Am i done cycling?

[Ali1]

So i been cycling my tank for a while, nearly a month of patience, constantly adding ammonia (from ace hardware) when it drops to zero, and most of all watching my nitrites and nitrates. At initial startup, it took forever for the ammonia to drop because i poured soo much (color was forest green), several days in fact.As the days progress, i noticed my ammonia dropping(color yellowish to very light green), and nitrites sky rocketed.The last two days i did more testing only to find out my ammonia is 0,nitrite is 0, and nitrate sky rocketed well over 40ppm(somewhere in the red range). I added a capful ammonia, giving a value of 4-5ppm after adding, and the next day ammonia is back at 0, nitrites are still zero, and nitrate are still high. I'll begin to do a water change to reduce the ammonia.

What's a safe level for nitrate when fish is involved?

I'm assuming the cycle took less than a month because i borrowed a small HOB penguin 200b to seed the tank. Is it safe to give the filter back ?

Will i still have the bacteria in my sump & penguin 350b?

How long does the bacteria live without any ammonia? The reason i ask is because i don't intend on adding fishes until i'm done building the new stand so the new fishes won't get stressed after moving tank/taking out water/ etc.

I guess some info on the tank would be nice..... 90gallon tank with 30gallon sump, HOB filter is a penguin 350b, two heaters(250 watts each), borrowed HOB filter.

 

[velanarris]

You're done.

Make sure you don't add a big bioload all at once and dose ammonia daily right up until the day before you add fish.

After you add fish, watch your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels again as fish produce both ammonia and ammonium. (ionic charge difference).

 

[ward1066]

I would take the penguin off and add some ammonia and see if you have a good bio filter in the sump. that bacteria wont live very long without ammonia

 

[Bderick67]

Tank is near cycled, it will still need to adjust to the bioload that you add. If your not going to add fish, then you will still need to feed the tank with ammonia. You'll get alot of varied opinion on nitrate levels, lower is always better. I don't let any of my tanks get above the 30 to 40ppm range.

 

[Neophyte]

I wouldn't say your done your cycle as the filter you borrowed is now part of you bio filtration and when you remove it you will at least go through a mini-cycle as the bacteria present in your current filter catches up.