3, 2, 1, Go!

[Bambithegirl]

Hi All. the time has come. My tank has been cycled for about a week now. Do I have this right?
Tomorrow I will do a 90% water change to get the nitrates down.
On Sunday I am getting my betta. Any suggestions on good food? I will also be getting some frozen blood worms.
I am going to a very reputable fish store about 40 minutes away because I must say the ones in my area are dismal.
I will have to introduce my dwarf corys later when they come in.
Apart from the 90% water change the day before I get the betta, is there anything else crucial I must do? Must I still dose the ammonia to 1ppm on the day? And am I right in saying nitrates should be below 20?
Thanks to EVERYONE who commented and helped me to get to this point. Im sure I will have even more questions to ask when I have some tank inhabitants

 

[RRiley774]

What are your Nitrates at right now? Unless they are extremely high you def don't need to do a 90% water change or add anymore ammonia if you are putting in fish. The reason of cycling a tank is to not only establish a bacteria colony but to get your water right and have it stay right with minimal maintenance. So theoretically if your tank is already cycled your water should pretty much be good to go. Just don't add to many fish at one time, gradually introduce them a few at a time with 5-7 I between as your bacteria colony will need to be able to catch up with the increase bio load.

 

[Fishperson]

No you don't need to dose ammonia on that day. In fact I wouldn't even do it on the day before but if you do that is fine.

 

[molliwopp]

Riley is right. But i like to get the nitrates as low as possible before adding fish. A large 90% 24hrs before adding your fish will let the water age and settle. If theyre below 20ppm i probably wouldnt bother, also like has been mentioned, you dont need to dose ammonia that day.

Depending on what ppm you cycled the tank too would also donate how many you could add at once. Adding only afew to a tank cycled at 5ppm would cause bb to die back, where cycled too a low ammonia ppm would obviously cause mini cycle.

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[threnjen]

I'm sure her nitrates are high due to the ongoing dosing, so the huge water change the day before getting the fish sounds like just the ticket to me. I wouldn't worry about dosing ammonia any more before Sunday. It will be ok.

The bb won't die back, it just goes dormant, so your tank will be ready for the little cories later. I guess I should say I know this to be true about the ammonia bacteria but not for sure about the nitrite eating bacteria. I would be surprised if it's different.

 

[molliwopp]

I'm sure her nitrates are high due to the ongoing dosing, so the huge water change the day before getting the fish sounds like just the ticket to me. I wouldn't worry about dosing ammonia any more before Sunday. It will be ok.

The bb won't die back, it just goes dormant, so your tank will be ready for the little cories later. I guess I should say I know this to be true about the ammonia bacteria but not for sure about the nitrite eating bacteria. I would be surprised if it's different.

Youre correct but if i remember rightly its the nitrosomo bacteria responsible for the conversion of ammonia. I read that once in the dormant state it requires high amounts of prolonged ammonia exposure to reactivate itself ? Which would be extended by anything but ideal conditions like temp and ph to name a couple. So would an appropriate level be safely sustainable for long enough for them to reactivate? taking into account a betta and cories would be added to the tank and keeping the ammonia below 0.25ppm would be needed.



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[threnjen]

Youre correct but if i remember rightly its the nitrosomo bacteria responsible for the conversion of ammonia. I read that once in the dormant state it requires high amounts of prolonged ammonia exposure to reactivate itself ? Which would be extended by anything but ideal conditions like temp and ph to name a couple. So would an appropriate level be safely sustainable for long enough for them to reactivate? taking into account a betta and cories would be added to the tank and keeping the ammonia below 0.25ppm would be needed.

I believe that the need for prolonged exposure has been disproven, although I may have been interpreting my reading incorrectly. But the experiments I have read indicate that Nitrosomonas will bounce right back when fed again. In the second paper they were starved for up to 4 months and still went right back to work.
Lag phase of ammonia oxidation by resting cells of Nitrosomonas eruopaea.
Nitrite as a Stimulus for Ammonia-Starved Nitrosomonas europaea

My vote would be that the cories could all be added at once, was that the question we're trying to answer? Whether they can all be added?

I'm not convinced anyway that any of the bacteria go dormant, I mean there is always food. They might just be competing for it and bacteria A goes hungry for a few days because bacterias B and C got the food that day, etc. That is just speculation though.

 

[Bambithegirl]

Wow some technical talk there that I dont understand at all Last time I tested nitrates (i dont have my own kit for that, theyre very expensive in SA) it was a week ago just before my tank was completely cycled and the reading was 250! I cycled my tank by dosing up to 4ppm of ammonia and it took 35 days. But this week I have only been dosing up to 1ppm every day so does that mean the nitrates would have gone substantially down by itself? Getting some very different comments from the SA site so Im a bit torn as to if I should do a WC or not. I guess it depends what the nitrate reading is now. Will do it today and see. Just for clarity I am only adding the betta to start off with. THe cories will come later.

 

[threnjen]

WC WC WC. Honestly I see no reason to introduce a fish to a tank with nitrates. Nitrates do not go away on their own. They go away by you removing them by a WC (or plants)
If you put a fish in that it would die. They need to be under 20. Honestly I don't see why you wouldn't aim for under 5 in a brand new tank. There's no real reason to have nitrates in the tank when you add the fish as far as I can see.

With your size tank it won't take that long! Probably 2 WCs, just make sure to use the dechlor so you don't hurt the bacteria when you turn the filter back on. Do 1 WC as big as possible, let it run a bit, turn it back off do another WC big as possible.

Why are people telling you different things? What are they telling you?
To be perfectly honest I wasn't aware this was one of the topics with differing opinions (and I realize there are a whole lot of differing opinions about everything). There's no reason not to prep the tank by removing all the nitrates and putting in all fresh water.

Happy fish!

 

[Bambithegirl]

Thanks Jen. The SA forum, people are telling me not do a a WC because that would put me back to swuare one and that my fish will die if I put it in after a WC. Oh Well I think Im going to stick with what I know and do a big water change and then test the nitrates. NErves!

 

[threnjen]

Are you saying there are multiple people telling you this?????????

 

[threnjen]

Wait for other people to chime in but NO ONE on this forum is going to tell you to put a fish into a tank with 250 nitrates, that fish is going to keel over

The bacteria do not live in the water column. The only way you can mess this up is by running the filter WHILE you do the WC. Dechlor the water in a separate container to be even safer.

 

[molliwopp]

I do a 90% regardless of nitrate reading after cycling a tank but if its below 20ppm some say it isnt needed. Listen to Jen, definitely do a large change, preferably 24hrs before adding your fishy friends. I mean, why not. It will have no effect on your cycle in anyway.

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[Caliban07]

+1 on the water change. Now that your cycle is complete i would highly recommend adding a spare sponge to the filter. This would allow you to instantly cycle a new tank or a hospital tank in the event a fish got sick.

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[Bambithegirl]

So Jen if I understand you correctly, I must just turn filter off (maybe I can put it in a separate container with tank water while doing the wc) and turn it back on after the water change? I always dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank. Some others were saying not do do it because it might disturb the cycle but I think they thought it was still in progress. I will try not to disturb the sand and just take water out with a jug instead of the gravel vacuum.

 

[The Trooper]

If people are telling you not to dechlorinate water, without sounding abrupt they are idiots. Chlorine kills bacteria and that is what you have been growing over the last 7 weeks of cycling.

I recently finished my fishless cycle, done a huge 95% w/c and added 15 fish within the space of 2 weeks, no ammonia related deaths and all parameters stayed good.

Ammonia = Dead fish, fish do not deal with ammonia well at all.
Nitrites = Dead fish, fish do not deal with nitrites well at all.
Low Nitrates = cycled tank and generally happy fish, most are happy as long as they remain below 20-30ppm,
High nitrates = Dead fish.

Not trying to be disrespectful here, but this SA forum is either clueless or they have a whole different way to keeping fish than the rest of us over here. (world wide).

This post is not meant to come across as condescending so please don't take it that way.

 

[Caliban07]

So Jen if I understand you correctly, I must just turn filter off (maybe I can put it in a separate container with tank water while doing the wc) and turn it back on after the water change? I always dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank. Some others were saying not do do it because it might disturb the cycle but I think they thought it was still in progress. I will try not to disturb the sand and just take water out with a jug instead of the gravel vacuum.

Most people dechorinate the buckets they fill before putting it in to the tank. People with python water changers fill the tank and dose the whole tank with a dechlorinator. You dont need to take the filter out but I switch all my appliances off, lights, heater, filter when I am doing a water change simply because I am clumsy and dont want to spill water on to live electrics. Also you must switch of your heater when doing a water change as they get very very hot when not submersed which can cause them to break. Make sure your water line doesnt fall below the heater if you leave it on but I would always recommend switching eveything off. Everything will be fine for half an hour while you change water.

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[Fishperson]

I believe that the OP is saying that the SA people think that doing a water change would get rid of all the BB in the water. But that isn't true anyways.

You have to do a water change, like said, fish will die in that high nitrates.

 

[Fishperson]

Also, BB do not die from temporary exposure to tap water. According to an experienced member of this forum. But for longer than 20 minutes, say, they probably would.