I just wanted to pass on something that I experienced this week. I have had my 5 gallon Q-tank set up for quite a while waiting to get more fish for my 75 gallon. It is a lightly planted tank with a couple amazon swords and a few pieces of anacharis. I had left it running with the lights on a normal timed schedule because it is a pretty tank even when there aren’t any fish in it. It probably had not had fish or an ammonia source in at since late April or early May.
I had pretty much neglected the tank, even letting the water level drop down 2 or 3 inches from full and no water changes. About a month ago (early July), the blue green algae had gotten really bad in it so I decided to clean it up. I scrubbed it thoroughly, drained all the water (I'm sure there was still some in the gravel), threw away all of the plants that were in it, refilled with water and added a few plants back in from one of my other tanks. I didn't put any ammonia or flakes in it to start a cycle. I just left it running until this past Saturday (about 3 or 4 weeks later) when I decided it was time to start cycling it. I was also starting to see some BGA again so I decided to do a 3 day black out to get rid of that.
Saturday evening, I added in enough ammonia to raise the level to about 6 ppm. I turned the heat up (was 91 yesterday when I checked it), removed the light and covered the tank. Tuesday afternoon, I took the cover off to find the BGA gone (yea!!!) and tested the water. To my amazement, I had 0 ammonia and nitrite. How could a tank be completely cycled in 3 days??? I even questioned myself as to whether I really put the ammonia in or not.
Just to make sure, I added enough ammonia back to raise it back to 6 ppm again. Twelve hours later (this morning), I tested them again and the ammonia had already dropped back to 3 ppm and nitrite was at 1 ppm. The tank is obviously cycled. How could that have possibly happened in 3 days? Is it possible that bacteria were still alive in the tank even without an ammonia source for over 2 months? Could the high temp and lack of light have speeded things that much? I am totally amazed at it. I really wish I had a brand new tank to experiment on. Someone may want to give it a try.
I had pretty much neglected the tank, even letting the water level drop down 2 or 3 inches from full and no water changes. About a month ago (early July), the blue green algae had gotten really bad in it so I decided to clean it up. I scrubbed it thoroughly, drained all the water (I'm sure there was still some in the gravel), threw away all of the plants that were in it, refilled with water and added a few plants back in from one of my other tanks. I didn't put any ammonia or flakes in it to start a cycle. I just left it running until this past Saturday (about 3 or 4 weeks later) when I decided it was time to start cycling it. I was also starting to see some BGA again so I decided to do a 3 day black out to get rid of that.
Saturday evening, I added in enough ammonia to raise the level to about 6 ppm. I turned the heat up (was 91 yesterday when I checked it), removed the light and covered the tank. Tuesday afternoon, I took the cover off to find the BGA gone (yea!!!) and tested the water. To my amazement, I had 0 ammonia and nitrite. How could a tank be completely cycled in 3 days??? I even questioned myself as to whether I really put the ammonia in or not.
Just to make sure, I added enough ammonia back to raise it back to 6 ppm again. Twelve hours later (this morning), I tested them again and the ammonia had already dropped back to 3 ppm and nitrite was at 1 ppm. The tank is obviously cycled. How could that have possibly happened in 3 days? Is it possible that bacteria were still alive in the tank even without an ammonia source for over 2 months? Could the high temp and lack of light have speeded things that much? I am totally amazed at it. I really wish I had a brand new tank to experiment on. Someone may want to give it a try.
