Just Performed A Squeeze, What Next?

[garrym1983]

ive just performed a filter squeeze to hopefully speed up my fish in cycle. This was advised being as im in a fish in cycle, but i never really asked why. Obviously i know it will benefit the fish to get the cycle completed as quickly as possible, but wondered what the process will be now, in terms of what should i hopefully see happen next. Before the squeeze i registered for .2 ammonia 0 nitrites and 5 nitrate (beleived to already be in the tap water) what might i see happen now if the process is indeed sped up??

Thanks

 

[This Old Spouse]

This was advise by whom? You should actually take a chunk of the filter media to put into your filter. Did you squeeze the mature media directly onto your filter media? It may help some, but having an actual piece of mature media would help much more.

How are you testing? If your results are accurate you're doing well. Your ultimate goal is to have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and some nitrate, likely around 10-20 ppm. You should be using a liquid test kit for most accurate results.

 

[garrym1983]

a moderator on another forum, yes i squeezed into the filter, i also cut a large chunk of the sponge and put it inside my own filter. i tested my tap water for nitrate and there was a reading. What will i hopefully see now? do i skip the nitrite stage or anything like that??

 

[iadubber]

a moderator on another forum, yes i squeezed into the filter, i also cut a large chunk of the sponge and put it inside my own filter. i tested my tap water for nitrate and there was a reading. What will i hopefully see now? do i skip the nitrite stage or anything like that??

No you won't skip the nitrite phase. You still have to wait for ammonia and nitrite to spike and come down to 0. It might just knock a week off if you indeed have very mature media you are using.

 

[garrym1983]

The Filter used was caked in the good stuff!! What is considered a "spike"?? Being in a fish in cycle im told its not a good idea to let ammonia reach a dangerous level, for obvious reasons. I do a partial change before it reaches .25, so is any registering of ammonia, however little, considered a spike??

 

[This Old Spouse]

a moderator on another forum, yes i squeezed into the filter, i also cut a large chunk of the sponge and put it inside my own filter. i tested my tap water for nitrate and there was a reading. What will i hopefully see now? do i skip the nitrite stage or anything like that??

To help you understand the nitrogen cycle, which you really should know, please read this.

Putting mature media into your filter will generally do much more than just "knock a week off" the cycling process. You're introducing a ready-made source of the bacteria you generally spend 6+ weeks trying to grow on your own. Once I established mature media in my 55g tank, I then started up 5 other tanks using bits of that filter, and I was able to introduce fish within 24 hours. That doesn't always happen, but it's a far better cry than doing all those tanks from a Day 1+ fishless cycle.

Any reading of more than 0 ammonia calls for an immediate water change, as any amount is harmful to fish.

Which testing kit are you using?

 

[garrym1983]

Im using the API Master Kit.

a moderator on another forum, yes i squeezed into the filter, i also cut a large chunk of the sponge and put it inside my own filter. i tested my tap water for nitrate and there was a reading. What will i hopefully see now? do i skip the nitrite stage or anything like that??

To help you understand the nitrogen cycle, which you really should know, please read this.

Putting mature media into your filter will generally do much more than just "knock a week off" the cycling process. You're introducing a ready-made source of the bacteria you generally spend 6+ weeks trying to grow on your own. Once I established mature media in my 55g tank, I then started up 5 other tanks using bits of that filter, and I was able to introduce fish within 24 hours. That doesn't always happen, but it's a far better cry than doing all those tanks from a Day 1+ fishless cycle.

Any reading of more than 0 ammonia calls for an immediate water change, as any amount is harmful to fish.

Which testing kit are you using?

Im using the API Master Test kit

 

[eaglesaquarium]

With the water changes, the "Spike" won't really spike, but it would be more of a long plateau of ammonia, nitrite, etc.


If you think about the ammonia levels as a graph versus time, the spike would mean that the ammonia levels would go off the chart, and then it would slowly come down (looking like a mountain). Then, the nitrite spike would look similarly. As the ammonia spike comes down, the nitrite then goes up the same way as the ammonia did.

The difference is with a fish-in cycle, you cut the top of it off. Then the "spike" would just be a very long plateau on the graph rather than a tall, wide mountain.

 

[Tizer]

What was the advice on the other forum? Did you not trust it or something?

 

[garrym1983]

What was the advice on the other forum? Did you not trust it or something?

To be fair i wouldnt have done the squeeze if i didnt trust the advice, just getting another group of peoples perspective really.

With the water changes, the "Spike" won't really spike, but it would be more of a long plateau of ammonia, nitrite, etc.


If you think about the ammonia levels as a graph versus time, the spike would mean that the ammonia levels would go off the chart, and then it would slowly come down (looking like a mountain). Then, the nitrite spike would look similarly. As the ammonia spike comes down, the nitrite then goes up the same way as the ammonia did.

The difference is with a fish-in cycle, you cut the top of it off. Then the "spike" would just be a very long plateau on the graph rather than a tall, wide mountain.

Thanks, what in theory does doing a squeeze and using using established filter sponge effectively do to the graph then?

Thanks

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The squeeze won't do a whole heck of a lot. Adding the established filter should shorten and narrow the spikes. Effectively shrinking the entire thing. In theory, it could flatten the entire thing, if you added sufficient media from a tank with sufficient bioload.



For example, if you took 1/4 of the media from a 200 gallon tank with 150 inches of fish, then you would be fully cycled for a 30 Gallon tank easily. If, on the other hand, you took 1/4 of the media from a fully stocked 30 gallon tank and put it into a 200 gallon tank, then you would still have a ways to go, but it would be much shorter than starting from scratch. In this case, you would expect to see nitrates immediately, which means that a portion of the ammonia was being processed to nitrite and that at least some of that nitrite would be processed into nitrate. That is why it would shorten the height of the spike, and since there is nitrite to keep the N-bacs happy, and they don't have to wait for the ammonia to start to be processed the nitrite spike would be very small by comparison, in both height and duration.

 

[garrym1983]

the tank i got the donor sponge from was approx 500litres, i took nearly half the sponge and my tank is 98 litres

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It should be fully cycled then, assuming that the 500L tank was fairly well stocked. You could add at least half your total stocking plan tomorrow without much concern of a spike at all. Or, you could just finish this off as a fishless cycle adding ammonia to it daily and wait for double zeros 12 hours after dosing. The choice is yours. But, there really is no need to wait for the fish. You should be fine. Just complete a full water change to remove any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate that might be lingering from your previous doses. Then refill, bring up to temp and add the fishies. Test it 12 hours later to confirm that things are heading the right direction. If there is even a minor blip on the test, do a partial water change and lower it immediately (large is always better). If not, test it again in 12 more hours to reconfirm. Again, if nothing, then switch to 24 hour testing. Test it for a full week, just to be certain. Also, don't feed the fish the first day they come home. Wait until the next day. This will give them a chance to settle in easier and to check out the tank. Also, they will be producing plenty of ammonia with the stress of the move, they won't need any extra ammonia source (food) in the tank as well.

 

[garrym1983]

It should be fully cycled then, assuming that the 500L tank was fairly well stocked. You could add at least half your total stocking plan tomorrow without much concern of a spike at all. Or, you could just finish this off as a fishless cycle adding ammonia to it daily and wait for double zeros 12 hours after dosing. The choice is yours. But, there really is no need to wait for the fish. You should be fine. Just complete a full water change to remove any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate that might be lingering from your previous doses. Then refill, bring up to temp and add the fishies. Test it 12 hours later to confirm that things are heading the right direction. If there is even a minor blip on the test, do a partial water change and lower it immediately (large is always better). If not, test it again in 12 more hours to reconfirm. Again, if nothing, then switch to 24 hour testing. Test it for a full week, just to be certain. Also, don't feed the fish the first day they come home. Wait until the next day. This will give them a chance to settle in easier and to check out the tank. Also, they will be producing plenty of ammonia with the stress of the move, they won't need any extra ammonia source (food) in the tank as well.

In light of your positive conclusion that i may well be cycled, im braceing myself for an almighty come down when i reitterate that there are fish already in the tank which i had previously mentioned at the begining of this thread!!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Sorry... I didn't go back to the OP, I thought I remembered. Well, the good news is that you may very well be cycled. I would just test in 6-12 hours since you already have fish in there. Just watch them and complete water changes as necessary. You should be fine, but the testing should be done just to be certain.