Maintaining A Cycled Tank Prior To Getting Stock.

[Katch]

So as I understand it we use 5ppm to cycle tanks to develop as robust a filter as possible prior to adding fish. However the bioload of a fully stocked tank seems to be much more in the region of 1 - 1.5 ppm.

After a tank is cycled if there is a delay in stocking (waiting for plants to become more established etc) would it be more sensible to use a lower maintainence dosage of ammonia to avoid massive build up of Nitrates over the weeks without fish; something more like 1ppm?

 

[LilyRose Tank]

I would imagine if your media is able to clear 5ppm in 12 hours, I would certainly keep it at 3ppm, or even 5, as you dont want to loose some of the bacteria through lack of nutrients. I'm not sure if this is right, I'm sure WD or OM47 can correct me

 

[OldMan47]

It will require a smaller water change at the end if you limit your ammonia dosing a bit. When I just want to keep a filter ticking over, I dose to about 2 ppm. It doesn't happen very often any more but at one time I had tanks that I would hold ready for well over 2 weeks at a time. All you do is keep it going with moderate doses of ammonia and then do a huge water change right before adding the fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, "Vamping," or keeping a tank/filter in a holding pattern should be able to go on indefinately (I've definately done if for more than 2 weeks and even for months if I remember correctly) and in fact the colonies should be getting more robust, assuming they were new or young colonies to begin with. WD