing ~30% water changes every other day, as well as testing my water parameters using the API test kit before every water change. The problem is, I still haven't seen any trace of nitrite. Ammonia has always been quite low (somewhere between 0 and 0.25 ppm), except after adding a few new plants where ammonia rose briefly (undoubtedly due to the plants acclimatizing). The tank is a 5 gallon Fluval Spec V, stocked with only a single betta. As for plants it has an anubias, an Amazon sword, a java fern, a marimo moss ball, and some moneywort.

Is my bioload just too low to get any sort of reading for ammonia within a couple days? Do I do water changes less frequently, or change less than 30%, in order to let ammonia build up a bit? I'm quite patient but it just seems like I'm making no progress. Any advice on what I should do would be appreciated.

Here's some photos of my test results and my tank.

Posted Feb 22, 2018, 3:11 AM UTC

14
Downvotes_catpics•

My suspicion would be that the combination of

1: low bioload

2: Live plants

3: water changes

are making the nitrite/nitrate immeasurable.

I would likely ease up on the water changes but test very often. Considering the above, I would expect the ammonia and nitrite to remain at zero, and the nitrates to slowly rise, unless the bioload is actually low enough for the plants to consume it all.

Another reason fish-in isn't good (besides the risk of torturing fish) is that most of the things I'd do to test the cycle would harm the fish.

3
PyramatOP•

I'll try cutting back on the water changes a bit and keep an eye out for nitrates especially then. Thanks!

1
redburst8•

Had the same issue. Did you shake the nitrate test solution bottles for a good 30 seconds or so before using them?

Sometimes these test kits give a false negative on nitrate if the solutions aren't shaken up enough.

2
PyramatOP•

Yeah, I followed the nitrate test directions to a T. I'm shaking solution #2 for at 30 seconds (it doesn't say anything about shaking solution #1) and shaking the test tube mixture for a minute.

1