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Aquariums: how do i know if my tank is cycled, without testing products?

I have squeezed the hob sponge from an established betta tank in here two days ago, used some plants from anathoer tank, ran the sponge filter for a week in a established tank, and kept the mistery snail here for 2 days, also is it okay to use the airstone with the sponge around it? it seems to be trapping a lot of gunk wich is good, i really want to know if i can add neocaridina shrimp soon, also when will the in vitro red root floaters start to look god and addapt to the aquarium? also the tank is a 10l

Posted by Objective-Title-8793

17 Comments

  5. zero_droid on

    To speed up the nitrogen cycle, you can use biological accelerators, which contain concentrated colonies of bacteria such as Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter. These products allow for the faster introduction of fish and help control toxic spikes in ammonia and nitrite. ;p

  6. GalacticMayor on

    As others have said, there is no real way to know if it’s properly cycled without a proper test kit. The filter squeezing that you gave it definitely inoculated it with good bacteria, but if you don’t have an ongoing source of ammonia for that bacteria to eat it is actively dying. Any effort to jumpstart your cycle only works if you keep feeding it.

    You have two options here. You can get the test kit, provide sources of ammonia, and wait for it to complete (should be much faster than without the filter squeezing, but it’s always variable). Or you can start to add some shrimp and hope for the best. They produce a very little waste, so they won’t poison themselves nearly as fast as most fish would. Some folks here will scream that that’s a horribly cruel thing to do, others will tell you it’s just fine. Ultimately the ethics of it are up to you

  8. DanielCraigsAnus on

    I mean, theoretically, you could make a PH indicator with red cabbage. But, that’s the only thing I know of. Nitrates and ammonia, idk of any household goods that can test for this.

  10. QuirkyCatLady2023 on

    That’s a pretty small tank even for just a mystery snail. You simply need to get the testing kit – not the strips. Your snail could be suffering in acidic ammonia right now, or just chilling in perfect water. There’s no way to know without testing. The API Freshwater Master Test Kit is the standard, and I highly recommend using it. Sooner rather than later. I hope that you only plan to add shrimp and no other livestock, because it’s really too small.

  12. lostintuition on

    You’ll eventually need to test your water anyway, so why not buy it now?

  15. artificialdeatheast on

    probably time. I would wait at least more than a month to consider it cycled if i were to never get any formal way of testing

  17. Foreign-Ad3926 on

    Hi OP, firstly the tank size of 10 litres is much too small for a mystery snail. The tiny water volume is likely already too toxic to responsibly or ethically keep even the snail in there.

    Secondly there is no way of knowing if your tank is nitrogen cycled or is even safe for living creatures without testing.

    Please, invest in a test kit that covers ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH at absolute minimum. For shrimp you will need to know and monitor KH and GH too. You’ll need an accurate liquid test kit as shrimp are sensitive and do not cope in new unstable and toxic tanks. Additionally it’s tiny meaning it will be more prone to toxicity and instability. The API Master is a great test kit, plus the add on KH and GH duo.

    Growing the good bacteria of the nitrogen cycle takes weeks, and there are several toxic phases with a new tank. These are living creatures, please do what is needed to protect their lives.

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