Help Cycling My 29 Gallon Tank

[jay0884]

Hello I'm Jay and new to this forum. I just started a fishless cycle and looking for any info or advice or suggestions to have a smooth cycle. Here is some basic info. 29 gallon tank, completely setup, 2 filters a fluval 206 canister filter and a fluval aquaclear 70 hob power filter, using glofish black gravel, a fluval vueTech 200 watt heater, hydor koralia circulation pump to keep water agitated. I am using seachem prime to condition water. I setup my rank and added 4ppm of ammonia and cranked up the heater to 86 degrees. I set out some tap water and let it sit for 24 hrs and these were my start parameters. Gh 161.1, kh 125.3, ph was between 7.4 and 8.0 can never tell, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate all 0 in tap water. After I filled tank dechlorinated it and added ammonia and let it sit a couple hours these were my first readings. Gh 179, kh 125.3, ph about 8.0, ammonia 4, everything else 0. I used api liquid test kits for my readings. I also have 2 pieces of mopani wood to hopefully keep my ph stable as that tends to fluctuate a bit. Looking to keep a pair of german blue rams and a couple smaller community fish probably glofish tetras or danios. Is there anything I need to change or do? Thanks in advance.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

A few thoughts, 4 ppm is  high for ammonia, 2-3 ppm is preferable. Have a read here http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first
 
I also think your tank has way more filtration and current than it needs. I rund a couple of 29 gal. tanks. One has an AquaClear 50 and 20 on it. The fish in the tank are altum angels. The other tank has a pair of Poret foam Sponges and I had a spare AC 20 I parked on it recently, but it ran for a couple of year w/o the AC just fine. This tank is used to grow out L450 plecos.
 
The Fluval is 206 gph and that alone might be enough for your 29. Canisters tend to have more space for media but lower flow than power filters. The AC 70 is a 300 gph filter and again would be enough for the tank alone. However, I would be more inclined to run a pair of less powerful filters over the AC 70 from a current point of view. You may want to consider using the flow control on the 70 in the low flow setting to reduce the current. this will not impact the filtration capacity of the filter and may , in fact, increase it. I would give up the power head as it us absolutely not needed. It is possible to have too much current in a tank and I believe this is probably the case in your's.
 
The wood will do nothing to keep your pH stable. However, it may lower it some until all the tanins are gone.

 

[jay0884]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will probably take the hob filter off then since it is the one that makes the most noise I just wasn't sure if the canister alone was enough filtration. That sucks about the wood I thought I had read the wood would keep my ph down. I didn't know it was a temporary fix only. Might have to take that out as well since I don't really have room for it I just squeezed it in there because I thought my tank would benefit from it. And the only reason I have the circulation pump is because I thought of adding danios to the tank. I've had them before and they love to swim all over the tank. I thought the pump would at least make it feel like they had a little extra room or current to swim against. In any case I really appreciate the inf and link. Should help a ton.

 

[jay0884]

Well got quite a surprise today. Checked my water parameters and my ph was at 8.0, ammonia has dropped to between 1.0 and 2.0, nitrites jumped to between 2 and 5 and my nitrates were at about 20. I didnt understand how I had mived along this quickly then I remember I forgot to dump the water out of my hob until the last minute and then refilled it after a couple mins so I guess the bacteria was able to stay alive. My question now is where do I go from here?? Do I do a water change?? Should I redose my ammonia?? Or just wait?