# 5 week old tank?



## zebra 1 (Jul 24, 2008)

I started a 23 gallon hex tank a little over 4 weeks ago. I put 4 black skirt tetras in the tank to cycle it. The fish are doing quite well so far and the water is crystal clear  . The tank however doesn't show any indication of cycling through the various stages  . Never saw any nitrites, or nitrates using the API liquid test kit. The ammonia seems to stay around 1ppm . I did two surface water changes 10% (did not vacuum the gravel). Shouldn't the cycle be noticably moving along at this point? I've had many different answers so far . The LFS said add another fish or two to increase the load get the bio filter going! The salesman in the same store said don't add any more fish untill the ammonia goes down  . They both said don't do a water change yet  ! On and on with so many different answers to mention a few. Any and all advice is appreciated.


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## aconrad (Apr 30, 2008)

Id say water changes arent the best idea if you havent had any nitrates or nitrites and thats probly because black skirts put so little waste out. I started a tank very quickly with 4 dojo loaches they seem to work pretty well for me, yes it shouldve cycled already even though those tetras arent very waste producing they shouldve got it started thats very strange.


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