Cycle help

The science behind successful fishkeeping.
sie84
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Hi guys,

I'm a little confused with my readings so I'm hoping someone can help me, I have been cycling my jewel vision 180 since the 8th of January, when I filled the tank up I used tetra aquasafe for the de chlorinator and I dosed with 200ml tetra safestart to give the filter a boost. I started with 4ppm of ammonia, that went down and topped back up to 2ppm which is the results you can see from yesterday and today. I will post pics of my readings so far but it's my nitrates straight from the tap that is confusing.

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This is from the 8th of Jan.

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This is the 11th of Jan.


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This one is 21st of jan.


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This is from today, the test tube on the right is nitrate straight from the tap, should it even be like that?

Sorry if this is hard to read haha

Simon
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Gingerlove05
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Hello and welcome Simon :)
Everything looks ok, you might find that you have high nitrates from the tap (legal limit is 50ppm) and the api kit is hard to distinguish between 40ppm and 80ppm.
Just keep topping your ammonia back up to 2ppm when it hits 0ppm, until the nitrites disappear. Then you want 3 days of 0ppm ammonia and nitrite are processed while topping up to 2ppm ammonia. Then its big water change and go fish shopping :)
sie84
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Thank you gingerlove05, I thought it was heading in the right direction but the nitrates straight from the tap threw me off track haha shouldn't be too far away now then, fingers crossed 😁

Thanks for the warm welcome too 👍🏻
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fr499y
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As above, Welcome to AF-UK :)
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black ghost
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You might end up with very high nitrates. You can change the water at any time to bring them down (don’t forget to dechlorinate). Very high nitrates will slow the cycle down a little.
sie84
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Thanks guys, very much appreciated, I always use the aquasafe with every water change, seeing as there are no fish in the tank I can live with the high nitrates for the moment, just need to get the nitrites doing their bit then can start moving forward 🙂
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Jon_D
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Welcome and above colleagues have offered good advice. Don't worry about how long it takes for the tank to cycle. My first one, which was also well planted and fishless, took 8 weeks. As you may have gathered there is no set time limit. So should yours seem to take longer than you hoped stay calm and don't rush. Just pour another glass of gin and prepare for our hobby to make you Permanently Impoverished.
:D
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Martinspuddle
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Greetings.

Got any pictures of your cycling Juwel 180, we like to see images. :grin:
WARNING - DO NOT BREED, FEED OR PET THE PUDDLE! :dodgy2:
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sie84
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Jon_D wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 18:52 pm Welcome and above colleagues have offered good advice. Don't worry about how long it takes for the tank to cycle. My first one, which was also well planted and fishless, took 8 weeks. As you may have gathered there is no set time limit. So should yours seem to take longer than you hoped stay calm and don't rush. Just pour another glass of gin and prepare for our hobby to make you Permanently Impoverished.
:D
Thanks Jon_D, I know it can take some time to get going, I do feel like I am on the right track now though, hopefully shouldn't be too much longer but what will be will be.
It's been a couple of years since I have had my last aquarium so you kind of forget what to do haha
I'm a black spiced rum kind of guy but will be pouring a few glasses while I get there haha 👍🏻
sie84
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Martinspuddle wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2020 6:14 am Greetings.

Got any pictures of your cycling Juwel 180, we like to see images. :grin:
Thanks Martinspuddle, I will have some soon, I'm not happy with how it's looking at the moment as there is quite a lot of brown algea blossoming and I have some java fern on wood but this came with my tank and most of the leaves were brown/dying so had to remove all those, so it seems a little bare/not so green at the moment haha
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