Magic Cycling???

[hungryhound]

I am a little confused and looking for some information on my Fish tanks cycling progress.

As I understand it the nitrogen cycle works in the following order. you get an ammonia spike that turns into nitrite that turns into nitrate, and that when you have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and some nitrate your tank is cycled.

The reason I am confused is that my tank was set up on Wednesday, and it appears to be cycled already (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 40 ppm).

Here is how I reached this point:

Tuesday: Added 60 pound of eco complete gravel, and filled it up 3/4 of the way with water and turned on the heater. its a 46 gallon tank so about 30 gallons.

Wednesday: Added 4 amazon swords, 6 Italian vals, and 2 pots of mint Charlie, and 5 zebra fish to get the tank cycled. filled the tank and added stress zyme.

It is bio wheel 350 gph filter.

Friday: Bought ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits. I checked the ammonia and it was zero. So I did not check the others, as i figured that i had not seen my ammonia spike yet.

Saturday: Checked all three and had the following results: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 40 ppm. I even double checked the results.

According to what I have read the tank should be cycled and needing a water change, but it seems like this happened rather fast. Could this be a false reading or should I go ahead and do a water change?

Thanks for all of your help.

[Chrona]

The live plants are eating up the ammonia, which slows down the cycling process. You'll still get ammonia, nitrite and nitrate eventually, but it will be much slower with all those plants and only 5 fish (not to mention 46 gallons of water will easily dilute the little ammonia produced to undetectable levels). I wouldn't worry about it too much. As long as the plants are growing very nicely (I mean quickly), then it's safe to add a few fish at a time. Eco-complete gravel is supposed to contain bacteria too right? I would wait 3-4 more days just to be sure, then get some algae eaters. Many people who start a planted tank find that nothing spikes at all because they have so many plants vs fish. The danger of this, of course, is that it's highly dependent on the plants doing well. If they plants should stop growing, then ammonia will buildup, since the bacteria population was getting mostly outcompeted by the plants, and the decaying plants will themselves add more pollution.

How many watts per gallon of lighting do you have? The biowheel is not the ideal choice for planted tanks because it causes so much CO2 to be released from the water but it'll work.

[f1oored]

Stress zyme is supposed to have the bacteria you need in it. The bio wheel filters can help the bacteria grow very quickly. The plants were likely taken out of an established tank so you probably got some bacteria there too. Plants will also make it so you see less in the way of spikes. It is possible you are cycled. I would do a water change and keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels.

[hungryhound]

Chrona:
The eco complete does contain bacteria. So far the plants appear to being alright, but we'll keep an eye on them just to be sure. Currently 2 watts per gallon is being used, but we can turn the other bulb on and bump it up to 4 watts per gallon (I imagine this would be over kill and possible excite an algae bloom as at this point the plants might not be able to out compete the algae).

Thanks for all the comments!

[xoolooxunny]

let me know how that eco complete works out for you in terms of ph. i used 1 bag in with my sand and fluorite mixture for my 75 gallon, and i cant get my ph below 7.5, it always goes back up to that point. then i used 1 bag in my 10 gallon, and couldn't get it below 8. my tap water is pretty much neutral, and moderately hard. i replaced the stuff in the 10 gallon with aquarium sand, and now i'm at a healthy 7.1 with no additives yet.

Private message me sometime and let me know how its working out for you, im curious about their anti-ph raising calcium claims.

[Chrona]

Chrona:
The eco complete does contain bacteria. So far the plants appear to being alright, but we'll keep an eye on them just to be sure. Currently 2 watts per gallon is being used, but we can turn the other bulb on and bump it up to 4 watts per gallon (I imagine this would be over kill and possible excite an algae bloom as at this point the plants might not be able to out compete the algae).

Thanks for all the comments!

Yep, two watts will do just fine for now. F1oored may be right. It wouldn't be the first time that a tank "magically" cycled due to various sources of bacteria already introduced. However, I still maintain that the only effective bacteria additive is Biospira. I helped set up a friends tank last week using fishless cycling, and Stress-zyme didn't really seem to do anything. Since he's an impatient (and "well-funded") fellow, I told him about Biospira. Lo and behold, after a little more than 30 hours after adding the stuff (while still adding ammonia), ammonia/nitrites were at zero. Nitrates of course, were off the charts, but that's expected. Yes, I sound like one of those paid testimonials, but this stuff really wowed me. It sure is expensive though......

[hungryhound]

let me know how that eco complete works out for you in terms of ph. i used 1 bag in with my sand and fluorite mixture for my 75 gallon, and i cant get my ph below 7.5, it always goes back up to that point. then i used 1 bag in my 10 gallon, and couldn't get it below 8. my tap water is pretty much neutral, and moderately hard. i replaced the stuff in the 10 gallon with aquarium sand, and now i'm at a healthy 7.1 with no additives yet.

Private message me sometime and let me know how its working out for you, im curious about their anti-ph raising calcium claims.

My tap water has a pH of 7.6 and my tank with the eco complete has a pH of 7.6. I have not yet tried to lower the pH. That is my next task. So I do not know yet if it makes it imposable to get the tanks ph to 7.0. I will let you know when I try.

[hungryhound]

Yep, two watts will do just fine for now. F1oored may be right. It wouldn't be the first time that a tank "magically" cycled due to various sources of bacteria already introduced. However, I still maintain that the only effective bacteria additive is Biospira. I helped set up a friends tank last week using fishless cycling, and Stress-zyme didn't really seem to do anything. Since he's an impatient (and "well-funded") fellow, I told him about Biospira. Lo and behold, after a little more than 30 hours after adding the stuff (while still adding ammonia), ammonia/nitrites were at zero. Nitrates of course, were off the charts, but that's expected. Yes, I sound like one of those paid testimonials, but this stuff really wowed me. It sure is expensive though......

Thanks Chrona,

yeah I looked into the biospira and the LFS wanted 30 dollars for enough to do my 46 gallon tank. It might be plan B if the plants die and I need to keep any fish alive.

Thanks for your help.

[xoolooxunny]

i would only resort to biospira if you have expensive fish and a bad ammonia spike, otherwise, try some respective media for your filter.

[Chrona]

Well, the media only creates a place for the bacteria to grow, which means you still need to wait for the population to grow. Biospira actually is the bacteria

(Unless you mean those ammonia/nitrite/nitrate absorbing resins)

And I was just mentioning the Biospira as a side note. You don't need it for your tank, even if the plants do die, because zebra danios make it through the worst water conditions just fine. My friend was just impatient and had the money to burn.