White Aglae Ruining My Tank!

[Burningstorm]

if you are fishless cycling you shouldn't be using ammo-lock.......

ammo-lock converts ammonia to ammonium, it's less toxic but can still be used by the filter bacteria, it's handy if you are cycling with fish in. But if you've no fish in then there's no need to make the ammonia less toxic, cos there's nothing suffering because of the toxicity......

most test kits test for total ammonia and ammonium but it may be that your test kit is getting funny readings cos of it.

do a 90% water change to get rid of the ammo-lock, then dose the tank back up to 5ppm of ammonia and carry on from there with the fishless cycle.

Ok, thanks, But this has made me mad, The guy in the shop said "ammo lock will help your tank cycle, then in a few weeks your be able to add fish".
Well since i have anothor tank, Could i do a water change in that tank and add it to my tank to cycle? Also Could i take the blue sponge out and add it the the new tank i have?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

lesson No 1 of fishkeeping - do not trust the fish shop, sadly they're out to make a profit and will often sell you all sorts of stuff that you don't need.

have a good read through the cycling links in my sig if you've not got this all straight in your head yet.

the filter bacteria do not live free swimming in the water, they attach to surfaces which is why they live in the filter media. So no need to transfer water around between tanks, it won't do anything, but moving some of the sponges will definatley help. What you should do is remove no more than one third of the media from the existing tanks filter, making sure it doesn't dry out, transfer it to the new filter. Do a large 90% water change to get the ammo-lock out of the tank, then top back up to 5ppm of ammonia, then carry on as if you were doing a normal fishless cycle testing and adding ammonia, you should hopefully find that the whole process takes a lot less time because of the mature media.

 

[Burningstorm]

lesson No 1 of fishkeeping - do not trust the fish shop, sadly they're out to make a profit and will often sell you all sorts of stuff that you don't need.

have a good read through the cycling links in my sig if you've not got this all straight in your head yet.

the filter bacteria do not live free swimming in the water, they attach to surfaces which is why they live in the filter media. So no need to transfer water around between tanks, it won't do anything, but moving some of the sponges will definatley help. What you should do is remove no more than one third of the media from the existing tanks filter, making sure it doesn't dry out, transfer it to the new filter. Do a large 90% water change to get the ammo-lock out of the tank, then top back up to 5ppm of ammonia, then carry on as if you were doing a normal fishless cycle testing and adding ammonia, you should hopefully find that the whole process takes a lot less time because of the mature media.

Thanks for the help, And sorry to sound noobish, but i have been keeping fish for about 8 years now, and just wanted to make sure everything went well. I Just dream of a perfect tank,trying to do everything right. One question, If i added a muture filter, should i add it before the new sponge so that the bacteria will benfit on the new sponge or does it not matter (if you get me)

 

[SJ2K]

If you add a mature filter you can add fish right away or, take the media out of the mature filter, add it in with the new filter and same again, add fish straight away.