Seeding During Cycle

[RobGoldsmith]

Hi guys

My LFS just helped me out but I dont know if this will work, will it?

They cleaned an aquarium filter sponge in a bag of water until the bag went brown and was full up with grot! They said I could put all that water and grot into my cycling tank and it would speed it up. Is this true?

Rob

 

[fluttermoth]

It should do, yes. It's not as good as a piece of actual media, as the bacteria do 'cling' quite strongly to the surfaces but there will be some in there. Better than nothing, anyway!

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Hi guys

My LFS just helped me out but I dont know if this will work, will it?

They cleaned an aquarium filter sponge in a bag of water until the bag went brown and was full up with grot! They said I could put all that water and grot into my cycling tank and it would speed it up. Is this true?

Rob

mine did the same my 50L still took 23 days to cycle if i remember but as said better then nothing

 

[steve26-2008]

I did this and my tank still took three weeks to fully cycle.

 

[fluttermoth]

mine did the same my 50L still took 23 days to cycle if i remember but as said better then nothing

I did this and my tank still took three weeks to fully cycle.

Seeing as some people here have had cycles that took around 70 days, I think you guys did quite well

 

[RobGoldsmith]

I was thinking three weeks would be great!

 

[RobGoldsmith]

Got nitrite down to 0.1 last night with a 50% water change, went to bed, checked 10 hours later and it was at 2.

Got nitrite down to 0.1 this morning with a 50% water change, went to work, checked 11 hours later and still at 0.1

Got it to 0 now with a 20% water change

Is the cycle improving or is it just that nitrite gets worse at night than in the day?

Rob

*Oddly, Ammonia seems to be at 0.25 now!

 

[waterdrop]

Few of your threads seem to say but it sounds like you are Fish-In cycling?

If so and you are doing water changes then it is usually almost impossible to use the ammonia or nitrite readings to judge the progress of the cycling process other than to just know that there are traces of either poison or no traces. Over time and if one is being very regular about water size change on a daily basis then the size and quickness of the spikes may show a lessening, but often it's still hard to see.

Instead, in a Fish-In you usually just have to do whatever it takes to keep the exposures to less than 0.25ppm peak and just go for the month or more of water changes that it usually takes to reach the point where day after day you no longer see any traces of either ammonia or nitrite.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[RobGoldsmith]

Yes fish in as i am in a mini cycle and didnt have anywhere to put the fish.

I looked again today and nitrite is at 0 and nitrate at 20, fish look fine today.

Hope that is it sorted then, 8 days in all, down to 0 within 48 hours of seeding

 

[Tizer]

Dont worry about nitrate, it is what it is.