Any suggestions on my cycling? Am I doing ok?

[DesktopTankDiva]

Hi there....newb aqua enthusiast here.

I am one month into my fishless cycle, I use Dr. Tim's ammoinia so I referred to his video as a guide for cycling. According to his video, I should not add any more ammonia to a zero reading until nitrites lower to zero. I went two weeks with zero ammonia and super high nitrites and nitrates. Is this amount of time excessive to wait for nitrites to drop?...I'm aware this takes longer but I'm unsure what amount of time is too long. After reading a few posts here I did a 30% water change and added 2ppm ammonia.

Also, my tank is a kit and came with filter cartridges but I did not add them to the filter because it seemed contradictory to cycling. I have read articles and posts stating that a filter should be set up, so I'm unsure if I'm performing the filter part correctly.

My tank is a 3.5 gallon desktop with a large airstone for aeration and the heater set at 85 degrees F. I saw a video that stated beneficial bacteria grew more quickly in aerated warm temps. I use SeaChem's Prime and Stability. I also purchased Fluval BioMax media rings but I'm unsure how to use them with my tank's small capacity. My goal is to have more of an aqua-terrarium with lots of silk-like plants and a few live plants with only 2 or 3 male Endler's. I can't wait until it's complete so I can attach photos, I love the lush greenery, serenity, and the bit of mystery it offers. I have SeaChem Flourish Tabs to maintain the live flora.

I would welcome any friendly and kind guidance as this is only the second aquarium I've ever had.

Thanks!
DesktopD

 

[King Fisher]

Some people think you dose ammonia and leave the tank be until your ammonia and nitrites zero out. Others think you do water changes and keep your ammonia between 2-4 ppm and don't let your nitrites get above 5 ppm. I think both schools of thought have ended in a cycled tank.

If I may ask, why are you leaving the filter cartridges out of the filter? A lot of your beneficial bacteria will grow on your filter cartridge media.

 

[DesktopTankDiva]

Hi King Fisher, and thanks for your reply.

If you think both methods will get me to the same place then I won't worry too much about it as I suppose my tank will eventually get cycled regardless of which path I choose.

I omitted the filter cartridge during cycling because I thought the charcoal (and whatever else it may contain) may harm the bacteria or alter cycling levels. I was very unclear on the instructions as most articles simply stated "set up your filter". My newb self read that as physically assembling and installing the filter on the tank...."add filter cartridges and filter media" was an instruction I never saw so I thought there was a reason I was supposed to omit them for now.

The cartridges that came with the kit is a white scrubby material housing charcoal, and maybe something else I can't determine. I have SeaChem's Purigen, as well as Fluval BioMax rings. Should I just install the charcoal cartridges, or do you have an idea for the Purigen and Fluval rings? I guess I was unsure because my last aquarium was a Marineland with a BioWheel which took care of the media, and the filter cartridge with charcoal was separate. I thought filter cartridges were meant to be disposed of (after a month or whatever amount of time), negating its usefulness as a home for beneficial bacteria. I guess I am still kind of confused as to what role each component plays.

I have included a super boring pic of my empty cycling tank. I have ordered artificial plants online as well as a few small slate rocks I'd like to landscape with so it is decor-less until those items arrive. Ideally I would have added decor sooner but I had a difficult time choosing ornaments and it took me nearly a month to narrow it down. I also included a pic of my filter, adding in a ruler so you can see its dimensions of approx 6 x 1.5 inches if you have any suggestions on how to add in Purigen or the Fluval rings. (I kept rotating this pic in my photo editor and on my phone and resent it, but it will not budge from its upside down position when uploaded here!)

Thanks again!
DesktopD

 

[King Fisher]

Just make sure you keep an ammonia reading in the tank steadily between 2-4 ppm. Personally I do water changes just because it works for me but I've known some who don't until it's cycled.

Charcoal doesn't do anything to affect a cycle. Yes those cartridges are disposable but it will also store BB. You could rinse the filter out after it's cycled in old tank water or dechlorinated water to clean it up for reuse. Or you could try to find another media source to put in it like filter floss and cut it to size.

I don't see the need for purigen or bio rings. Maybe you could use the bio rings with the filter floss but I've never tried that in an HOB.

I own a marineland with a bio wheel. The wheel sucks and always warped on me so I removed it and just use the filter cartridge.

I'd add your decor as soon as possible as your beneficial bacteria will grow on it. BB grows on pretty much everything in the tank......gravel, decor, inside glass of the tank, filters, plants....You could also add some low light plants if you wanted to get away from artificial.

 

[DesktopTankDiva]

You could rinse the filter out after it's cycled in old tank water or dechlorinated water to clean it up for reuse. Or you could try to find another media source to put in it like filter floss and cut it to size.

Thanks so much for the advice. However I'm still unclear on a few things. I thought the filter expired/exhausted...can charcoal be reactivated? What benefit does the old tank water have when rinsing it? And how is rinsing reactivating it?....how is rinsing/reactivating different than the cartridge being placed in the filter and doing its everyday job?

Sorry for all the questions, I want to be sure I understand the process and do it correctly. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

DesktopD

 

[King Fisher]

When the charcoal is done it's done. But you don't really need charcoal either. But.....it doesn't hurt to use it. For example.....I got an established tank (bigger than yours) where I run two HOB's. I use the filter cartridges they are designed to have and they have Carbon. I do throw them out. What I do is I run them for 3-4 weeks. When it's time, I replace one filter cartridge one week then I replace the second HOB's filter cartridge the next week. The reason being is when I remove the first HOB filter I lose the BB stored in it but I have the second HOB filter holding BB. I let the new filter collect BB for a week before I change the second HOB filter. Rotating between the two keeps my tanks BB stable. On top of that, the tank already has BB stored in the substrate, decore, plants, ECT... I actually tested how much BB my tank had outside of using filter media in my HOB's. I removed the filter media from both filters and ran my tank for two weeks. I never had a bacteria bloom. So my tank was holding enough BB to keep my water stable.

Using old tank water insures you aren't killing BB with chlorine or chloramines from your tap water but you can also treat a pan of tap water with dechlorinator and clean off the filters.

 

[DesktopTankDiva]

Thanks so much for the detailed information. I do understand it better now...I was giving charcoal way more credit than it deserves! The great thing about your personal story is that I am able to somewhat duplicate your alternating disposal process with your filter cartridges...I would never have thought of this on my own. The filter on my tank is designed to hold two small cartridges. I will be alternating removal of each as to minimize the impact to the beneficial bacteria.

A supplemental question though...why rinse the cartridges at all if you're simply disposing of them? Why not just toss them in the trash? Or are you re-using the rinse water and placing it back in your tank?

As well, if charcoal is doing next to nothing, do I need to use another form of chemical filteration?

Btw, I laughed outloud in your prior post when you said the BioWheel sucked. I did not have the same sucky experience with mine, most likely because it was warp resistant due to its tiny 3" length. Sucky warpy BioWheels.

Thanks!
DesktopD

 

[King Fisher]

If you are using a plain filter media without carbon you can reuse it until it begins to fall apart. That's when you would rinse it out good and put it back in the filter. If you are using disposables then there's really no need to do this but I suppose you could if you wanted to. Don't dump the old tank water or dechlorinated water you use to clean the filter media back into the tank. Lol.

Charcoal is used for a couple reasons. It keeps your water clear. Not necessary to keep clear water but helps if your water appears a little cloudy. It also helps to remove certain medications from the water when dosing for sick fish. It's also the reason you remove any carbon when using certain medications. You don't need to use chemical filtration unless you have a toxin in your tank you want removed. Such as copper and some heavy metals. A good dechlorinator such as seachem prime also removes heavy metals so again, there's no need to use it. Personally, I have no issue using carbon in my filters. I feel it doesn't hurt anything so why not.

I went through three bio wheels that warped and stopped turning before I scraped it because it doesn't really matter whether you have it or not IMO.

 

[DesktopTankDiva]

Thanks again for clarifying and for the advice King Fisher!

 

[King Fisher]

No problem. Keep us updated. Good luck!!