240L - Fishless Cycling

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XAli1971

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Hello

Just got my new 240L tropical tank setup (uprading from a 90L)on Saturday

The aim is to get a planted tank populated with all the inhabitants of the 90l tank which is woefully overstocked 2 angelfish 2 botia loaches 2 kuhli loaches 2 or 3 ottocinclus, 2 algae eaters 9 neons , 1 Tiger Plecostomus, 2 small plecostomus , an increasing number of livebearers (from 6 to 12 in 3 month), two armourd shrimp, 2 nerite and an inderminate of assassin snails (5+), Red Cherry shrimp (14 at last count) and an ever increasing army of pond/pest snails. The tank is heavily planted, and keeping track of all its inhabitants has proven difficult, since I noticed that some fish just pass dissapear (I assume they died and were cleaned up/eaten by the snails/shrimp/other tankmates)

want to move the whole lot rehome the angels to get a shoal of 8 juvenile angelfish or 6 discus.


I'm trying my hand at fishless cycling. I found some household ammonia (9.5% Manufactured by barretine); added 10ml to get to a concentration of approx 4 to 5 ppm.

I'm also using JBL denitrol (10ml/day) and adding a knifetip of finely crushed fishfood , adding CO2 (liquid additive) daily, and some phosphate (0.1ppm) and plant ferts.

So far the tank contains 11 potted plants and a big piece of driftwood root (looks like a 90cm by 50cm lattice of root and some smaller mopani wood

The filter is seeded using the sponges from my first tank.

So far it's day 2.

NH3/NH4 = +/- 4.9 ppm
NO2 = 0.1<<x<0.2
NO3 not tested yet
PH in the 7 - 7.5 range


the odd thing is some white fluffy stuff is growing on the wood. I'm assuming it's some sort of fungus eating at the soft part of the wood but I'm trusting it'll clear up

Am I missing anything? Anything that will speed up the cycling for I need to have the fish moved and happy in their new home before July 5th.

Any input welcome

There's a ma
 
You don't need to go through a whole cycle; you already have media that is supporting the fish in your current tank so just put all of that in the new tank's filter and you can move the fish right away.

If you always think of the media as being paired with the fish, rather than the filter or the tank, it'll make it much easier for you :good:
 
You don't need to go through a whole cycle; you already have media that is supporting the fish in your current tank so just put all of that in the new tank's filter and you can move the fish right away.

If you always think of the media as being paired with the fish, rather than the filter or the tank, it'll make it much easier for you :good:

thanks for the tip

Didn't look at it that way. the guys at my LFS mentionned something like that provided I moved the water as well and only added a litle water at a time so as not to "shock" the bacterium in the media.

Guess now I need to reduce the the NH3/NH4 and NO2 to do that. 80% water change required... My RO unit is going to love that (20hours later)
 
Juist a quick update re the cycle

currently the biofilter is munching through +/-4ppm oh NH3/NH4 in 24 hours, so well on its way
NO2 is around the the 15ppm mark
NO3 is at 40 ppm
so I guess everything is well on its way, though I don't know if such high values for NO2 are normal or a brake on the cycle. Doing a large water change is impractical as it takes 6 hours to prepare 50L of water (40% tap, 60% RO)
Any ideas?
 
Finally, all there

IMG_0432.jpg
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