Cycling A Tank Quickly?

[duplosion]

I have an established 55 gallon tank.
 
Last weekend, we gave my son a 37 gallon tank for his birthday (to keep in his bedroom). Like most 8 year old kids, he's a little impatient and is really excited to put some fish in it.
 
I gave him one of the filter pads from my aquarium to help get him started. I also gave him a piece of fake coral I've had in my tank, as well as a couple pounds of my substrate (I just put it on top of his new substrate -- not sure if that's the best way to go).
 
I haven't been adding any ammonia sources, because the ammonia has been reading between 1-4 ever since I put the water in (last Sunday).
 
Is there anything else I can do to speed things up for him?
 
Thanks!
 
Kevin
 

 

[the_lock_man]

Just wanting to check - your ammonia readings of between 1 and 4 - I'm assuming this is measured in parts per million (ppm) - are there any fish in this tank? If not, I want to know why you are seeing ammonia.
 
Definitely don't put any fish in there at the moment (or any more if there are fish already).
 
You can take up to a third of your filter media, and put it in the new filter, and this will transfer a lot of bacteria. The ornament and the substrate will help too, but I have found that filter media is what does the trick better. Use the brand new filter media which came with the new filter to put in your 55g's filter to replace what you have taken out. This way your existing bacteria can re-establish themselves very quickly.
 
THen use the rest of the new media to fill up the new filter.
 
What you need to do, though, is to figure out where that ammonia is coming from - if the tank has no fish, there should be no ammonia. What are you using to test with - paper or liquid tests?

 

[duplosion]

I've been wondering about the ammonia too.
 
I'm using the API liquid test kit. 1-4 is ppm.
 
There aren't any fish in the aquarium at all (and there haven't been), but the ammonia readings have been there since I added water to the tank (or at least, within a few hours of adding water). Prime is the only thing I've added to the water.
 
In addition to the substrate, all that's in the tank is the ornament I gave him, a piece of driftwood (new), and a piece of rock with some tunnel-like holes in it. I'm not 100% sure what type of rock it is. Possibly limestone.
 
Should I empty the tank and start over with new water?

 

[duplosion]

I was also wondering:

I have to do a water change on the 55g this weekend. Would it be worthwhile adding the water I remove to the new tank? Or a waste of time?

 

[attibones]

The water you remove from the larger tank would not have very much bacteria in it.

Test your water stats in the large tank before your water change. If you already put water from the larger tank into your kid's tank, you might have an issue in your tank too.

I would recommend Dr. Tim's One and Only if you want to quickly cycle a tank. I've used it several times with great success. Or you could seriously plant the tank.

 

[duplosion]

The water in the large tank is fine (I just did the weekly test last night). 
 
I haven't added any water from the large tank to the small one. The water in the small one was straight from the hose.
 
I'll take a look at the Dr. Tim's product. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[Byron]

Have you tested your tap water alone for ammonia?  And it is advisable to test it for nitrite and nitrate as well.
 
I agree with others on the questions.  Moving water from one tank to another is not advisable, as you will gain no benefit.  Nitrifying bacteria live on surfaces, and there are very few if any in the water column.  Plus there is always the risk of transferring stuff you do not want in a new tank.
 
And I also second the Dr. Tim's One and Only.  This will instantly cycle a tank, according to Dr. Tim Hovanec, and no one has yet proven this wrong scientifically, so I would assume it holds.  And fast-growing (floating work well here) plants will help a lot, though not if they die off.
 
Byron.

 

[duplosion]

Well guys, I think I've figured it out.
 
We gave my son the aquarium last Friday. We didn't add substrate or water or anything until Saturday afternoon.
 
This is what I just pieced together:
 
Last Saturday morning, my son told me excitedly that he'd cleaned the tank. I didn't think anything of it. I asked him if he used a paper towel to do it, and he said yeah, and I said cool -- that's great you're taking care of your new tank.
 
Tonight, I was puzzled with this ammonia situation, when a light bulb went off.
 
I asked my son how he cleaned the tank last Saturday. With Windex, Goo Gone, and something else. To get rid of the finger prints.
 
All I could do was laugh.
 
So that's that. An honest mistake from an excited kid.
 
Now...what do I do? lol

 

[attibones]

Drain the tank. Rinse it really well with white vinegar. Rinse several more times with water. Add new substrate and fresh water. I wouldn't use any of the current substrate or filter media if he put those chemicals into the tank.
 
Windex is mostly ammonia, so there would be your culprit. However, it has dyes which make it unsafe for aquarium use. Goo Gone has loads of stuff you don't want in a tank (obviously), but it also has some sort of oily stuff which might stay trapped in your filter media, which is why I think you ought to just replace everything in it. 
 
Once you've got the tank cleaned again, you can kick-start the cycle with Dr. Tim's. Just be sure to follow the instructions carefully.

 

[Byron]

I agree with attibones.

 

[duplosion]

Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. I'll do as you suggest. Looks like I have a nice Saturday afternoon project ahead of me...

 

[attibones]

Yes, but it will totally be worth it.

And at least your kid didn't do what my sister's boyfriend's kid did to my tank. She went into my fish room and dumped a bunch of zip ties, nails, and fish food into my poor betta's tank. My step-brother also dunked his soapy hands in my gourami tank once and killed my fish, so could have been worse. At least nothing was living in it yet.

 

[duplosion]

A few hours later, and I've got things setup.
 
We drained all the water (siphoned it out a second story window, which was kind of fun) and removed all ornaments and substrate. The water was a funky color. I couldn't see it when it was in the aquarium, but when I drained a little into a bucket to look at it, it definitely had a small amount of pink / orange coloration to it.
 
The old substrate was thrown out, and the ornaments were thoroughly rinsed.
 
We took the empty aquarium outside, rubbed a small amount of white vinegar over the inside glass, and rinsed it out with the hose 15 times (excessive? Probably. But I don't want to do this again haha).
 
Everything is set back up now, and the water reads 1.0 ppm (which is the same as our tap water).
 
Hopefully things continue on a good path.
 
Thanks again to everyone for your help. I definitely didn't know the rabbit hole I was about to go down when I started this thread

 

[duplosion]

Sorry about your fish, attibones -- that's an awful story. 

 

[Byron]

Sounds good.  Now, on that ammonia in the tap water...this has to be dealt with.
 
Ammonia is a by-product of all aerobic metabolisms—fish, snails, invertebrates, fungi and bacteria; it naturally occurs from continuous biological processes and living organisms in any aquarium, and even at very low levels this ammonia is very highly toxic to all life.   At levels between 0.5 and 1 ppm there can be long-term or permanent gill damage.  Ammonia is never healthy at levels that can be detected by our standard test kits, and in most cases will have negative effects on the fish. 
 
The pH has a bearing on the toxicity of ammonia.  Acidic water (pH below 7.0) causes an change of ions and ammonia becomes ammonium which is basically harmless.  The bacteria still use ammonium as ammonia.  But in basic water (pH above 7.0) ammonia remains toxic.
 
Obviously, ammonia oxidizing bacteria will colonize surfaces and handle ammonia from day to day.  Live plants also take it up readily as their preferred source of nitrogen, especially if they are fast-growing plants (floating are ideal for this).  The problem though is the initial influx of ammonia with a water change.  There are water conditioners that detoxify ammonia and most of them do this by changing it to ammonium.  I know that the detoxification of ammonia into ammonium with Prime is permanent.  And of course one can get filter media designed to detoxify ammonia, but I wouldn't bother with this if you use a conditioner that does the job.  The bacteria will easily catch up.
 
Byron.