Newbie Upgrade!

[fishbaby]

ok so my tank has been running for 24 hrs with new filters and old filter (from30 ltr ets tank) running alongside it. have tested water and findings are
nitrite 0.1
ammonia 0.1
nitrate 50
ph 8.5
after doing a lot of research and reading over the weekend have found that the reason for the advice given is conflicting is that some peolpe advise on fishless cycling and some peolpe with fish cycling. i have decided to go down the fishless route so any advice from experince from fishless cycling would be great!
what should be the levels that i need to look out for wen it 'spike' and then falls.cant seem to find actual figures on what the readings should be??
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[OldMan47]

Welcome Fishbaby. If you are going fishless, you will need to add a source of ammonia to the tank. We usually recommend pure household ammonia with no surfactants, scents, soaps or detergents. The idea of a fishless cycle is to use that artificial ammonia source to simulate having fish in the tank without actually exposing any fish to any ammonia. The sooner you provide a source of ammonia, the better it will be for the old filter. It has probably got a very nice bacteria colony growing in it that needs feeding with ammonia. The target we use is to bring the tank up to 5 ppm of ammonia once a day and watch for when the tank is processing that to zero with no nitrite build up in 12 hours. With your older filter running along side the new one, you could well be at that stage in a week or less. The hard part in your case will be knowing when the new filter is far enough along to take over by itself. That is likely to be a full 3 weeks or more but we won't really know until you try letting the new filter run on its own.

 

[fishbaby]

Welcome Fishbaby. If you are going fishless, you will need to add a source of ammonia to the tank. We usually recommend pure household ammonia with no surfactants, scents, soaps or detergents. The idea of a fishless cycle is to use that artificial ammonia source to simulate having fish in the tank without actually exposing any fish to any ammonia. The sooner you provide a source of ammonia, the better it will be for the old filter. It has probably got a very nice bacteria colony growing in it that needs feeding with ammonia. The target we use is to bring the tank up to 5 ppm of ammonia once a day and watch for when the tank is processing that to zero with no nitrite build up in 12 hours. With your older filter running along side the new one, you could well be at that stage in a week or less. The hard part in your case will be knowing when the new filter is far enough along to take over by itself. That is likely to be a full 3 weeks or more but we won't really know until you try letting the new filter run on its own.

Thank you! and thanks for reply!
oh yes i see your point! so wouldnt i be better off taking out the old filter and just letting the new filter do its thing? i am really unsure about adding ammonia to the tank mainly because i dont really know what im doing with it and think i could do more harm then good
would my fish come to any harm if they were added (im talking 2 or 3,and def not my catfish!!) or would this be using them to cycle tank?

 

[OldMan47]

I think the easiest approach I have seen in a situation like this is to move the fish from the old tank to the new one along with their filter and let the new filter gradually cycle on the new tank. After that you could restock the old tank with a reasonable number of fish and start building the stocking levels on the new tank.
Another easy alternative is to leave the old filter and fish on the original tank and just cycle the new tank's filter on that tank before stocking the new tank. When a few weeks have gone by, move the new filter to its permanent home and lightly stock the new tank. It is basically the same approach but done on the old tank instead.

 

[fishbaby]

I think the easiest approach I have seen in a situation like this is to move the fish from the old tank to the new one along with their filter and let the new filter gradually cycle on the new tank. After that you could restock the old tank with a reasonable number of fish and start building the stocking levels on the new tank.
Another easy alternative is to leave the old filter and fish on the original tank and just cycle the new tank's filter on that tank before stocking the new tank. When a few weeks have gone by, move the new filter to its permanent home and lightly stock the new tank. It is basically the same approach but done on the old tank instead.

ok,so was thinkin of adding a few fish to new tank and see how we get on.the second option i cant do as its the built in type of filter.
wont the fish be put under a lot of stress? or will the tank have some bacteria in it as i have the old filter on it?
im so confused,starting to wish i never upgraded now!

 

[OldMan47]

Each filter that is used with fish develops its own population of bacteria. The population eventually gets to be in balance with the actual fish present because the bacteria feed on the waste from those fish. When you move the filter to another tank, you can move the fish with it and all will stay in balance. If you then set up another filter on that tank, it will gradually start to share the biological load with the old filter. That is where you would end up if you move filter and fish together. If the old filter has not seen any fish in a while, it will eventually become almost completely sterile in terms of having the right bacteria in it.

 

[fishbaby]

Each filter that is used with fish develops its own population of bacteria. The population eventually gets to be in balance with the actual fish present because the bacteria feed on the waste from those fish. When you move the filter to another tank, you can move the fish with it and all will stay in balance. If you then set up another filter on that tank, it will gradually start to share the biological load with the old filter. That is where you would end up if you move filter and fish together. If the old filter has not seen any fish in a while, it will eventually become almost completely sterile in terms of having the right bacteria in it.

thank you so much for yor advice.the filter hasnt had any fish for bout 24 hors now so think that i have left it to late! oh well gonna sleep on it i guess!
thanks again you have been very helpful!

 

[OldMan47]

At 24 hours, you will not have lost a large part of the bacteria as long as the water kept circulating and stayed oxygenated.