Ammonia level?

[Siejuban]

My tank had been setup for 6 days, the Ammonia is always between .04-.05 ppm, Nitirite ~0ppm, Nitrate: 5ppm, I am using SeaChem basic marine test kits, is this kit reliable? Since the Ammonia had not been raised or lowered, and Nitrite is 0ppm, it can't be that fast to be cycled.

 

I am using LR from liverocks.com, and packaged LS from Petco, the LS has those bacteria packaged withe the LS. Seemed no die off from the LR as this moment. The tiny Starfish, crab, snail, feather duster that come with the LR still alive.

[jameson]

Siejuban, I also had a short cycle with my rocks from liverocks.com. I had a very small ammonia spike the first couple of days. had readings of all 0's after like 10 days. its now day 26 and readings are the same as day 10, and algae is growing like crazy.

[SeaMountain]

In my nano set up, the ammonia never really did get very high. It did take a couple of weeks for the 'trites to rise, if I recall correctly. And then they didn't spike very high at all. The 'trates were similar. I did have excellent LR in the tank (22lbs) and 20lbs of Arag-Alive as a substrate base also. All in a 10g.

 

Watch your Ammonia levels to see where they go. They must return to zero for your cycle to complete. And your nitrite/nitrates back to zero as well.

 

Patience... Patience... Patience... And you'll be rewarded!

[Siejuban]

I also find out my Nitrate is dropping too, it was 5 ppm for the first 4 days, last day was read as 2ppm, this 2ppm nitrate I didn't count it as correct reading, I will have to do some more to make sure it is dropped.

[sdboogie]

I used a Seachem kit while my tank was cycling. It was giving me some wack readings. So I took a sample to the LFS and found that their readings were similar except when it came to the Nitrates. The Seachem kit tested 40 - 50 ppm but it really was 2. No wonder my tank wasn't finishing its cycle. Those paper color charts are so hard to compare to a water sample. I switched to FasTest and SeaTest. Those kits rock. Nothing more frustrating than not being able to tell if your water is clean enough to keep anything alive.