I am not sure if my tank is cycled or not.

[barbnubee]

While I was out of town, my sister unplugged everything for my tank, including my filter. It was like this for about two weeks. When I came back I plugged everything up again. I put some ammonia in my tank to test and see if it would go down after 24 hours and it didn't. I stirred up a lot of debris in the gravel while cleaning and changing the decorations (I guess this is a source of bacteria, as well as a new piece of driftwood I added and the snails that have been living in the tank this whole time). A few days later I decided I would have to do a fishless cycle again so added enough ammonia to bring the level up to around 4 ppm. The next day when I checked the ammonia level it was zero. I have done the same thing in the days sense and have had the same results. I also checked the nitrite and it was zero. Is it possible that the filter bacteria regained function that fast and the filter was never uncycled? I don't know. Do the water readings, Ammonia-0ppm, Nitrite-0ppm, mean that the tank is ready for fish?

[zackish]

Well if it was originally cycled you may have triggered a mini cycle because you said you really stirred everything up in your tank. I would add small amounts of ammonia over the next few days and see what the readings are then. To be safe I would go like this for a week. Your tank being off for 2 weeks really wasn't good for it and you want to be sure before you add fish. So take your time and wait it out this week. If you are adding ammonia every day and still getting 0 0 and some trates then I would say it is cycled somehow and you can go ahead and add fish.

[RobbieG]

If you added ammonia and it got eaten and the nitirite was eaten too you are done - congratulations!

Check your nitrates and do an appropriate WC and you are ready to go!:19: