Did I mess with my cycle?

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skald89

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2011
109
0
16
Fresh meadows - Queens, NY
I have been a fishless cycle, using fish food, for my 55 gallon tank for a month now. The tank has about 10-15 healthy growing amazon swords in the sand bed.

Filter 1 - - Aqueon Filter 55
Media - - 2 AquaClear sponges

Filter 2 - - AquaClear 110
Media - - 2 AquaClear 70 sponges & 4 Biomax ( which is 2 boxes of the AC 110 Biomax )

Water test results:
Everything looked normal, ammonia was present, converted and so on. Through out the whole month I have had ammonia and never reached 0. My nitrites in the 3rd week were off the charts, so I did 30% water change. I checked every night and things seemed to be not moving, so I did 50% water change and cleaned out the sponges ( in water from the tank ).

3 nights ago I had:
ammonia - 0.25
nitrate - 20
nitrite - 0

2 nights ago i had:
ammonia - 0.25
nitrate - 10
nitrite - 0

Today and last night I got weird readings.
ammonia - 0.25
nitrate - 0
nitrite - 0


Why is ammonia still present while the rest have reached 0?
 
API master test kit.

I did another test now to compare to the one this afternoon
ammonia - 0.25
nitrate - 10
nitrite - 0
 
strollo22 said:
I also wouldn't have plants in a tank that's cycling. It will eat some of the nutrients that you need for a proper cycle


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Most of what they eat is nitrAte, so they should be just fine to have in there. If you are using an API freshwater master testkit, it can be really hard to tell the difference between 0 and 0.25 ammonia, it drives me nuts too.
 
strollo22 said:
I also wouldn't have plants in a tank that's cycling. It will eat some of the nutrients that you need for a proper cycle


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Click to expand...

If I am going to keep plants in the tank, wouldn't they eat the nutrients later ( after the cycle ) beating out any bacteria?




letstalkfish said:
Most of what they eat is nitrAte, so they should be just fine to have in there. If you are using an API freshwater master testkit, it can be really hard to tell the difference between 0 and 0.25 ammonia, it drives me nuts too.
Click to expand...

I know sometimes its hard to tell, however these times it looked green with no question about it.

I need to buy a new set because my ammonia test bottle 2 finished. Hopefully it was only an issue with this set and a new one will give me correct results that I can rely on.

Is API test kit the recommended set?
 
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