Cycling

ok for my first tank I did a terrible job of cycling it
(only a week of so before fish).

Now I am cycling the big tank and was wondering how long it
would be before I see ammonia spiking. It's been about a week
and nothing at all yet. I have put some food pellets in and
some cycling solution but nothing, no ammonia or nitrites yet.
(not tested Nitrates as thought they wouldn't be showing yet).

Any ideas?

I have a 90g tank which has been running for 3 weeks. After 1 week, I put
in a 1" fantail. Right now,there is the fantail, a baby swordtail (only 3
mos old, and about 1/2" long) and 4 snails (mystery snails I added last
week), and I still haven't seen the ammonia go up either. Maybe if you do
it slow enough, it doesn't spike as high. I have 2 ryukins (1-1 1/2") and
plan to add them slowly as well, one at a time, at least a week apart. They
are still in quarantine until next week, though.

Good luck,
Tammy

Geezer From The Freezer wrote:

ok for my first tank I did a terrible job of cycling it
(only a week of so before fish).

Um, did you put anything in for it to cycle from? Just putting water in
a tank doesn't do the trick.

The bio-buggies need something to eat (ammonia) from some source. If it
isn't fish, you need to provide an artificial source.

Most fishless cycling methods use liquid ammonia, a couple suggest a
chemical powder form, one or two people advocate using... [ah-hem], the
supply that nature gives you everyday...

Ingrid advocates using fish food which decays into ammonia. (Which seems
to be the method that you're trying.)

Now I am cycling the big tank and was wondering how long it
would be before I see ammonia spiking. It's been about a week
and nothing at all yet. I have put some food pellets in and
some cycling solution but nothing, no ammonia or nitrites yet.
(not tested Nitrates as thought they wouldn't be showing yet).

Any ideas?

How big is the tank vs how much food did you put in there?
Might try the specific brand of food Ingrid has had results with...
Might do a google search on "fishless cycling" and use some ammonia from
the store. (The method I use.)

http://www.mindspring.com/~reed/fishless.html

Good luck,

-Donald
--
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving
that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof." -Galbraith's Law

Donald,

It's a 63gallon tank. I've got plants (some leaves dropped off, i've
left them to decay) and i've added about 10 pellets of food.

I'm off to the LFS to get some liquid ammonia and a better(and another)
filter (Fluval 4)

Geezer From The Freezer wrote:

Donald,

It's a 63gallon tank. I've got plants (some leaves dropped off, i've
left them to decay) and i've added about 10 pellets of food.

I'm off to the LFS to get some liquid ammonia and a better(and
another) filter (Fluval 4)

Ah, the plants...

They compete with the biobuggies for the ammonia and nitrite. Also seed
the tank with biobuggies so you don't have to start from scratch.

In that case, I'd just slowly add your population of fish and keep an
eye on the NH3 and NO2 levels. A new fish or two (depending on size)
every three days or so. Should be fine.

-D
--
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving
that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof." -Galbraith's Law

Donald Kerns wrote:
They compete with the biobuggies for the ammonia and nitrite. Also seed
the tank with biobuggies so you don't have to start from scratch.

In that case, I'd just slowly add your population of fish and keep an
eye on the NH3 and NO2 levels. A new fish or two (depending on size)
every three days or so. Should be fine.

Donald,

I did add a carbon filter from my old tank and dumped it on top of
the filters in the cycling tank. I added about 3 pints worth of
old tank water and a stone bridge from my old tank.

I've now added my two fish. They seem happy, but I have noticed
that the ammonia had risen this morning. The levels are low, but
detectable. I will be doing a water change to even those levels to
0 later.

Geezer From The Freezer wrote:



Donald Kerns wrote:
They compete with the biobuggies for the ammonia and nitrite. Also
seed the tank with biobuggies so you don't have to start from
scratch.

In that case, I'd just slowly add your population of fish and keep an
eye on the NH3 and NO2 levels. A new fish or two (depending on size)
every three days or so. Should be fine.

Donald,

I did add a carbon filter from my old tank and dumped it on top of
the filters in the cycling tank. I added about 3 pints worth of
old tank water and a stone bridge from my old tank.

The filter and stone bridge will help, the water won't (unless it was
really grungy mulm).

I've now added my two fish. They seem happy, but I have noticed
that the ammonia had risen this morning. The levels are low, but
detectable. I will be doing a water change to even those levels to
0 later.

Yup, don't need to drive it to zero, but hovering about the first
detectable level.

How big are those 2 fish in a 60-some odd gallon tank?

-D

--
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving
that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof." -Galbraith's Law

Geezer From The Freezer wrote:

I've now added my two fish. They seem happy, but I have noticed
that the ammonia had risen this morning. The levels are low, but
detectable.

Other than getting awoken from their beauty sleep [ ;-) ], how
are those guys doing?

-D
--
"Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving
that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof." -Galbraith's Law