New Fish Tank

[RockyStafford]

Hi Everyone my first post here, I currently have a 65litre tank that has been running for atleast 1 year, I cycled that tank with fish and stability, big mistake in my oppinion as all the water changes i was doing it seemed never ending, Now i have bought a Juwel Rio 125litre tank and a AquaOne CF1000 filter as an upgrade currently in the process of cycling it, Here's what ive done so far;

Started cycle on 9th September adding just fish food, then done a water test on 13th September heres my readings;

Ammonia - 0.50ppm
NitrIte - 1.0ppm
NitrAte - 5.0ppm
Water temp was 26.2

Then on the 15th September did a water change on my smaller tank, cleaning the filter media in tank water then i added all the squeezings and muck into the filter and tank itself and today ive done another water test, heres the readings i got;

Ammonia - 0ppm
NitrIte - 1.0ppm
NitrAte - 10ppm
Water temp 27.1

I upped the temperature on the water the try and help the bacteria establish itself a little quicker. Theres no way i can add the established media into my new filter because i need to keep that running on my smaller tank.

Just wondering if anyone can tell me if im near the end of my cycle yet? i know the readings are still a little high so wont be adding any fish to the tank yet, Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Shaun

 

[Gvilleguy]

Hi - welcome to the forum!

I would lean towards not cycled. It sounds like you may have only added food the one time so far? You are not officially cycled, according to the recommendations on this forum, until you can process X ppm of ammonia and nitrite to zero within 12 hours, upon putting an ammonia source into the tank at 24 hour intervals. This can be tricky to monitor using food as the ammonia source, since I guess it takes longer for it to break down into ammonia.

To really tell if you are cycled, you should probably feed a steady source of pure ammonia into the tank and monitor levels of ammonia and nitrate every day to find the trends. If you want to see the typical fishless cycle steps, have a read of the "do and do not list" link in my signature. It answers the most common questions.

 

[RockyStafford]

Ive added food twice since i started the cycle, is fish food not a good source of ammonia then? will it be easier for me to just get a bottle of ammonia and go from there? what advice would you give me while waiting to go and get a bottle of ammonia? which will likely be in a few days time, Just dont want to stall my cycle, will adding squeezings from my established filter help it a little? or am i wasting my time? i forgot to mention i have takem some old plants out of my established tank and added them to my new tank, hoping this would help the cycle a little? as bacteria grows on surfaces aswell as in the filter?

Thanks again
Shaun

 

[Gvilleguy]

Hi Shaun,

It is fine to keep adding food, since it WILL break down and turn into ammonia. I was just saying it is more of an inexact science to monitor this type of cycling, because you can't say "I've add X ppm ammonia into the tank, and it's processing it in Y hours". But it is perfectly fine to cycle that way. Just add food on a periodic basis to keep ammonia going into the tank (I don't know how often), and test daily for ammonia and nitrite levels and log your results. Someone else might be able to share their results with food cycling.

However, if it is not a problem for you to buy some ammonia (no additives - just ammonia and water), then I would certainly recommend giving it a try.

Regarding squeezing the existing filter: I am of the opinion that this does not release helpful bacteria into the tank. But I'm no expert. The vast majority of helpful cycled bacteria reside in the actual media of your filter, so actually cutting away a small part of cycled media and adding it to a new filter can give a good kick start.

 

[RockyStafford]

Thank you for the help and advice. Today my mother went to throw away some filter media, I couldnt just sit there and watch her throw it away, i was like a kid in a sweet shop as soon as i got it i put it into my filter im cycling at the moment, Now tomorrow im going to get a bottle of ammonia, Where is best to get it from? Boots or Homebase? I have read in a few threads of them not working or them being watered down? Dont really want to wait for amazon to send me some kleenoff.

Also how much ammonia should i be adding daily to a 125 litre? Will adding too much ammonia to the tank kill off the bacteria thats establishing my filter at the moment?

Thank you for any help.
Regards
Shaun

 

[Gvilleguy]

If you read over the "do and do not" list linked in my signature, it answers your questions. At first you want to try around 4 ppm ammonia, and test every 12 hours, if possible, with that established media you just got. It might cycle right away. If you are able to process 4 ppm ammonia and nitrites down to ZERO every 12 hours, while feeding ammonia into the tank every 24 hours, you are cycled.

I think there is a calculator somewhere in the beginner's section for figuring out how much ammonia to add.