lost bacteria?

[ElanaJoy]

Hi! I had a long journey (mostly procrastinating) with getting my tank up and running. I finally did a successful fishless cycle (processing 4ppm ammonia <24hr) , and ordered fish from my lfs. Well, a few weeks went by, and no fish. I decided to make sure it was still cycled and added ammo to 3ppm, it was 0 the next day. So I assumed it was still cycled. Now, I finally decided I should really be going with sand for the cory cats I'm getting, so I emptied ALL of the water (had to anyways because the nitrAtes were still sky high from the cycling process) and swapped the gravel for sand. I put some gravel in a stocking (about the size of 2 baseballs) and there is lots of extra floss stuff that I cycled the tank with and a small piece of driftwood and a decoration.

So...Now what? How do I know I have enough bacteria left? 80%of the gravel is out the door! Should I test it again? If so, how much? Can I simulate the bioload without going overboard, or is that what 4ppm is? Will one test shoot up my Nitrates again? I have fish on hold now form a different specialized fish store 45 minutes away, and want to pick them up soon, but am hoping to avoid a mini-cycle catastrophe. Any suggestions? (getting the pygmy corys btw! )

 

[Sniperhank]

How much rock is in the system?

 

[ElanaJoy]

How much rock is in the system?

Hi. I'm not even sure I know what that means, if you mean gravel, there is the size of about 2 baseballs in a stocking on top of the sand in one corner. the filter is the floss with carbon in the middle (I think) and I have huge wads of floss that I cycled it with obtained from the tanks at my lfs. The tank is a 5 gal (small, I know!)

 

[54seaweed]

when you drained the tank did you keep everything wet while replacing gravel with sand.
was your filter media exposed to air . you may need to run another cycle . but it wouldn't
hurt to do a ammonia check . you may get lucky or hit a mini cycle because of the new sand.
Tips and Tricks For Your Fastest Fishless Cycle! - Aquarium Advice

 

[ElanaJoy]

when you drained the tank did you keep everything wet while replacing gravel with sand.
was your filter media exposed to air . you may need to run another cycle . but it wouldn't
hurt to do a ammonia check . you may get lucky or hit a mini cycle because of the new sand.
Tips and Tricks For Your Fastest Fishless Cycle! - Aquarium Advice

Kept everything wet in the old water. If I should add ammo, how much should I add? And how quickly should I be checking to see if it processes it? Then I guess do a partial change to bring any nitrates back down??
Thanks!