Wanting An Uninhabitated Tank To Stay Cycled. How Do I

[kj23502]

Ok....wierd ?. I'm using my 29 gallon tank to quarantine new fish for my 125 gallon tank. I wasn't going to move my latest batch of quarantining fish to my 125 until I had another batch to replace the old in the 29 to keep it cycled. Well I decided that my quarantining fish needed to get out and into the bigger tank b/c they were always hiding in the little tank. So if I don't start adding ammonia it'll be uncycled. What's the best way to go about keeping the cycle so I can plop more fish into it when I get some to quarantine? It may be a little while till I get the kind I want, since I live in South Dakota, USA. Kinda the boon docks! Do I add just enough that it processes w/in lets say 12 hour from ammonia to nitrate?

 

[jwddboy]

I actually use large numbers of nerite snails for this and then decrease the numbers of snails when I put the fish in there.

Every day or so I would add an algae wafer, they also keep algae under control!

Snails are well known to create a nice large bio-load.

 

[kj23502]

I actually use large numbers of nerite snails for this and then decrease the numbers of snails when I put the fish in there.

Every day or so I would add an algae wafer, they also keep algae under control!

Snails are well known to create a nice large bio-load.

Thanks...That could come in handy also!! After I'm done QT'ing I plan to turn it into a south american puffer tank....i'm sure they'd be more than to care of any leftover snails in there!!

Although, I'd rather not have to worry about snails...just drops of stuff. I realized I posted this in the wrong section... I PM'd Ferris asking him to move it to tropical discussion.

 

[kj23502]

Any ideas? I've never used ammonia before and I'm trying to reassure myself, I guess

 

[tibby25731]

I asked a similar question a while back and was told, well just move your filter into an inhabited tank! Which makes a hell lot of sense This is what I am gonna do when I am finished quarantining

 

[tim1]

Just buy some Ammonia at your local Walmart. I bought the Goldex brand in the cleaning section. For a 29gal I'd say add around 6.5ml of it, that should bring your Ammonia to about 3ppm.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I asked a similar question a while back and was told, well just move your filter into an inhabited tank! Which makes a hell lot of sense This is what I am gonna do when I am finished quarantining

exactly. just put the filter from the Q tank onto the main tank, you can completely strip down the Q tank that way and just have it in storage somewhere, when you wanna Q some fish just set it up, fill with water, get it to temp and move the filter over. hey presto instantly cycled tank

 

[kj23502]

Moving the filter should be alright I guess! I guess I'd rather not have to move anything and just "feed" it. I may be getting some fish this weekend if all works out good, so I don't want to tear the tank down.....Gives me some things to think about though.

I do have a spare sponge filter in my 29 gallon tank....but didn't want to have to move that into my 29gallon if I didn't have to....

Thanks all, it gives something to think about!!! Anymore advice?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

long term it's significantly easier to have a q tank with the filter in the main tank, to feed it you need to add 5ppm of ammonia every single day. so if you forget or go on holiday you need to start over again.

if you want to feed it though just get some pure household ammonia and top the tank up to 5ppm every 24 hrs

 

[Scotty001]

long term it's significantly easier to have a q tank with the filter in the main tank, to feed it you need to add 5ppm of ammonia every single day. so if you forget or go on holiday you need to start over again.

if you want to feed it though just get some pure household ammonia and top the tank up to 5ppm every 24 hrs

I agree with miss wiggle, my Qt tank is only a 90L and runs a fluval 2 filter, when its not in use i take the media out of the fluval 2 and put it into my main canister Tetratec EX700 (i always have 2 spare fluval filer media kits in my main canister) and when it is needed take it out of the tetratec into the fluval casing, take 50% of the Qt water volume from the main tank into the Qt and top up both the main and qt with fresh water (dechlorinated) this way i know that my qt tank will be almost the exact same as where the fish are going to end up so will already be adjusting the the new water stats in the qt of course when qt finished and there has been a problem disease etc etc i bin that filer media and don't put it back into the main tank.

 

[tibby25731]

Hey now that sounds even easier to me, I could do that too - stick the filter sponges from my q tank into the external canister! Beats messing round with awkward wires Though I will be using my Q tank for growing out kribensis fry very soon so my other fish better stay healthy!

 

[Scotty001]

Hey now that sounds even easier to me, I could do that too - stick the filter sponges from my q tank into the external canister! Beats messing round with awkward wires Though I will be using my Q tank for growing out kribensis fry very soon so my other fish better stay healthy!

congrats on the krib fry, how old are they ??? you dont normally need to move them from their parents until mum / dad starts to give a little chase, some times if you move them too soon the male may wonder what has happened to his babies and go little aggressive for a bit, my male did this for a short time.

my krib fry were over a month old when mum and dad decided that the fry could go where they like without them and when the fry went back or got to close were chased off fom the smaller fry. ive now got my fry (only 4 ) in my qt with my 32 Molly Fry that i wasnt expecting, theyre 3 weeks old now.