I have a feeling that you'll wake up tomorrow with a cycled tank Check it again and if ammonia is 0 (many see a false-positive of 0.25ppm btw) and nitrites are 0, you're done!

I'd certainly welcome a day late Christmas gift with a cycled tank...... Thanks for all yours and the others who have helped get me here !!!!

Personally, I think doing a water change that large was a bad idea. Yeah, it got it down and there is probably enough of the bacteria that has produced to handle .25ppm and it may have pushed the tank to the point that it appears to have cycled. The believers in the safestart stuff will probably believe it was that product that got you there, but the truth is you were so close already.

Im new here and in fact this is my first post, I tend to agree with jrman83. I don,t see the need for doing large water changes during the nitrogen cycle. I had fish tanks for over twenty years and I'm just starting to get back into them. We used to just put a couple of inexpensive fish in the tank to get the cycle going and just let it run it's course. All those peramiters are suppose to spike until the bacteria gets a foot hold. Its been a few years since I had a fish tank but that is how I remember it. I'm glad it worked out for you, but it seems like you did a lot of xtra work that could have been avoided. Just my opionion.

Your "luck" will change now that you got the plants in there. Just let them do their job.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden