Tank safe?

[WilBor]

Been cycling my tank for 3 weeks - 1 mo or so and the ammonia and nitrite spikes have both passed, now it stays at 0.25-0.50 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10-20 nitrate. My three little guys are in plastic containers atm and the way I added ammonia to the tank was that everytime I did a 100% water change on them I would dump their old waste water into the tank as an ammonia source. Are my readings normal for an almost finished cycle? Should I wait it out one more week or should I wait for ammonia to stay 0? I just did a water change yesterday and squeezed the sponge filter into the old tank water to clear debris.

 

[Luca1980]

Ammonia needs to be zero before you add your axies.

 

[Holly12]

It's not cycled yet.

To be cycled, ammonia should read 0ppm 24 hours after adding ammonia to 4ppm.

It can take 6-8 weeks to fully cycle a tank. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Don't add the axies until it's fully cycled or you will mess with the cycle because of all the water changes you will have to do to keep the axies alive.

 

[WilBor]

Will keep them in their plastic containers for now then! And I'll keep feeding the bacteria waste from when I do water changes on the plastic containers thank you