Fishless Cycle And Seeding- Advice Needed

[Fishiki]

Hi everyone

This is my first post and I'm new to fishless cycling.

I've done a lot of reading and have been cycling a 15L Baby Biorb (i now know they have bad press!) for the past few weeks using the 'add ammonia daily' method. I scrounged some gravel from a friends healthy goldfish tank which I placed in an old stocking and dropped into the bowl to help seed the tank and all seems to be going well. The ammonia & nitrites have peaked and are well on their way to zero - I'm hoping to be done in a few more days.

When is the best time to take out the stocking full of gravel? Will this impair progress with bacteria growth? The stones are too fine to be left in the tank without blocking the system. Do I need to up the ammonia levels again to compensate?

Also, the tank is looking a bit grubby - lots of brown algae on the plastic plants and ceramic media and what looks like specks of ash floating around. The water is pretty clear. Do I need to do anything about this now?

I'm planning to put two small comets or similar in this tank (no heater). Would a tank this size benefit from live plants as well or will that 'overload' the ammonia levels? If I do add plants, when should I do this?

Many thanks, Fishiki

 

[Corleone]

Hi everyone

This is my first post and I'm new to fishless cycling.

I've done a lot of reading and have been cycling a 15L Baby Biorb (i now know they have bad press!) for the past few weeks using the 'add ammonia daily' method. I scrounged some gravel from a friends healthy goldfish tank which I placed in an old stocking and dropped into the bowl to help seed the tank and all seems to be going well. The ammonia & nitrites have peaked and are well on their way to zero - I'm hoping to be done in a few more days.

When is the best time to take out the stocking full of gravel? Will this impair progress with bacteria growth? The stones are too fine to be left in the tank without blocking the system. Do I need to up the ammonia levels again to compensate?

Once the cycle is done, you can take the stocking out. Continue the cycle, just to be sure - the gravel may have been a necessary part of the filter when it first completed.

Also, the tank is looking a bit grubby - lots of brown algae on the plastic plants and ceramic media and what looks like specks of ash floating around. The water is pretty clear. Do I need to do anything about this now?

It depends on what the "ash" is, but brown algae is harmless and easy to remove. The ash can be sucked up during a water change if possible.

I'm planning to put two small comets or similar in this tank (no heater). Would a tank this size benefit from live plants as well or will that 'overload' the ammonia levels? If I do add plants, when should I do this?

Many thanks, Fishiki

Healthy plants take in ammonia, not give it off. Some small plants (bacopa, crypts) would be great - add them immediately.

However, comets are vastly oversized for the biorb- they reach 18 inches, potentially more. Fancy goldfish are smaller, but still need around a 20 gallon tank. If you want coldwater fish, I'd suggest rosey minnows and/or white cloud minnows.

 

[Fishiki]

Hi there, thanks for the comments.

How do I determine what the ash like stuff actually is?

I just thought that live plants could leave debris and add to ammonia, so if thats not the case, Ill get a couple of small ones and perhaps ditch the grubby plastic ones for now.

My lfs suggested various goldfish which I now know is a no-go in a 15L tank. I guess they did this because they don't stock minnows. I've been having trouble finding them locally (north London) but will look into it.

Thanks again for the help.

Fishiki

 

[waterdrop]

The ash-looking stuff is probably just biofilm, extremely common for it to look like this in new tanks. For now, since your whole new system is fragile, just leave it. It will either go away gradually or you can clean it up later when your filter is more robust and you are cleaning away algae anyway.

[In your tank water there are "heterotrophic" bacteria that break down waste into ammonia. These are not the same as the two species of beneficial bacteria we desire from cycling that grow more slowly in the filter media. These heterotrophs and other bacteria form "biofilms" on all underwater surfaces. Overall its a good thing, but its not something you need to worry about preserving or anything like that after your tank is stable and mature.]

I agree with Corleone, the goldfish won't work. Glad to hear you dropped that plan.

The test for the end of fishless cycling is if you put in your 4-5ppm ammonia and then both ammonia and nitrite have dropped to zero in under 12 hours. When you reach that milestone, its good to keep adding ammonia and watching it do this over and over for one more agonizing week to make sure it hasn't tricked you. Its at the beginning of that week I'd recommend taking out the sock of mature gravel. That way you'll still be testing and watching anyway and you'll know if your cycle was depending on it (hopefully and most likely not.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Fishiki]

Hi thanks for the posts so far.

Whats the best way to get rid of the brown algae in this delicate situation?

Cheers, Fishiki

 

[waterdrop]

Keeping algae low can be a difficult skill to learn (to many beginners surprise) and I can only throw out some starting points to you. Calculate your light. If you don't have live plants then minimize the bright light periods to times when you'll be viewing the tank. If you have live plants the keep your light between 1.0 and 2.0 watts per US gallon, preferably closer to 1 I would think. A "siesta" without light in the middle of the day, such that you're left with only 8 or 10 hours of light total can help, by using timers. More plants ("easy" plants like java ferns for instance) can help. Often tanks with 70% substrate planted will not have algae. Unfortunately, the real skill of a well planted tank with little algae seems to a matter of keeping a high steady CO2 level and not having it fluctuate, keeping a good level of fertilization and not having short ammonia spikes (which unfortunately can be caused by gravel cleanings.)

So my own conclusion (readily admit I haven't mastered it myself!) is that beginners should be prepared to clean algae off their glass and plants during the regular maintence sessions where the gravel is cleaned, and work on reading about algae in the planted section and elsewhere.

~~waterdrop~~