Re: [GSAS-Member] Nitrogen Cycle - a slow start?

[Michael Staeb <mikeycpa@gmail.com>]

Roy,

I tried your suggestion as I am using API's Nitrate test solution that
is part of their master test kit (the kind with two bottles).  I did
another test last night with your recommendation of plenty of vigorous
shaking.  No such luck.  Nitrate is still reading 0.  Also, when I
went this morning to give my fish breakfast before I left for work,
one of my oto's had was lying on the bottom, upside down, deceased.
The other appeared to be fine and the danios are all just as active as
always.

Does anyone know about a way to tell if the tank is fully cycled w/o
using ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels to verify?  Meg's suggestion
(below) sounds like a possible explanation but with the death of a
hearty fish like an oto I'm a bit concerned now and hesitant to
introduce more less-hearty fish without knowing the water is
definitively safe.

Any suggestions?
-M-

----------------- From Meg -----------------
Perhaps the 0 nitrate reading is due to your plants using it up? If
there are only a handful of fish compared to the amount of water, you
might have a small concentration of nitrate that the plants are able
to keep up with.
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