Arrrgggg.. I Just Finished.

[wildechild_01]

Okay, so for those of you who didn't know i was unintentionally running a fish in cycle on a 14 Gallon Bio Cube, and had finally gotten to the point where levels were settling down, well lucky me i get home from work yesterday and the pump had gone in the Bio Cube , since it was only a little over a month old i called up my LFS and they said if i brought it in they would exchange the entire set up or give me store credit, so into a pail went my fish and off to the store. I came home with a GeoSystem Kit 60... 31 gallon tank and a Fluval 205 Filter all in all i am much happier with this set up as it provides a lot more room for more fishies, but i wont be adding any more for at least a few weeks..

okay so question time... Obviously i am going to be keeping an eye on Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels, but was hoping that given the size of the tank, and its rather sparse population of 4 tiger barbs and 2 Polka Dot Loaches, i may not need as many water changes as the filter should be able to catch on quite quickly . I was unable to save my filter media from the Bio Cube as the LFS insisted on getting EVERYTHING back so a little frustrated at in Fish Cycling again but if its what needs to be done then so be it.

*side note, with decorations and such, my 14 gallon Bio Cube actually only had about 7 or 8 gallons of liveable space, rest was filter area. so it was pretty small and way to full*

 

[daveyravey]

I'd still have kept a hold of the foams out the pump & thrown them into the pail as well.

If they actually looked for them, you could've just pleaded ignorance. ...... foams, what foams ?

 

[OldMan47]

You are now on day 1 of your fish-in cycle WildeChild. It may be a bit less stressful for you and the fish since they will have more water to dilute their wastes and thus you will see lower ammonia and nitrite levels to deal with. The cycle will take just as long as last time because you always have enough ammonia in a tank, if you have any fish, to cycle the tank. Water changes do not delay the cycle time so expect it to be about the same time. If you still have the decor, and it did not dry out, you do have some seeding that will happen with the decor providing a small sample of the right bacteria that can grow in the tank. That could actually shorten the time quite a bit.
Be aware that less frequent water changes does not mean less water. A 50% water change now is going to be a lot more water than a 50% change on your tiny tank was. That sort of balances against doing the changes less often.

 

[wildechild_01]

Thanks oldman47, yes a 50% change is going to be a lot bigger but if it means they are less often thats okay, it is hard to do more than 1 change a day given work schedules and such. I do have my orriginal decorations being 1 fake tree stump, 2 medium sized pieces of drift wood and 3 live plants, i guess i will just have to continue my diligence on from before... but at least i know what i am up against this time.

 

[wildechild_01]

Okay, so unfortunately work called me out of town for 3 days, 2 nights.. i did 2 back to back 50% water changes just before i left taking ammonia and nitrite to 0ppm, tthen today when i got home all my fish were super active, and have bright vibrant colours, (the one loach was looking a little rough before) so i did an H20 test and levels are still at zero... i had the old decorations and plants (wih a little sand) to seed the filter but this still seems really fast.... if levels still read 0ppm in the morning i might just head to LFS and get some tank buddies for my Tiger Barbs... What do you guys think?

 

[OldMan47]

I would give it a few days before declaring success Wildechild. It may just not have been long enough to see the build in tank chemicals yet. Rather than get yourself into the same predicament that you had with the smaller tank, wait a few days to be certain that all is OK.