Helping Out A Mate

[Gruntle]

HI all,
 
A friend of mine is about to set up his new aquarium, having been out of the game for a while with young children. He will have a custom tank delivered in a fortnight, but already has all of the other accessories (stand, lights, heaters, filters etc). I don't know what size tank yet, at this point I don't think it matters.
 
I have strongly recommended (repeatedly. And then a few times more. And may have suggested it again a bit later, and will do so again tonight) he read the fishless cycle article until he knows it backwards, and have offered as much help as I can, specifically giving him my remnant ammonia, and pre-cycling his filter material, and then being on hand for any questions/disasters (just kidding, I hope to hammer him so he doesn't make any of my mistakes).
 
To assist, I have asked him to bring me his filter media and I'm going to try putting as much into my canister as I can, in the hope that a couple of weeks will help seed the media, and when he is set up, I will swap him 1/3 of my media, plus the rest of his own media after the swap.
 
He has a Fluval FX6, I have an Aquis 1000 (with some space).
 
My plan is to dump in as much of his ceramics as I can fit (may even use the bottom space in the filter for the rest), see if his sponges fit inside and see if they can go in somewhere, and see what other media he has and try to concoct a plan.
 
I'm hoping that with a bit of time to start seeding, and some of my media, his cycle should kick-start and finish sooner than expected. 2 weeks isn't long, but I hope he can get an early kick-along.
 
Are there any other options, should I make sure my filter doesn't get overpacked (are there any warning signs for this)? Is there another option I haven't considered?
 
I'm also hoping to talk him into taking a few of my Mystery Snail offspring, I think I have about 40 babies and counting.
 
Thanks in anticipation!

Just confirming after he gets his tank, I'm going to make sure he completes a fishless cycle before putting any fish into the tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The plan looks good, just don't restrict the flow of water through the filter. If you notice a drastic drop off in flow out of the filter, then you have over stuffed.


You really won't get any more bacteria with the larger amount of media. The bacteria needed for your stock level is fairly steady, so your bacteria colony size will also be rather static. If I can make a suggestion that might actually increase the amount of bacteria available...


Remove 1/3 of your media as you plan, and place it in a smaller tank, container, etc. and adding about 2 ppm ammonia to that container every 2-3 days, plus circulating the water with a pump moving water over the media, you should be able to keep that bacteria viable for these two weeks, and force the bacteria in your filter to recolonize, and start to colonize your friend's new media, especially if the new media is the last thing for the water to hit in your filter.


But, if you have no spare pump, or a fairly large bucket, then just go with your plan and it will work fine.

 

[Gruntle]

HIs tank is going to be 516l. I have put his ceramics into my filter without issue (although space is now fairly limited).
 
When he's ready I'll give him back half his ceramics and an equivalent amount of mine, keeping the other half of his new ceramics for my canister.
 
He's also starting to roll his eyes when I tell him about the fishless cycle, but the message has gotten through.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Any update here? I like how you are sticking to your guns on making them do a fishless cycle!

 

[Gruntle]

He hasn't received his 500l tank yet, but has caught the bug really badly and bought a working (cycled and still running the day he picked it up) 70l tank. I reckon between the two tanks (what's in the 70l plus what I give him out of mine, including his media sitting in my canister) he'll have a good quantity of mature media to play with.
 
I'm still going to insist he go through the fishless cycle, but I think we can cut down the time quite significantly.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Most definitely.

Could be cycled in a week.

 

[Gruntle]

So it's day one for him. He has some of my mature ceramics, and some of his that have been sitting in my canister for the last month. I've asked him to diarise his results and keep me informed.

 

[Gruntle]

Okay, so his large tank is now cycled as per the fishless cycle method.
 
Problem is, he got all keen on me and bought a second-hand 70l tank to keep himself amused while he was waiting.  It was set up when he bought it, so he assumed it was cycled. Apart from the large amounts of fish he was adding (a couple dozen crimson-spot rainbows, some gudgeons, some blue-eyes, some hardiheads, a couple dozen glassfish), I am now having serious doubts as to whether it was actually cycled when he bought it.
 
When it's empty of fish, the tank reads zero on everything, including nitrates. As soon as he adds any fish to the tank, the nitrites spike to over 1ppm. Massive water changes, fish losses (trapped from a local watercourse so at least he's not spending lots of money), panic...
 
I want to suggest he forgets about fish for a while, puts everything into his 520l tank (which is cycled) and goes through a full fishless cycle on the small tank. I think this is the best course of action, he should be close to finished on his cycle, considering his ammonia readings are almost always below 0.25ppm.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'd agree... fish should be moved.  I think the tank was cycled but drastically overstocked from the sound of it... so it wasn't a matter of it not being cycled, but it wasn't cycled for that bioload.  
 
How many fish were in the 70L?  Sounds like more fish than I have in my 55G or in my 110G.

 

[Gruntle]

Since it's not my tank I can be honest, I'd say more than 50. Well overstocked, but he's planning on creating a "tank of carnage" in his big tank with Mouth Almighty and Bullrout (a freshwater stonefish) in abundance. At the moment his small tank is holding the prey for his big tank.
 
Mouth Almighty grows to about 6 inches and will predate on anything up to 4 inches. Bullrout is an ambush feeder that eats just about anything in range.
 
Our beliefs differ on what a fish tank should be, so I've left him to his stocking plan, and will only advise on water quality issues.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Uh... yeah.  I'd stick to discussing water quality - the rest is just...

 

[Gruntle]

He's a policeman. And a hunter. And...

 

[Ch4rlie]

Oh boy!

An interesting read! I had a mate who also needed help with his new tank, let's just say it did not go well! :x

Sounds like you did everything as I would have done.

Good on you for being a good mate and helping as much as you can

 

[Gruntle]

I've offered to lower his stock by taking the Pacific Blue-Eyes off his hands. If he can catch them, that is...