Tellurye
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi all, new to the forum, my first post
So here's the deal:
I recently acquired a 55 gallon tank from craigslist with an iron stand, Marineland 220 magnum canister filter, a glass heater, a blower, and light setup. Only $130! I thought it was a great deal!
....until the tank started leaking from the bottom seal when it was 50% full. Yay. So I took the time and resealed the whole inside of the tank. Seal is great! Let it cure for 3 days, has been holding water for over a week, no signs of any problems
So now the issue is, cycling it. I kind of think what I did to cycle it is too good to be true, since my tank *seems* to be cycled fully, and it's only been 2 days.
What I've done to cycle it is:
-Brought 5 cups of old, cycled gravel from my currently cycled tank (my main 60 gallon tank has been up and running for 2 years now).
-Used 50% of the water from my main tank for this one
Brought a fake plant and large decor tree thing from main tank
3 live plants from main tank
AND most importantly, scraped the dirty media from 4 filter cartridges from main tank and put the nasty mud/water right into new tank, specifically trying to get it to flow right into the intake of current Marineland 220 Magnum canister filter.
On top of that, I used API Quick Start in the recommended dosage, which *supposidly* has nitrifying bacteria in it that will stomp out high ammonia and nitrite.
Now, I did this all 2 days ago. My fish are in the tank. I had to transfer over a blood parrot, an angelfish, and a catfish last night into this new tank, because I recently turned my main 60 gallon tank into an African Cichlid tank... and we all know that just isn't a combo that will ever work out. So basically it was an emergency switch so the Africans wouldn't nip and torture my other babies, besides the drastic differences in water parameters the fish need.
I just tested the water about a half hour ago. This is in addition to testing about every 10-12 hours over the past 2 days.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I've had 7 feeder fish in the new tank from the moment I filled it, just to add ammonia and frankly, to see if they would survive.
Now, for my current tank readings (using API Master Test kit):
pH: 7.6 (still too high, lowering with peat moss ball.. other tank was 8.0, so it is lowering for sure)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm
After getting the reading of 80ppm nitrate, I have done a 50% water change, about 5 minutes ago.
...So am I good to go? Is it cycled? With the 4-5 tests I've done over the course of the past 2 days, there has never been a reading of ammonia or nitrite, only high nitrates. I'm VERY surprised... but if it is cycled, I'm feeling pretty proud right now haha. 2 days just doesn't seem plausible, but the readings aren't lying!
Also, another question... this Marineland 220 Magnum canister filter I just got. Anyone familiar with it? I set it up with acivated carbon on the inside, cut a filter pad/floss from a roll of it to fit around the carbon holder, and have put a water softening pouch in there (my tap water is almost solid it's so hard haha). How does bio filtration work on something like this??? Do I need to buy a bio filter or something? I'm super confused on that. Because my main tank has 2 Marineland 400 HOB filters, which have bio-wheels for the bacteria... but the canister doesn't seem to have a way to keep the good bacteria in. I'm very confused, and it would be nice if someone could enlighten me on how the canister keeps the bacteria, if it does, at all! Should I be keeping a bit of old filter pad in there when I change out the media? Ugh, so confused.
Thanks for reading this lengthy post, I really tried to provide as much info as possible!
Bernice
So here's the deal:
I recently acquired a 55 gallon tank from craigslist with an iron stand, Marineland 220 magnum canister filter, a glass heater, a blower, and light setup. Only $130! I thought it was a great deal!
....until the tank started leaking from the bottom seal when it was 50% full. Yay. So I took the time and resealed the whole inside of the tank. Seal is great! Let it cure for 3 days, has been holding water for over a week, no signs of any problems
So now the issue is, cycling it. I kind of think what I did to cycle it is too good to be true, since my tank *seems* to be cycled fully, and it's only been 2 days.
What I've done to cycle it is:
-Brought 5 cups of old, cycled gravel from my currently cycled tank (my main 60 gallon tank has been up and running for 2 years now).
-Used 50% of the water from my main tank for this one
Brought a fake plant and large decor tree thing from main tank
3 live plants from main tank
AND most importantly, scraped the dirty media from 4 filter cartridges from main tank and put the nasty mud/water right into new tank, specifically trying to get it to flow right into the intake of current Marineland 220 Magnum canister filter.
On top of that, I used API Quick Start in the recommended dosage, which *supposidly* has nitrifying bacteria in it that will stomp out high ammonia and nitrite.
Now, I did this all 2 days ago. My fish are in the tank. I had to transfer over a blood parrot, an angelfish, and a catfish last night into this new tank, because I recently turned my main 60 gallon tank into an African Cichlid tank... and we all know that just isn't a combo that will ever work out. So basically it was an emergency switch so the Africans wouldn't nip and torture my other babies, besides the drastic differences in water parameters the fish need.
I just tested the water about a half hour ago. This is in addition to testing about every 10-12 hours over the past 2 days.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I've had 7 feeder fish in the new tank from the moment I filled it, just to add ammonia and frankly, to see if they would survive.
Now, for my current tank readings (using API Master Test kit):
pH: 7.6 (still too high, lowering with peat moss ball.. other tank was 8.0, so it is lowering for sure)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm
After getting the reading of 80ppm nitrate, I have done a 50% water change, about 5 minutes ago.
...So am I good to go? Is it cycled? With the 4-5 tests I've done over the course of the past 2 days, there has never been a reading of ammonia or nitrite, only high nitrates. I'm VERY surprised... but if it is cycled, I'm feeling pretty proud right now haha. 2 days just doesn't seem plausible, but the readings aren't lying!
Also, another question... this Marineland 220 Magnum canister filter I just got. Anyone familiar with it? I set it up with acivated carbon on the inside, cut a filter pad/floss from a roll of it to fit around the carbon holder, and have put a water softening pouch in there (my tap water is almost solid it's so hard haha). How does bio filtration work on something like this??? Do I need to buy a bio filter or something? I'm super confused on that. Because my main tank has 2 Marineland 400 HOB filters, which have bio-wheels for the bacteria... but the canister doesn't seem to have a way to keep the good bacteria in. I'm very confused, and it would be nice if someone could enlighten me on how the canister keeps the bacteria, if it does, at all! Should I be keeping a bit of old filter pad in there when I change out the media? Ugh, so confused.
Thanks for reading this lengthy post, I really tried to provide as much info as possible!
Bernice