cycling questions! help me please

[Charlitta]

hello! this is my first time doing cycling. the water parameters at first are PH 7.0, ammonia 0.25 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 20 ppm. I add 16 sinking pellets to the tank and after 24 hours the water parameters went to PH 7.6, ammonia 0.25 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrate 20 ppm. i don't know what happened but the ammonia levels didn't went up and the nitrate levels went up instead. also I have few plants in the tanks. should I do something else or should I just add more pellets? oh! and I used the freshwater master kit api. if anyone can help me, it will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Jennewt]

With live plants, the tank may already be partly cycled; the plants usually carry the beneficial bacteria that you want. In this case, it would make sense that nutrients are going directly into nitrate. I'm not sure why you have a trace of ammonia, could it be a misreading of the color on the test? Do you have another source of water (rainwater, for example) that you know for sure has zero ammonia? You can use that to compare the color.

 

[Calgarycoppers]

You cant get a high enough concentration of ammonia with only food pellets.

Its highly recommended to use pure ammonia liquid or ammonium chloride powder. both available on amazon generally.

HERE is my handout

 

[Charlitta]

With live plants, the tank may already be partly cycled; the plants usually carry the beneficial bacteria that you want. In this case, it would make sense that nutrients are going directly into nitrate. I'm not sure why you have a trace of ammonia, could it be a misreading of the color on the test? Do you have another source of water (rainwater, for example) that you know for sure has zero ammonia? You can use that to compare the color.

hello thank you for answering! I'll try to do that and compare the color.

 

[Charlitta]

You cant get a high enough concentration of ammonia with only food pellets.

Its highly recommended to use pure ammonia liquid or ammonium chloride powder. both available on amazon generally.

HERE is my handout

hii! thank you for the handout! I'll try to find those too!