How much longer would you expect on my cycle?

[H45]

 

Looking at my chart how much longer do you think my cycle will last? When could I start to add hermits and snails? 30 Gallon IM 30L Nuvo. Thanks.

[Egginis]

Great work with the graph, the information is extremely useful. judging by the numbers, I would estimate another 7 days at most. In such a small environment changes can happen very quickly, so stay patient and keep up the great testing and recording. Being patient will reward you 100 fold in this hobby. In the meantime enjoy every aspect like the cycling process.

[H45]

Thanks. It is very hard to wait, but I will. 7 more days will be over soon enough. After ammonia and nitrite go to zero I plan to do a 50% WC and then retest. I want this to be done right. I'm not crazy about the API test kit, its hard to see the parameters and know where your at.

[ghostgr]

im using the api kit and dont seem to have any issues with them. mine cycled for only a week and a half. im just waiting to get some time off to go get my CUC. me personally im not planning on doing a water change until after i add the CUC and they get settled in.

[lucindrea]

api kit drives me nutz .. everything is fine (i dont use ph as i have a digital meter) except the ammonia - greenish yellow -> greenisher yellow , slightly more green , really really green!!! -> wet grass .. it's the first 2 that do it , coupled with the fact the the ammonia is the only color thats not clear (i'ts cloudy) so you cant look through it to match the colors .. and of course not everyone sees green excatly the same (most do , but lots of people have some sort of color blindness even if it's unmesurable in standard tests)

 

i REALLY wish their was a decent cheap digital tester simliar to the TDS and PH testers - somthing as important as ammonia should be able to get hard numbers

[H45]

Yes Lucindrea, I agree. Ammonia between 0 & .50 is very hard to distinguish. Nitrite looks purple and could be any of the levels past 1.0. The only thing the test tell me for sure is the possible absence of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate which is probably fine once the tank is cycled. My background is in drinking water and daily testing has a more defined scale (and more sophisticated equipment) so you can respond to changes more rapidly.

 

Maybe its not that critical to know exactly how much is in the aquarium and more important to know that the water column is absent of these indicators. These test kits are inexpensive and give you a general idea of where your at. I guess that all we should expect.