Uh Oh. What Did I Just Do?

[Aussie_Dog]

I have a 60 gal tank that's been cycling for a while. A LONG while. I've taken to referring to it as my pain-in-the-ass tank. But that's not the tank this thread is about. While in the middle of getting tired of waiting, I picked up a 3 gal tank that was on sale and filled it up with water from the 60 gal (it was currently at about 2ppm Ammonia, 1ppm Nitrite, and I think 10ppm Nitrate). So I took a shortcut in cycling the little 3gal tank. Anyway, I think it finally cycled on Friday, as the Ammonia was dropping back to 0 in 10 hours, the Nitrite had finally dropped to 0, and the Nitrate was at 120 (or 140, always hard to tell). I wasn't going to do anything to it; it was late at night and I had to work the next day, but suddenly I had a NEED to do the big water change. So I did. Only, I didn't do a 90% change like advised; I changed ALL the water, and rinsed the gravel and plants under tap water (I rinsed out the tank itself under tap water as well, as it had algae [btw, am I the only person who gets excited about seeing algae for the first time?] and I wanted to give it a quick rinse anyways). I made sure to keep the media in the syphoned water, and when it was time to dump that water, I put them in my cycling 60 gal tank. Now that the 3gal is filled back up with water (conditioned, of course), with gravel and plants back where they were, filter turned back on, I'm now watching with fear to see if I killed anything. So far, I'm not sure.

The nitrite is still at 0, and the nitrate is at 10 (well, it started at 10, but in the past couple of days it's risen to 15 so I'm pretty sure I didn't kill that off). BUT, the ammonia doesn't seem to be processing in 10 hours anymore. Since Friday, it's dropped from 2 to 1, which is SLOWWWWWWW (last night, it was at 1.25, 12 hours before it was 1.75).

The 3gal tank is the Eclipse one, so it has a BIO-Wheel and a filter cartridge that I understand to be both carbon and foam. Both were kept in tank water at all times. I didn't rinse the filter "machine" itself, just dumped all the water that was in it into the bucket holding the tank water, and put it aside. So I don't think unfiltered tap water touched the media and killed bacteria that way.

What do you think? I was thrilled to be able to finally get a Betta sometime this week, but now I know I should use this week to make sure I haven't started the cycle all over again. Bummer.

 

[Snooks1!]

Betta's really don't need a cycled tank...you can go pick one up and keep him in without incident. Just do 25-50% water changes twice a week and you'll be fine.

 

[Colin_T]

if the filter was without water movement for any length of time it will have caused some problems to the bacteria. Also by moving it into another tank there is a possibilty you upset the bacteria. There might have been a slight difference in water chemistry and that would be enough to wipe some of them out.
It is never a good idea to do such a big clean on any tank, let alone a new one. If you had just changed the water with new dechlorinated water that had the same temp and PH as the tank you probably wouldn't have a problem.
10-12 hours is a long time for the bacteria to be breaking down the ammonia. It should only take an hour at most. Any longer than that and you risk poisoning any fish in the tank. The longer they are exposed to ammonia, and the higher the levels of ammonia, the more chance of serious damage occuring to them.
Monitor the situation over the next few days and see how it goes. But don't add any fish until the ammonia and nitrite are both at 0.

 

[Aussie_Dog]

Well, I also want to get an ADF there too, but I'm not sure yet if I should (it'd be overcrowded in a 3 gal, right?. I know the rules for fish, but amphibians?). I know Bettas don't need filtration, but it never hurts to have that bonus (and the tank came with the filter, so why not cycle it). As I understand, though, ADFs breathe surface air too, like a Betta, but I'm not sure about filtration for them.

 

[Aussie_Dog]

if the filter was without water movement for any length of time it will have caused some problems to the bacteria. Also by moving it into another tank there is a possibilty you upset the bacteria. There might have been a slight difference in water chemistry and that would be enough to wipe some of them out.
It is never a good idea to do such a big clean on any tank, let alone a new one. If you had just changed the water with new dechlorinated water that had the same temp and PH as the tank you probably wouldn't have a problem.

Ouch, that's what I'm afraid of (and it makes sense). I know the last time I tested the PH in the small tank, it was at 7.4, while the normal PH of my tap water is much higher (at least 8, probably a little higher; I've yet to get a high-range PH test). The PH of the 60gal tank is 7.6 (according to the API test, so I know it's actually off the chart there, much closer to the typical tap water PH we get). The 60gal also has an air stone so I'm not sure what that might have done.

As for the temperature, the 60gal is at 90 degrees (to help with the cycling) and the 3gal is at 80 (the highest the heater can get it). When I changed the water for the 3 gal, I had it at 80 degrees, but now I'm sure that further upset the bacteria. Ouch. Double ouch.

Thanks for all the help!