Cycle Question

[Relic1882]

Quick question.

For some reason my 29 gal ammonia level seems to be dropping slowly but the nitrites and nitrates are not building up at all. If I add a bacteria from my lfs, can I help speed this up? It's been almost a month and nothing yet. No fish in the tank. I want my biofiltration to be perfect for when I move. I'm going to try and preserve it and ready the tank for discus fish. I'm moving on May 1st and I need to speed it up. Any suggestions?

 

[debbieg]

Unless I'm reading your post wrong, you need something dirty in that tank. The bacteria has to have some reason to show up. You could dump in a bunch of feeder goldfish. I've even done it by putting cheap fish food in an empty tank every time I feed my other fish.

Debbie

 

[TomK2]

Hmmm. Tough task, cycle the tank, then move and have it ready to go. Without problems. Hmmmm. I know you want to shave weeks off the ?fishless? cycle when you move, but I also know that discus are finicky fish, and I think you might want to keep some other fish in the tank for a few months before adding discus. That said, BrianNY is a discus expert, you might want to ask him a few questions before buying discus. I see no harm in trying to establish a biofilter now, but I think there will be disruption of the biofilter with the move, so a tank ready for sensitive fish right from the start may not be probable.