"testing" your cycle?

[Moloch]

When I set up my 20gal I didn't know a whole lot about the nitrogen cycle. When I set it up the second time (horrible, tragic failure with my first family of fish) I THOUGHT I had done the research and did it all right.

But now I've got a sneaking suspicion that I haven't got it properly cycled. Now, fish have been living in it just fine for a couple weeks now, no sign of ammonia spiking or anything. But is it possible that I've just been lucky?

Anyways what I'm asking is...once my 65 finishes its cycle and its safe for me to move all my fish over to it, can I 'test' the cycle in the 20. By that I mean...add enough ammonia to get it up to 5+ppm, and then see how long it takes to go back to zero?

Just a thought. I think my 20 is fine and I'm just paranoid, but it would give me a great excuse on my consistently cloudy water

 

[ar0wan]

... fish have been living in it just fine for a couple weeks now, no sign of ammonia spiking or anything...

THIS plus measurable Nitrate and you're cycled.
Hard to do your described experiment because
once you remove the fish you've changed additional variables

 

[Chromobotia]

If your water is cloudy in the 20, the filter isn't doing enough mechanical filtration. You may just need to increase the turnover rate for that tank.

If you have fish in the 20 gallon that you are going to move into the 65, why don't you just move them over in stages? I'm assumming that you don't have large fish. If the fish are small, you could move a few to the 65, wait 3 weeks and then move a few more. This is what I do when I'm upgrading.

Do you have plans for the 20 gallon once the fish are moved to the 65? The reason I'm asking, if the 20 is cycled and you move the fish out and don't replace them then the bacteria in the 20 will die. I'm not sure why you would need to "test" the cycle in the 20.

 

[Moloch]

Yeah it was just curiosity really.

I'm not seeing any reason to move the fish in stages...its 2 bichirs and a dempsey, all small. The tank is dosed with pure ammonia right now, day 2 of that ordeal.

The pleco will be staying in the 20, I'll probably add a couple mystery snails; 2 of them hanging out in the 65 right now...I'm kind of curious to see what happens to them during the cycle. If they don't make it I'll replace them--I'm a little less worried about the life of a snail than I am about my fish, call me cruel....

But we'll probably end up with a small group of fish in the 20, it's not going to be devoid of fish. It'll definitely have the rubber-lip pleco (assuming it doesn't outgrow) and then whatever else we find to stock it with (I think a school of ghost catfish would be pretty cool...)