Arrrggghhhh What's Cycling, New Tank And I've Already Got Fish

[Torchwood~Mindfreak]

I'm in the first couple days of cycling my tank and the ammonia is high should I do the water change or leave it for the bacteria?

 

[waterdrop]

I'm in the first couple days of cycling my tank and the ammonia is high should I do the water change or leave it for the bacteria?

If you're saying that you're fishless cycling then yes, you should change some water if you've accidently dosed your tank too high. At about 7-8ppm the wrong species of autotrophic bacteria is encouraged and can cause a setback if it ourgrows the species we want. You want to try and get it at about 4-5ppm for the dosing in the first phase, prior to the nitrite spike.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Torchwood~Mindfreak]

I'm in the first couple days of cycling my tank and the ammonia is high should I do the water change or leave it for the bacteria?

If you're saying that you're fishless cycling then yes, you should change some water if you've accidently dosed your tank too high. At about 7-8ppm the wrong species of autotrophic bacteria is encouraged and can cause a setback if it ourgrows the species we want. You want to try and get it at about 4-5ppm for the dosing in the first phase, prior to the nitrite spike.

~~waterdrop~~

No I'm doing a fish in cycle thanks though

 

[waterdrop]

Oh, no then, totally different. You don't want ammonia to go above 0.25ppm if you can at all help it. You can't afford to worry about the bacteria in a Fish-In situation, you have to let them fend for themselves, so you have a lot less control to optimize anything in regards to the bacteria. The goal in Fish-In is to figure out through trial and error what percentage and frequency of gravel-clean-water-changes (using a gravel cleaner siphon and always using good water changing technique with good conditioner and rough temp matching) will keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) below 0.25ppm before you can be back (usually people work on a 12 hour testing schedule) and re-test and potentially change water again. The test results must be coming from a good liquid-reagent based test kit, not paper strips. Its usually a lot harder work than a fishless cycle but if you matched the bioload (number and size of fish to tank volume) well, then its not as hard as when you've overloaded. There is a Fish-In article written by rabbut in the BRC.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[MattTheWaterLover]

Thanks for the post Miss Wiggle! I am coming back to aquariums after a 17 year hiatus. Back then I never heard about any of this (of course I was 13), and was constantly frustrated by dying fish. This time I intend to do it right, and your information will be very helpful.

 

[Brujo]

ive used ammo lock, before,i wouldnt recomend it, i was using ammo lock for 2 weeks, to avoid doing daily water changes, i was trying to dd just enought to bring the level down to not so toxic levels, i was told in my lfs by the only person that actually is in charge of the aquarium department , how actually give good advice, that ammo lock is not good, it does work it does reduce the level of ammonia , but that its just a quik fix and better to be used for a sudden ammonia spike in an establishe aquarium that an aquarium that needs to cycle.

i was told to check ammonia daily, and do water changes to lower it, i was doing 10% water changes daily, i was advices to lower the ammonia to 2ppm or 3 ppm until it started lowering by it self, then keep an eye on the nitrites, with nitrites i was doing 2 10% water changes a day, since it would climb rather quickly after the first water change, once the nitrites reached 0 and the nitrates started to rise, only have to do, currently my 3.4 gallong tank i do a 1 litre water change a week, i leave my nitrates at 10ppm for the plants, nitrates are around 30ppm when i do water changes

 

[BusyMumof5]

THANK YOU so much!

 

[Aqua Tom]

ive used ammo lock, before,i wouldnt recomend it, i was using ammo lock for 2 weeks, to avoid doing daily water changes, i was trying to dd just enought to bring the level down to not so toxic levels, i was told in my lfs by the only person that actually is in charge of the aquarium department , how actually give good advice, that ammo lock is not good, it does work it does reduce the level of ammonia , but that its just a quik fix and better to be used for a sudden ammonia spike in an establishe aquarium that an aquarium that needs to cycle.

i was told to check ammonia daily, and do water changes to lower it, i was doing 10% water changes daily, i was advices to lower the ammonia to 2ppm or 3 ppm until it started lowering by it self, then keep an eye on the nitrites, with nitrites i was doing 2 10% water changes a day, since it would climb rather quickly after the first water change, once the nitrites reached 0 and the nitrates started to rise, only have to do, currently my 3.4 gallong tank i do a 1 litre water change a week, i leave my nitrates at 10ppm for the plants, nitrates are around 30ppm when i do water changes

Was this advice given by your lfs?

 

[Shogunblue24]

Great info. It's given me a few good ideas about how I can best cycle my next tank with the help of my old one. Thanks muchly.

 

[shadow1200]

Thanks for writing this
Real good for new fish owner's like me
Thanks

 

[aura09]

awesome but exactly how long does it take for a biological filter to become mature? the answer in general is 36 days ammonia will be at its peak at day 9-10 at 5 mg/litre at day 13-14 levels will be 0.5mg/litre at witch the nitobacter bacteria start multiplying this rises to about 9.5 mg/litre on day 30 by day 36 nitrate should be the only thing left in the tank at about 0.5 mg/litre so this is why adding fish so soon is not good! in fact it can take up to 6 months to stablize! This nitrifcation process is also ph and temperture dependant, working at its most efficent at 7.5 ph and high temps say 86 degrees which is obv too high for most fishkeeping so at say 77 degress the bio filter will take about 2 to 6 weeks to develop nitrifying bacteria. at say 50 degrees it can take 4 to 8 weeks! obv you can speed this process by adding bacteria supplementor by adding mature media from another tank.AND THIS IS WHY ITS NOT ADVISIBLE TO STOCK YOUR TANK RIGHT AWAY! gradually do this over a period of time to allow the bacteria to increase in step so that they can cope with the escalating quantites of waste products. as a guide just add a couple of fish initially and monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels closley , wait 2- 3 weeks before adding more fish. and if high ammonia or nitrite reading is obtained preform a up to a 50 percent water change immediatly. undertake more water changed as nessasary to keep the levels in check!

 

[Unknown10101]

I was reading this and I was wondering, what's the point of establishing all these bacteria when you can add that Ammonia Remover stuff? Is that even effective? Does it work? I've been wanting to set up another tank and I was wondering if you could use that stuff instead of going through the trouble of adding all this bacteria? Also, what about the SafeStart chemicals.?

 

[Tolak]

Problem is, it doesn't remove ammonia, it converts it to ammonium, which is harmless to fish at levels found in a cycling aquarium. The ammonium is used the same as ammonia by your nitrifying bacteria, producing nitrite. That is where the problem lies, you may not see an ammonia problem, but you will see a nitrite problem.

The products sold for instantly cycling aquariums do not work. You will be hard pressed to find any peer reviewed scientific documentation stating that they do. Bacteria are living organisms, and need a food source, in a cycled aquarium that food is ammonia and nitrite. There is no food source being sealed in a bottle for any length of time.

If you have an existing mature tank, you can clone another tank off of it. This works off of the principle of the ability of a mature colony of nitrifying bacteria being capable of doubling every 24 hours. Take some mature bio media, no more than 1/3 from a tank, guesstimate the stocking of the donor tank, and stock the new tank no more than 1/3 of that.

It helps to fast the donor tank for 24 hours before pulling media, as well as the new tank for 24 hours after setting up. Less food means less waste produced, giving the bacteria a chance to catch up. I usually feed both tanks lightly for the next week as an added precaution.

Knowing how this works makes it easy to set up or take down tanks as needed, this is common with breeders, importers, or folks who order in fish for sales. Most just run extra sponge filters, and pull them as needed.

 

[Crazycat lady]

Have I made a big boo boo?

I needed an emergency nano tank for some fry and couple of small fish. So I got a 20l. I
Filled it with 12l of water from my main tank and 8l dechlorinated tap water.

Since the emergency was an overstocked main tank I had been running 2 filters in it (60l tank
With 2 fluval filters) both filters well matured!

So I put one filter in my new nano with all the friendly bacteria in tow.

Then put some tetras in for a few days! They were happy so my fry are in there now. I lost a fry today
Got an api test kit n my amonia,rite/rate levels are well within parameters.

Have I been bad?? Or just subject to natural selection?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

As I understand it a lot of fry die for seemingly no reason. Fry can be difficult to raise.