Totally amazed at how fast this system cycled! I have become a total believer in seeding a new system with a bit of old media and crud backwashed from existing filters!

I added 4 to 5 pounds of locally caught sunfish to the system last Friday. Ammonia shot sky high and remained high for several days, (well above 8ppm) but had dropped to zero by two mornings ago (5 days). Meanwhile, nitrites also shot sky high. As of last night, they were still very high. We had a cold snap last night and the water temps in this system dropped to 49F. I expected a bacterial slowdown and expected my water tests this morning to show still high nitrites and perhaps even a slight spike in ammonia. I was truly amazed to see zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and complete conversion of nitrites to nitrates (now sky high - as expected).

This photo shows this morning's test results. Left to right ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. The purple test tube at the top was the nitrite test from 6pm last night.