CYCLING 10 GALLON TANK, QUICK QUESTION....

[aquatic-Bizkut]

i am recieving a tank (10 gallon) tomorow with everything needed included for free, (heater, filter, air pump with ari stone, gravel, even backround)

and i need to set it up for my puffers, i currently have 2 dwarf puffers and need to put them in their own tank with possibly some more, this tank will be heavily planted with fake and real plants, and i need it to be completely cycled before i add them (the 2 puffers are really bitter, and are kiling my tiger barbs, they even killed a snail 6X their size!!!!!!!!!! )

so how should i do this, i know puffer breeders recomend putting bio spira in, and that automaticaly cycles your tank within 1 second or so, i would like to get that, but i would have to order it online and wait forever,

but a coworker said just put a dead fish (from our tanks at our store) in the tank for two days and take it out and let it cycle for one more day and then im done, will that work ( first two days with dead fish, third withought, then im done ?

please help and let me know what you recomend....

 

[tttnjfttt]

Since you already have the two fish, I would recomend using bio-spira if you can find it.

Option #2 would be to take some filter media from an establisehd tank and add it to your new filter.

Option #3 - do a fishelss cycle adding pure ammonia to your tank. There is a pinned article about this in the beginners section.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

um, no on adding dead fish. the best (easiest) thing to do is clone bacteria from your old tank.

have you got a filter on your current tank? take it and put it on the new puffer tank. put the new filter on your established tank.

the 10g will be fine b/c the old filter should have more than enough bacteria to handle just the two dp. the old tank will have a mini-cycle however so do frequent small water changes for ~2 weeks. fortunately, tiger barbs are pretty hardy, so they should make it ok while the new filter gets seeded.

at the end of the two weeks, swap filters again.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

ok well i was getting antsy, so i bought bio spira, anyone use it before?..... i have heard it is freakin amazing, and it should be for 25$ bucks!!...... it is around 8$ for each treatment of 30 gallons, but shipping is killer, it is what gets ya, i spent around 15$ on 2 day shipping, want the bacteria cool and fresh..... and fast!....

so i spent 25$ on a 30 gallon treatment, i will use half of it, and refridgerate the rest..... thanks for all your help, when i get it setup if i remember where i put this thread i will post picks, or check out my journals.....

i really apreciate your help..... (one more question slash comment, is it possible to just trade filter cartridges, since they will fit..... or what do you mean by taking some of the bacteria from my 20 gal. into my 10 gal.....?!)

thanks for all your help!

 

[pica_nuttalli]

i really apreciate your help..... (one more question slash comment, is it possible to just trade filter cartridges, since they will fit..... or what do you mean by taking some of the bacteria from my 20 gal. into my 10 gal.....?!)

[snapback]860081[/snapback]​

that's perfect. even better than trading entire filters.

the beneficial bacteria responsible for the nitrogen cycle reside on every solid surface in your aquarium. but these bacteria need access to oxygen to survive, so the highest concentrations live in your filter where the moving water keeps them well-oxygenated. by moving the filter floss from an established aquarium to a new one, you are importing with it a large portion of the bacteria from the old aquarium.

its these beneficial bacteria that keep aquariums cycled and chemical levels controlled.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

thanks for all your help, i kinda pretty much know how the cycle goes, but i have purchased that biospira stuff and will be here by friday.... so i will have the tank set up and running and just pour it in

is it ok to have the filter running with the heater (kinda cycling withought bacteria in the tank) while i wait for it, and pour it in with the filter still going?? if the filter is going will it spread teh biospira or clog it up in the filter cartridge???

 

[playfulalliecat]

I agree with Pica on this one. We always either move filters or even just take the used filter medium and transfer it to the new filter when changing tanks. We use filter floss so that makes it easy to do this. Sometimes we also do a water change on the established tank and syphon it directly into the new tank.

That is the quickest way to cycle a tank and put fish in immediately.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

so how do you know when its fully cycled??...when all the levels are safe and the PH is stable 7.0?

 

[inflexion]

yup pretty much so but your ph is set to be 7 unless your water is good and/or your controlling it with ph chemicals

 

[pica_nuttalli]

its better and easier to just use the pH that comes out of your tap. that will reduce stressful pH fluctuations and just generally be better in the long run. think of it like this too: what if you have to do an emergency 100% water changes and suddenly you realize that you don't have a single drop of pH chemicals left? you're screwed if that happens. so just leave well enough alone and don't worry too much about pH.

for cycling you need these levels:
ammonia 0 ppm
nitrIte 0 ppm
nitrAte >20 ppm (controlled by water changes and plants)

 

[playfulalliecat]

Yeah the ph out of the tap is best. It is tough to keep the ph stable if you try to change it by using any kind of additive. This does more harm to the fish if it is constantly changing. Unless you buy wild caught fish (not usually available in the standard lfs and cost lots more!) the ph is not normally critical as the fish are already adapted to the general ph of your area. Most times your ph will be the same as your surrounding area.

As for knowing its cycled, you can run it for a while and then test the water. We just put the fish right in, maybe not the best way but it has never caused us a problem. In the past, I didn't worry about cycling and was just fine until I put in more than a couple of fish at the time. That is the main problems with an uncycled tank. Most people go out buy a tank and a tank load or more of fish at the same time. This overloads the ammonia in the water and causes major problems. I never had any problems starting out slow with a few fish and then adding to it little by little.

I have never used bio spira or any of those cycling type chemicals so can't really help you there.

Good luck!

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

so the chemicals that adjust PH up or down ( ''PH UP" "PH DOWN") those can harm your fish??!!! or what about the stuff that automatically adjusts it to ph 7 ??

 

[tttnjfttt]

Those chemicals are also bad. ANY chemical taht is sold to help adjust your pH can lead to wide swings in the pH. just leave it on the shelf. Your fish will adjust to your pH in 99% of the cases. Exactly what is your pH?

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

its higher up, i am gonna test it right now..........

(jeoperdy theme)

.......ok its
in my 20 gal.

nitrate is around 15 (between 0-20)
nitrite is between 1.0 and 3.0 (how do i lower this??)
hardness is 75 (soft)
alkalinity is is around 200-250
ph is 7.8 around there, which is ok

wow those arent great readings any help how do i lower them down withought chemicals, or what are good chemicals?

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

ok and my 25 gallon is:

nitrate -20
nitrite -.4
hardness -25
alkalinity -300
ph -8.1