Quick Question. New 60l Tank, Fishless Cycle + Mature Media

[st24rsap]

I have just set up my third tank a Juwel 60 and am doing a fishless cycle with this one

my question is how will having mature media that i transfered across from my other Juwel 96 change the cycling process?

 

[backtotropical]

It will speed it up, mate.

Depending on how established your other media is, you may find that your ammonia is processing almost straight away, and it may speed up your nitrites too.

That's basically it, it'll just make the process quicker.

Good luck.

 

[rdd1952]

As mentioned, having seed media keeps you from starting from scratch. If you had a fully stocked and cycled 60l tank and you put half the media from it into your new tank, the new one would be closed to half cycled from the start. It would only take a day or so to complete the cycle.

 

[st24rsap]

the tank it was seeded from has been set up about 8 months now, 100L stocked with 13 small cory sodalis and 2 small BN plecs

The tank was set up earlier today and 4ppm of Ammonia were added, the test results are showing

Ammonia - 4
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

fingers crossed it will go well and not take too long

 

[st24rsap]

not put any more ammonia in the tank and the levels are still the same

Ammonia - 4
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5

 

[backtotropical]

It might take a few days to get going. Put your patient hat on for now.

 

[rdd1952]

How much and what media did you move over from the other tank?

 

[st24rsap]

its the first fishless cycle ive done so will be interesting to see how it goes

im not a very patient person lol but am gonna get this cycle right

the other tank was a juwel rekord 96, i transfered the blue sponge from the filter over to the new juwel 60

 

[shelaghfishface]

As mentioned, having seed media keeps you from starting from scratch. If you had a fully stocked and cycled 60l tank and you put half the media from it into your new tank, the new one would be closed to half cycled from the start. It would only take a day or so to complete the cycle.

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/chr...
375 x 246 - 27k
www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/chr...
375 x 246 - 27k

 

[st24rsap]

As mentioned, having seed media keeps you from starting from scratch. If you had a fully stocked and cycled 60l tank and you put half the media from it into your new tank, the new one would be closed to half cycled from the start. It would only take a day or so to complete the cycle.

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/chr...
375 x 246 - 27k
www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/chr...
375 x 246 - 27k

links take me to the home page

 

[st24rsap]

My 3rd tank has been running for about 10 days now, when i set it up i used some mature filter media.
i have added 2 lots of pure ammonia, the first when the tank was set up taking the ammonia level to about 4ppm, this dropped down over a 5 day period to around 2ppm so i added some more and took it up to 4ppm.

i have tested the water several times and always had a reading of around 4ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite & 5ppm nitrate, temp is 80F and ph 7.4

i have just tested the water now and got the following reading
Ammonia - Between 4 - 8
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - Between 20 & 40

i am now unsure what to do. i was planning on a water change to reduce the ammonia down but wanted some advice from peeps on here first please

 

[rdd1952]

Did you add more ammonia to cause it to go up? If not, do you have any plants or other things in the tank that could be decaying and producing ammonia? I think the water change (I'd go about 75%) is a good idea. Usually, it will correct a falling pH (although yours looks fine at 7.4) and usually kick start things again.

 

[st24rsap]

no didnt add any more ammonia and theres are no live plants in there so not sure why it would have gone up, ill do a large water change and keep an eye on it to see what heppens, the tank must have been cycling as the Nitrate is quite high

 

[st24rsap]

i just checked the levels before doing a 50% water change and got the following

Ammonia - Between 2 - 4
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - Between 20 & 40

i will check them again tonight and see whats happening then

 

[st24rsap]

right i have a quick question.

when i started my large 240L tank up a few months ago i transfered a blue filter from my juwel tank across and put it into the eheim filter to give it a bit of a kick start. The 240L tank is now fully cycled and i just remembered the juwel filter thats still in the eheim.

if i was to remove the blue juwel filter from the eheim, transfer it to my new 60L juwel tank do you think i would be able to stock the tank straight away obviously after doing a large water change to remove any ammonia or nitrite in the tank as its still cycling

the 240L tank is fully stocked so in theory there should be enough good bacteria just on the 1 blue juwel filter to run the new 60L tank