To be or not to be Cycled?

[TegSail]

My Biocube14 just had its first ammonia spike. It's been going since 5/13/2011. So does this mean i'ts cycled, almost cycled, or I just need to do a water change?



Distilled water vs RO water?

I lease a condo in the mountains. I'm about 2 hours from the closest LFS and I have not yet bought an R/O filter. My local grocer has RO water in 1 gallon jugs for $1.69. Distilled in 2.5 gallon jugs for $1.99.

Right now I have treated tap water with no clorine, chloramine, ammonia, nitrate, etc in my new 125g tank (completely empty besides substrate). I cant really afford to buy 125 gallons of R/O from the store or the transport cost from my LFS; or distilled water from the store so i plan on doing a 20gallon water change in my 125g tank and hope its enough of a mix to dilute any adverse things left in the tap water.

The treated tap water has been sitting in the empty tank since wednesday. I realize im not using the best water but i'm working with what I can acquire/afford; any advise to make it better?

 

[Bifferwine]

It means it's just starting to cycle. It may be a couple weeks before the cycle is complete.

You can use either distilled or RO water -- both are pure, just different methods of achieving that.

Starting up a tank with all bottled water is tough, and expensive. If you use a tap water conditioner (like Prime) and use tap water to start it, but then use distilled or RO water for water changes from then on out, the tap water will eventually get diluted out.

 

[Reef Nutz]

Agree with one exception, water conditioners make your skimmer go nuts.