# Cycling Help A Little Lost



## fishkeeper84 (Oct 12, 2010)

Here are the stats 70 gallon tank, FX5 filter w/ seachem matrix, plastic plants, and 1 catfish. The tank has been up and running for 5 days now and I took some bio-media from another tank. I've been using the API test kit and these are the results. Ammonia 0ppm, PH 7.6, Nitrite 0.50ppm, Nitrate 5.0ppm. So what should be my next step in this cycling process.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

ammonia rises and falls, nitite rises and falls, nitate rises and falls and your good to go. Generally after about a month your good to go. Was any of this media established as you should be reading ammonia before no2 and no3. I forget the exact timeline but 5 days seems abit shot to be over the ammonoia stage so i would just take a couple mroe readings so you can get a better indication of where you are in the cycle


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## fishkeeper84 (Oct 12, 2010)

CLUSTER ONE said:


> ammonia rises and falls, nitite rises and falls, nitate rises and falls and your good to go. Generally after about a month your good to go. Was any of this media established as you should be reading ammonia before no2 and no3. I forget the exact timeline but 5 days seems abit shot to be over the ammonoia stage so i would just take a couple mroe readings so you can get a better indication of where you are in the cycle


I'm not getting any ammonia readings its weird I know.

Can I use any type of shrimp to raise ammonia. My local store doesn't sell prawns but they have the regular raw frozen shrimp will that work.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

If you used bio media from another tank and only have one fish, you may not see any ammonia. If you keep showing 0 ammonia and your nitrite gets down to 0, you'd probably be good to go, just make sure that you increase your bio load slowly.


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## fishkeeper84 (Oct 12, 2010)

Ok I have an update on my cycle I'm finally getting ammonia readings Ammonia 0.25ppm, Nitrite 0.25ppm, Nitrate 5.0ppm are these good numbers as far as the cycling process progressing.


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## the_w8 (Jul 28, 2003)

Like cluster said your ammonia will rise first then fall and then your nitrites will start to rise and then fall and then it will turn into nitrates and your nitrates will be managable from 0-80ppm


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Even though you used established media from another tank it will still take a lil while for things to balance out but once your ammo and nitrites are at 0 then you're good to go.
As was said be sure to up your ammo source slowly so if its pygos you plan on keeping then then add some shrimp first and leave it in replacing it every few days. This will get your filters ready for a bigger bioload.

Did you make sure to keep the media submerged and not out of water for too long?
If not then the bacteria may have died off but since you're getting nitrite readings I think its ok.
Did you use all new water or did you add some from an established tank, old water would already have nitrates in it.

Just keep a close eye on your params but you should be ready for fish soon


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