hi guys,

I've started cycling my new 55g tank, I've never understood cycling so I need help. below are the results from day 2 of cycling. I've currently got 2 convicts in the tank. I've also got a ehiem 2226 canister filter.


Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
PH 8.0

Cycling can be a little bit confusing. Basically you are relying on ammonia created by the fish to develop your bacteria. So during the cycling process you need ammonia present.

It could get very complicated for you whilst we are trying to give you detailed instructions over here. So I would suggest that in a couple of days you carry out a 20% water changes and keep doing this every couple of days. Check your water after a week and you should find the ammonia is quite high, you may have a small nitrite reading. Eventually your ammonia will start dropping & the nitrite will start rising. Again your nitrite will slowly drop until it is showing zero. When your ammonia and nitrites are at zero and you are having a good nitrate present, this is when the tank should be cycled. That's probably the easiest way of explaining it to you without confusion.The process could take anything from 4 to 8 weeks to complete.

We would never encourage people to try and cycle times using Oscars. Like I have already said, you rely on ammonia to cycle a tank. Amminia is very dangerous to fish so it's always advisable to use Hardy fish went cycling anytime

thanks for the tips OFL, can I just clarify regarding the water changes. Do I maintain the 20% change for the entire 4 to 8 weeks??

convicts are hardy fish so i wouldnt bother doing water changes until your ammonia and nitrite are zero. Doing water changes slow the process down.

angmat wrote:

if you want to fast track cycling the tank, use existing tank.
new tank on standby mode and ready. run your new filter in
parallel with the existing for two weeks. do the normal water
maintenance. after two weeks, transfer half of the existing
tank water to the new tank, add same amount of new water,
transfer the new filter pump too.... fresto.... you have
fully cycled tank in two weeks. but do the testing prior
to putting your fishes in there.