mini cycle question

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themartins

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
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328
Location
Southern Maine
On Saturday we completed our 10 gal. to 45 gal. upgrade. It looks like we may be experiencing a cycle even with using the established LR from the 10 gallon tank. The ammonia tests 0.5 everything else tests fine. We have a pair of O. Clowns and snails in there. Should we do a water change? How much water?

test results:
ammonia: 0.5ppm
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
 
I don't want to loose our fish and snails and I'm pretty sure we should do a waterchange. How much should we start with? What should we watch for?
 
Ammo and nitrites are very damaging on fish so you'll want to keep it as low as possible. Clowns are pretty hardy fish though so I personally don't think they will have a problem with it. The inverts though are very sensitive so try and keep below .25
 
Thank you. I'll do a 10 gal. PWC and then check levels and go from there. Hopefully this won't last too long.

please note that a 10g water change on a 45g will not drop the level much. a 50% water change will drop it down from .5 to .25. As stated I would keep it below .25ppm.

10-45g is a large change, so let your BB establish itself, so no chemicals that neutralize ammonia. also if you still have the 10g ever thought of setting up a QT tank for your clowns until the cycle is over? A QT tank is pretty easy and a 10g is perfect.
 
We, honestly didn't think we'd have a cycling issue because of information that we've heard from others that have upgraded in the past.

Yes, we could use the 10 gal. for a QT, but wouldn't we just have more ammonia issues since now the filter and ive rock from that tank are in the 45gal.?
 
themartins said:
Would a protein skimmer help with this issue?

It would help control nitrates but will not do anything for this issue. Its a matter of your beneficial bacteria building back up. Basically your tank is just re cycling.
 
I ended up just doing a 10 gal. water change in the am. and then tested the water in the evening. Ammonia tested at 0.

This morning I retested and ammonia is still 0. All other tests are fine as well, does that mean we are safe to begin adding some other fish/invertebrates?

Using the 10 gal. as a QT:
Also, since we have the 10 gal. empty and an extra filter. We can begin to use that for a QT. Do you have advice on how to QT fish, invertebrates, or corals? How do we prevent a cycle in a QT? Should we use medicines as a preventative measure against parasites? How long should we treat and/or quarantine? Would we need to upgrade our 10 gal. light if we quarantine corals?
 
themartins said:
I ended up just doing a 10 gal. water change in the am. and then tested the water in the evening. Ammonia tested at 0.

This morning I retested and ammonia is still 0. All other tests are fine as well, does that mean we are safe to begin adding some other fish/invertebrates?

I think it would be best to wait a few days and retest to be sure.

themartins said:
Using the 10 gal. as a QT:
Also, since we have the 10 gal. empty and an extra filter. We can begin to use that for a QT. Do you have advice on how to QT fish, invertebrates, or corals? How do we prevent a cycle in a QT? Should we use medicines as a preventative measure against parasites? How long should we treat and/or quarantine? Would we need to upgrade our 10 gal. light if we quarantine corals?

Check out the links for info on quarantine.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php
 
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