Help with cycling new tank

"Ken Smith" wrote in message
...
After finding this group and reading lots of different websites, I figured
out that keeping my three goldies (common,fantail, and redcap oranda) in a
10 gal tank wasn't going to work long term.

That's much to small a tank for goldfish.

So I got a 46 gal bowfront tank
for them. Read up on various sites about cycling the tank and decided that
"fishless cycling" was the way to go. After hitting several differnet
stores found clear ammonia (no perfume, surfacants, etc) and started the
process. Took about 2 gal out of the 10 gal tank (which has always read 0
ammonia, 0 nitrite, 40-80 nitrate), rinsed the 10 gal tank fiter in the 46
gal and moved a driftwood/plant thing from the 10 gal to the new tank.
Added the suggested amount of ammonia, waited an hour and tested-0
ammonia. Added some more ammonia and tried again-0 ammonia. Then thought
about it and took the carbon out of the filter, added some more ammonia
and tried again. Now have trace ammonia--.25 to.50 ppm. Tested for
nitites-0 ppm Tested for nitrates-5-10 ppm.This all took place over about
8 hours. Am I missing something here? From what I read on the websites I
would have expected-high ammonia, then less ammonia but some nitites,high
nitrites and almost no ammonia (with some nitrates), then 0 ammonia,0
nitrites, and very high nitrate levels (requiring a massive water change).

But it doesn't happen in a few hours. Since you already had a cycled filter
all you had to do was move the goldfish into the new tank and the filter
with them! That's how I do it and it works almost every time. Don't clean
the filter... just move it to the new tank. You can't do that now until the
ammonia and nitrites are gone. Or do a massive water change to speed the
process along.

Could it be that there
was enough "good bacteria" in the water and on the driftwoor/plant thing
from my healthy 10 gal tank to have changed the cycling process?

You can't cycle a tank in hours.

I'm really
new at this and would very much appreciate any help you can offer.
Thanks in advance,
Ken


--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
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