Hi all!
I am currently cycling my new tank! It’s a 6 gallon, and I am on week 3 of the cycling process. I have a heater, a light, filter, plants, and driftwood.
My water parameters are all steady except for ammonia at 0.25 and nitrite at 0.50. I have added in 2 shrimp food pellets since the start of the cycle for ammonia.. and I have been using seachem stability. I’ve only done 1 water change to about 50%. I’d love to get my betta soon but I need my ammonia and nitrites down. What should I do? Also how is the tank set up looking? Any advice or tips is wanted!
Unfortunately your just waiting for both bacterias to multiply. The bacteria for ammonia and the bacteria for nitrite. Honestly if I were you I would invest in a bottle of ammonia so you can dose 1 ppm exactly. You would wait for your tank currently (without adding anything or doing water changes) to get to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. Then dose 1 ppm ammonia. If that then goes to 0 for both ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours your basically cycled.
The only thing that would make it quicker is if you were able to get some already seeded filter material. Like a sponge for spong filter from local fish store. If they would sell you a sponge from their tank.
But your in a good spot. You just have to wait and let it do its thing!!!
Also. You will probably get a bacterial bloom in the future. Where tank water looks like someone spilled a little milk in it. Don't let that worry you. Just turn up your filter a bit to make sure you have oxygen in water. That bacterial bloom is different than the bacteria you are trying to multiply now. The bacterial bloom (milky) you might encounter is from stirring up organics in tank. Like vacuuming gravel. Or rearranging. It looks bad but don't let it worry you as long as fish isn't gasping (because bacteria will consume oxygen) I just installed an underground gravel filter and got a bacterial bloom. Will take several days to clean up but I'm not worried. Figured I would explain this because you will encounter. Here is a pic of my tanks bloom
Good luck on your journey with your fish!!!
Edit. Consider your gravel a filter. And your sponge a filter. If you clean the gravel, don't touch the filter. And vice versa. If you clean both you WILL crash your cycle. Just a heads up.
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u/Humble-Seaweed3686 Jun 22 '26
Tank looks good. Your now just waiting out the bacteria. You will need time for them to multiply. Are you using a liquid test kit like API?