70G Fishless Cycle

The HOT Magnum 250 is a poor biological filter by any measurement. It is very portable and I think it is intended to be only a particulate filter. Its filtration is either a thin sponge or a diatomaceous earth coating depending on which you set up. The Magnum 350 is a more conventional canister and can be used effectively to filter a large tank.
The cycle is proceeding almost as if you had not cloned your filter but had a decent bacterial content in your tap water to draw on. I would expect a typical cycle of that type to take 6 to 8 weeks. Don't worry too much about using 4 or 5 ppm until the very end of the process. Quite honestly, any measurable ammonia is enough to move your cycle forward. After all, you can only measure the part of the ammonia that the bacteria have not yet used, which means you are measuring the excess. At the last we run the concentration of the dose up to 4 or 5 ppm to ensure we can move a lot of ammonia through the system in a day. That means we have a bacterial population that will support lots of fish.
 
I think I may have confused you guys somewhat with my filtration methods. I do have a HOB filter. It's a whisper 30-60. Currently in the 30-60 there are sponges (aquaclear filter sponges) under the cermics. Those will stay there full time to be rinsed out (in old tank water) rotated every two weeks.

In the magnum is carbon and the blue sleeve thing that goes around the carbon container. Basically the Magnum is only really in use because it came with the tank and the boss wanted it used.

When cleaning the tank, I will take out the carbon and use the micron cartridge for a couple hours to clear the water back up.

I am looking at getting a larger HOB filter and transferring media (and adding more) or perhaps two HOBs later on. Should I use the bio-balls when I do add more? Again though, I'm leaving the sponges in which is what the aquaclear filter runs on anyway.

Today my ammonia was less than.25ppm so I have gone ahead and bumped up my ammonia to 4-5ppm again.

**EDIT**
When I added the media from another tank...

I had put in more media in my filters at home to hopefully seed it for this purpose. I don't think I left it in long enough so it was probably a waste of time. Oh well it was worth a shot and we are not in too big a hurry just yet!
 
You are developing some bacteria in both of your filters. The HOB is not big enough to operate that tank with any confidence by itself. The 350 is running with about the same junk media as my HOT Magnum but it will develop enough of a bacterial colony in the thin sponge to support that tank when combined with the HOB filter. In the end you would be better off with a large AC HOB or even with a true canister.
 
What would happen if you were to put biological media around the carbon filter in the magnum? Has anyone ever tried that? Not that it really matters I can get some larger HOB filters. It isn't going to be a heavily stocked tank so I have time.

Today's numbers are (tested 9am)
Ammonia very close to 0
Nitrates close to 80
nitrites between .25 and .50
 
Has carbon doesn't last more than a few days anyway,i would take out the carbon and replace it with mature media :)
 
With the Magnum there is tons of space around the carbon container that the water squirls around. Is it useless space?

(9:40am)Added 10ml ammonia will test in a few minutes.
 
The way the magnum filters work, water flows into that outer chamber and then moves inward toward the tube that runs down the filter's center. From there it is pumped back to the tank. The space around the outside of the sponge allows the water to be well distributed so that it can flow evenly through the entire sponge filter. I would not call it wasted space but it is space that you cannot use to hold media.
 
Ok that makes sense.

This mornings numbers at 8:10am
Ammonia 0
Nitrates somewhere between 80 and 160
Nitrites 0

Yesterday there were nitrites. Do they just disappear? That doesn't seem right.
 
Hiya Shelby,

Yes the aim is to get no ammonia or nitrite readings, just the last by-product left aka Nitrate

Easiest way to visulize things

Bugs eat/convert ammonia to nitrite, then other nice harmless bugs eat/convert nitrite to nitrate

In a planted tank some of the nitrate is absorbed as a fert (unless you have lots of plant knowledge etc there will still be excess nitrates to be removed

Excess to keep nitrates low = weekly 10% etc water change (search for safe limits, though opinions vary wildly)

Easiest way i can explain so hopefully it makes sense

Once you know for sure a tank's cycled you will find you soon become a master at knowing when you have any spikes/problems etc

You will become so familiar with your fish etc that they give you an early warning of problems (after a full cycle when you add fish, you will prolly get a quick bloom, that's the time all your beneficial bugs kick in to cope with the sudden onslaught of added ammonia (fish poop))

As long as you don't fully stock a tank in one go the bloom will be minor or negligable anyways

Hope this helps

Tony
 
Yep that helps. So accordingly, I should be able to add fish at the end of next week after a large water change to drop Nitrates.

Unless of course something goofy happens...lol
 
Hiya Shelby,

Yeah i think they call it the qualifying week, kinda a period to deffo make sure the cycles done

And as for fish, take your time and add few at a time (best search on specific species for best amounts to add at a time)

Happy your cycles about done :)

Tony
 
Yes, during the qualification week you keep dosing 5ppm ammonia each day, once per 24 hours at the same hour out of the 24 (assuming ammonia has dropped to zero ppm of course, during the previous 24 hours.) You test each day 12 hours after the tank was dosed. Both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) need to test at true zero ppm at 12 hours and of course this needs to keep happening for a week (or so.) This serves as a tough test of the biofilter being ready for a full stocking of fish and not doing anything bad hopefully.

Its possible but very rare to fully stock the tank right after the qualification week and the big water change. Most people have some species in their stocking plan that need the tank to mature more than just being cycled (for instance, neons need 6 months of tank maturity, regardless of the cycling status. Panda cories and GBRs are two others that need more time.) Even without sensitive fish, most people only stock at, say, 50 to 75% of their bioload on the first stocking and then they do slow adding or slow quarantining and adding after that (2 weeks wait between adds of 2 to 3 fish, that sort of idea.)

~~waterdrop~~
 
I'm definitely not doing a full stock right away. I haven't even begun to chose the exact fish we want yet. I need something fairly bright so I'm going to go with cichlids. Probably yellow and blue if I can find species that will go well together without too much fuss. I know they are all somewhat agressive so we will see.

I thought my Nitrates would go "off the chart". Mine haven't yet. So Nitrite is the bad one and nitrate is the ok one. I always get confused on that!

Another Ammonia at 0 test this morning. Going to test the rest now.
 
Nitrite not right

Nitrate tolerate

Just made that up but might help you ;)

Cichlid tank sounds very nice :)

Tony
 
@Defiance - haha I don't know why I didn't think of that! :lol:

I seem to have some odd white film slime stuff growing on the suction cups on the heater and on the air hose. Any idea what this might be? It's also on the inside of the magnum filter. Oh and how do I get rid of it?
 

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