I’m not kidding when I say my tank has been cycling for 3 months and 1 week. It started out as a plant tank so there was no heater, which makes sense as to why the bacteria colonies grew so slow.
Over the past two weeks my nitrites were finally converting to nitrates at a stable rate – currently 0ppm nitrites and between 5-10ppm nitrates. However, my ammonia is always between 0 or 0.25ppm. I have snails, spider wood, dragon stone, and several plants in the tank. It’s also being run on a sponge filter (I hope to upgrade to a fluval one soon).
I’m just so scared to touch it because I’ve already waited this long 😭 but I don’t wanna cause any harm to a betta.
What can I do to be confident that my water is safe?
https://i.redd.it/i90o5m82o11g1.jpeg
Posted by kfkenfk
3 Comments
im not 100% but it looks close to the color of 0ppm
It’s looks 0. You’re ready to go! Keep that sponge filter. That’s what finally converted my tank that I was waiting to convert for almost 3 months. And they keep my water so clear. All 3 tanks.
If you are heavily planted, yes. API test kits Ive noticed are the current gold standard, but still not perfect. They give false positives when the readings are too low at times. What you’re going through I was also, but it was fishless and without plants. Once I put the plants in, it went 0ppm across the board (2.5ppm on Nitrates if I can call it that). Because the plants are consuming everything before it can register.