am i cycled?

[Neil Groves]

This is the history of my cycling for my 55g that I started at the beginning of the month, as you can see my ammonia spiked way back on 1/08/16 and my nitrate spiked on 1/14/15, they are now at 0.15ppm and 0.25ppm respectively with a nitrate of 20ppm where is has been for the last week, am I now cycled and ready to do a 60% water change and add a couple of small fish? I have been using raw shrimp to cycle the aquarium so I would take these out and replace with my new fish to keep the ammonia going.

before I add my fish though I will add my HOB filter with peat granules to lower my PH from 7.6 which is my tap water to 6.8 - 7.0......

any advice is appreciated please?

Neil.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
If it is a planted tank? stop adding ammonia (via the shrimp) and just let the plants grow in for a couple of weeks.

cheers Darrel

 

[Neil Groves]

so i'm cycled apart from a bit of a mystery...my Nitrate is 5.0, my Nitrite is zero but I have 0.25ppm of ammonia that wont go away, can decaying plants and/or dead snail carcases cause ammonia? I cant figure out why my ammonia is .25 still, it was once at zero but has now elevated slightly, I recently went on a snail killing excersise, could that be the cause and if so, why isn't the good bacteria taking care of this?

Neil.

 

[gerald]

It would take a LOT of decaying plants to raise ammonia, since they dont contain much protein (amino acids >> ammonia). More likely it's the dead snails, if you squashed a whole bunch of them one day. The population of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (and yes, Archaea, before Darrell pipes up) may take time to catch up with a sudden increase in decaying protein (snail meat). Or, the test kit may be acting goofy. Either way, fast-growing plants will quickly uptake ammonia and protect your fish.

QUOTE="Neil Groves, post: 96367, member: 13279"] I recently went on a snail killing excersise, could that be the cause and if so, why isn't the good bacteria taking care of this? Neil.[/QUOTE]

 

[Neil Groves]

Great, thankyou, now all I need do is fit my HOB fill it with peat granules untill my PH drops to 6.8 from its current 7.6 which is my tap water and I'm good to go