It's been 24 hours. Still need to get live plants. Started with no established media, all new filter and old tank materials.
This is my first ever test done 24 hours after setting up the tank and feeding it some rotting fish pellets for ammonia and API quick start. All steps for the master test kit were followed exactly.
How does it look?
Posted by MothMeep7
7 Comments
Also, the tank already is starting to develop that “fish tank” smell, which is think is good, but it might also just be the leaves I’ve got floating in it for tannins.
Though the water does look to be pretty tannin-ed. Not Blackwater for sure, but definitely brownish. Hopefully betta will like that eventually!
Forgot to mention, it’s a 10 gallon freshwater tank. No live plants yet, will get plants.
Not sure what you are aiming to see in 24 hours. Cycling takes more like a month.
Now do not look or touch it for a week
Yup that’s the parameters for a fresh tank – all you’ve got is ammonia from the pellets.
The cycle takes a while to develop.
Give it a week, test again, and after that it will probably be another 3 weeks before you are around the levels necessary to handle fish being added. Keep adding the pellets every couple of days.
Ammonia goes up and turns into nitrites if you have a good bacteria colony. Then, nitrites go up and turn into nitrates if you have a good bacteria colony. Then, finally, the plants eat the nitrates as their nitrogen source.
Right now you only have ammonia which means the process hasn’t even begun aside from some substrate decomposing. You have weeks of waiting yet.
Don’t test. It needs to cycle. If you change any water before cycling is finished all you do is prolong the cycling process and crash it.