Are plants eating my nitrates?

[Skeptical_Mutt]

Set up a 40b a week and a half ago. Added quickstart and filter media from one of our established tanks (been running almost 2 years). Added a few small fish to help with the ammonia to feed the bacteria from the filter media, and about 5 plants. Just tested our water today, and there's 0s across the board. So either the tank hasn't even begun cycling yet or the plants are eating the nitrates. Thoughts?

 

[jaylach]

After only 1.5 weeks I doubt that the tank has cycled yet even though established filter media was added. What is the actual tank size and the amount of filter media used? The reason that I'm asking the tank size is that you entered 40b which I assume was a typo. I'm guessing 40 gallons as the b and g keys are very close to each other.

Products such as Quick Start are not normally considered the best option as they don't really have the right bacteria.

Yes, plants will consume nitrates but I doubt that is the case. When cycling a tank you need to see nitrites before you will see nitrates.

 

[Skeptical_Mutt]

After only 1.5 weeks I doubt that the tank has cycled yet even though established filter media was added. What is the actual tank size and the amount of filter media used? The reason that I'm asking the tank size is that you entered 40b which I assume was a typo. I'm guessing 40 gallons as the b and g keys are very close to each other.

Products such as Quick Start are not normally considered the best option as they don't really have the right bacteria.

Yes, plants will consume nitrates but I doubt that is the case. When cycling a tank you need to see nitrites before you will see nitrates.

Sorry, 40b is 40g breeder. We used a mesh bagful of ceramic media that's been in our established tank for almost a year. In addition some of the plants came from an established tank, so likely had some bacteria on it.

We tested for nitrites, but unfortunately only today so I can't tell if it already had some and evened out or not.

How long should I expect to cycle with media from am established tank? I've read everything from instant (not really believable) to two weeks.

 

[jaylach]

Sorry, 40b is 40g breeder. We used a mesh bagful of ceramic media that's been in our established tank for almost a year. In addition some of the plants came from an established tank, so likely had some bacteria on it.

We tested for nitrites, but unfortunately only today so I can't tell if it already had some and evened out or not.

How long should I expect to cycle with media from am established tank? I've read everything from instant (not really believable) to two weeks.

No worries on the typo, I just wanted to make sure of the actual size so we could all be on the same page.

If the tank were actually cycled you would probably see some nitrates even with plants. Hard to say how long things will take as
a bagful of ceramics, does not really give an amount. Still I would not be surprised if the cycle process took up to a month. I trust that you did not clean the ceramics before putting in the new tank.

 

[seangee]

Do you have a pic of the tank? Enough plants and they will consume the ammonia - which means nitrates won't be created. This does not mean you need to remove the plants. Search the site for "silent cycle".

 

[Skeptical_Mutt]

No worries on the typo, I just wanted to make sure of the actual size so we could all be on the same page.

If the tank were actually cycled you would probably see some nitrates even with plants. Hard to say how long things will take as
a bagful of ceramics, does not really give an amount. Still I would not be surprised if the cycle process took up to a month. I trust that you did not clean the ceramics before putting in the new tank.

I did not clean the ceramics lol. They went straight from the established tank to the new tank still dripping wet from the filter.

 

[Essjay]

Plants need nitrogen and aquatic plants get this from ammonia. They turn ammonia into protein rather than nitrite so there's no nitrite to turn into nitrate. You have just a few fish so it is quite possible you have enough plants to take up all the ammonia those few fish make.

If the tank you took the media from is heavily planted, it is possible there are virtually no bacteria on the media. This happened to me when I used media from a planted tank to set up a quarantine tank. I added ammonia to test if it could support some fish before I went shopping only to end up doing a full fishless cycle before the QT was ready.

 

[Skeptical_Mutt]

Do you have a pic of the tank? Enough plants and they will consume the ammonia - which means nitrates won't be created. This does not mean you need to remove the plants. Search the site for "silent cycle".

I read the post about silent cycling. That's partially why I was wondering if my tank had in fact cycled or at least partway. I attached a pic. There's 5 plants in there, but they're not fully grown.

 

[Skeptical_Mutt]

Plants need nitrogen and aquatic plants get this from ammonia. They turn ammonia into protein rather than nitrite so there's no nitrite to turn into nitrate. You have just a few fish so it is quite possible you have enough plants to take up all the ammonia those few fish make.

If the tank you took the media from is heavily planted, it is possible there are virtually no bacteria on the media. This happened to me when I used media from a planted tank to set up a quarantine tank. I added ammonia to test if it could support some fish before I went shopping only to end up doing a full fishless cycle before the QT was ready.

There's only plastic plants in the tank we took from. And about 7 big fish (5-6 in) and 5 small fish.

 

[seangee]

Assuming your tests are OK you would definitely see ammonia after 1 1/2 weeks. This would suggest that the system (i.e. filter + plants) are coping with the current bio load.
If it were me I would keep monitoring for a week or two and if the plants are actively growing and the readings stay at zero add some more fish. Not too many as it is not possible to say right now how much of the work is being done by the filter and how much by the plants so we have no idea what the tank can cope with.

Did the sponge filter also come from the established tank? Transplanting filters is quite effective.

 

[Skeptical_Mutt]

Assuming your tests are OK you would definitely see ammonia after 1 1/2 weeks. This would suggest that the system (i.e. filter + plants) are coping with the current bio load.
If it were me I would keep monitoring for a week or two and if the plants are actively growing and the readings stay at zero add some more fish. Not too many as it is not possible to say right now how much of the work is being done by the filter and how much by the plants so we have no idea what the tank can cope with.

Did the sponge filter also come from the established tank? Transplanting filters is quite effective.

We don't have a sponge filter in there right now, but I have the sponges from my established shrimp tank I can put in there... it was planted though, so I'm not sure how much beneficial bacteria is on them.

I'll keep testing it every day or every other day. My thought was that we'd be seeing the beginning of the cycle already, with ammonia present.

 

[sharkweek178]

I read the post about silent cycling. That's partially why I was wondering if my tank had in fact cycled or at least partway. I attached a pic. There's 5 plants in there, but they're not fully grown.

None of those plants look like the kind of fast growing column feeders that would absorb enough ammonia to do a silent cycle. Nor are there enough of them for that.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Under the right process and with the right supplies one can literally have a cycled tank immediately. I have done this a few times. I normally cycle filters as opposed to tanks and this takes me 10 days give or take.

Your tank is likely OK in terms of the cycle for the reasons mentioned in the above posts. Unless you are doing stringent laboratory research, you have no idea how much ammonia your five plants might consume in a day. You also have no idea exactly how much bacteria you moved into the tank. It could have been more than you needed let alone having the plants as well, or it could have been less than needed.

The only way to know if a tank is cycled properly is to add an ammonia dose and then test. This is not possible in a tank which contains fish. But the way to know where such a tank stand in term of handing ammonia etc. is the same. you test.

Cycling is a process which starts with ammonia and ends with nitrate unless one also develops denitrification processes as well. So, if you read no ammonia, no nitrite and then no nitrate only two things are possible- the tank is not yet begun to cycle or else it is cycled. In some tanks we can add the ammonia to start the cycle and we can test for at least that if not nitrite and nitrate.

Bear in mind that when one seeds viable bacteria you are sedding two types of nitrifiers- the ones for ammonia and the ones for nitrite. If you add enough to handle the ammonia being produce, then you have also added enough for the nitrite the ammonia ones produce and all you may ever see is nitrate. Add in some plants and if they cannot get enough ammonia and there is nitrate available, they will use that.

The problem is given all the different species of plants which consume ammonium at different rates and the impossibility of counting the exact numbers for the bacteria, there is now ay to know exactly what the "cycling" capacity of a tank is until we either test using an ammonia dose or if we stock slowly, if any ammonia appears. We do not know exactly what the capacity to process nitrogen is unless we test. You have rested and your numbers are 0s and you have fish and, I assume food, in the fanl and no ammonia nitrite and nitrate- so you must be cycled for the fish load.

Time is not the most important factor in cycling, the amount of and types of bacteria and live plants which are present when one begins a cycle which matters the most. That is why it is possible to do an instant cycle.