Keeping an empty tank in cycle

[gwharton]

Hi all,

I have an old 40L tank lying around that I'd like to just keep cycled as it can be used as a quarantine tank/breeding tank in the future.

There are no fish in the tank, but the temperature is kept up and the filter running.

Do I need to do anything to keep the bacteria alive and keep the tank cycled. Should I be dosing it with ammonia to keep it running, or will the bacteria go dormant and come back online if and when I need to put some fish in it without any attention.

Thanks

Graham

 

[Slaphppy7]

Is the tank presently cycled? How was it cycled?

Have many other cycled tanks do you have running?

 

[gwharton]

The tank is currently cycled and used to house my guppies, but they were removed from it a week ago and moved into another tank which is also cycled. The empty tank has been left up to temp and filter running for a week now.

Was considering adjusting the water and having a go at breeding some neon tetras or guppies at some point, but didn't want to let the filter die if I could keep it live if I can.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Dose with a small amount of pure ammonia once a week, around 1 PPM

OR, if you have other cycled tanks, you could use some media from one of those filters, prior to adding fish

 

[gwharton]

Ok, that's cool. So the filter bacteria will die off unless I feed them with ammonia to maintain them, or seed the filter media in a tank currently cycled to restart cycle.

Makes sense.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Ok, that's cool. So the filter bacteria will die off unless I feed them with ammonia to maintain them, or seed the filter media in a tank currently cycled to restart cycle.

Makes sense.

That is correct...but the beneficial bacteria are very resilient, and can and will live for very long periods of time with no ammonia...they don't instantly begin to "starve" once ammonia is no longer present, it takes weeks, even months

 

[connorlindeman]

That is correct...but the beneficial bacteria are very resilient, and can and will live for very long periods of time with no ammonia...they don't instantly begin to "starve" once ammonia is no longer present, it takes weeks, even months

That's good to know. I was wondering this same thing.