Ph During Fishless Cycle

[tiguardo]

Oh dude...I coulda saved you some serious time, haha. You didn't need to do a fishless cycle . Since the bacteria adjusts to the fish...and the majority of the bacteria is in the filter media...all you've got to do is move every piece of filter media to the new tank, watch for / potentially deal with toxin spikes for a few days and it's done. Just think of this as more fishless cycling practice...and a way to become a more patient person

Here's the good news...go buy more fish . You built a bio-filter more than capable of handling the fish you're moving over...so go crazy at the LFS if you want.

And yeah, if the cycle is done, move them over whenever you want. Just watch out for that low pH thing we've been talking about.

I know I didn't have to do a compete new cycle, but when I started I was going to keep both tanks going!

I've decided to let the ph fall to it's natural level after the PWC as the fish are obviously used to that ph.

I'm also cycling a new Nano tank for shrimp. Shall I run the filter from this new tank In my large established tank, then fill the nano with water from that tank to 'cycle' it. Would that do the job ok?

 

[eco23]

I know I didn't have to do a compete new cycle, but when I started I was going to keep both tanks going!

I've decided to let the ph fall to it's natural level after the PWC as the fish are obviously used to that ph.

I'm also cycling a new Nano tank for shrimp. Shall I run the filter from this new tank In my large established tank, then fill the nano with water from that tank to 'cycle' it. Would that do the job ok?

Okay, cool. Thought you were gonna break something out of frustration, haha.

Yeah, you can either run the shrimp tank filter in the large tank for a few weeks to seed it...or just move some media over to it when you're ready to stock.

Remember the water has virtually no beneficial bacteria, so filter media is key. For example, when I set up my 5 gallon Betta tank, I didn't cycle it...I just pulled some filter media out of the canister on my 46, threw it into the 5 gallons filter, added the Betta and had an instantly cycled tank. To consider a tank "cycled"...all it means is that you have enough beneficial bacteria to efficiently handle the bio-load of the tank. Since shrimp have such a tiny bio-load...a nice, established piece of filter from the main tank is all you need.

 

[tiguardo]

Okay, cool. Thought you were gonna break something out of frustration, haha.

Yeah, you can either run the shrimp tank filter in the large tank for a few weeks to seed it...or just move some media over to it when you're ready to stock.

Remember the water has virtually no beneficial bacteria, so filter media is key. For example, when I set up my 5 gallon Betta tank, I didn't cycle it...I just pulled some filter media out of the canister on my 46, threw it into the 5 gallons filter, added the Betta and had an instantly cycled tank. To consider a tank "cycled"...all it means is that you have enough beneficial bacteria to efficiently handle the bio-load of the tank. Since shrimp have such a tiny bio-load...a nice, established piece of filter from the main tank is all you need.

Ha ha, there were times when I thought about it, lol. Patience makes us better people I believe!

I threw a large chunk of filter foam from my canister filter into the nano tank about 5 days ago as the nano filter is so small it would have been a bit of a squeeze to get it in.

I have fed it with ammonia, which is dropping well & as of tonight my reading is ammonia 0.6, nitrite 0.1, nitrate 5.

What would you recommend, font of cycling knowledge?

 

[eco23]

Ha ha, there were times when I thought about it, lol. Patience makes us better people I believe!

I threw a large chunk of filter foam from my canister filter into the nano tank about 5 days ago as the nano filter is so small it would have been a bit of a squeeze to get it in.

I have fed it with ammonia, which is dropping well & as of tonight my reading is ammonia 0.6, nitrite 0.1, nitrate 5.

What would you recommend, font of cycling knowledge?

Is the foam just sitting in the tank, or did you manage to squeeze it into the filter?

If you can get some in the filter...honestly I wouldn't worry about feeding it ammonia. The day before you pick up the shrimp just fill the tank up with water, move the filter media from the main tank over...and stock. You can run the small filter on the big tank for a while...but it takes a few weeks for it to really establish a decent colony of BB.

If you do decide to cycle it...I wouldn't worry about 4ppm. Shrimp barely have a bio-load, and I'd say 1-2ppm max would be plenty sufficient. It'll cycle faster and totally be able to handle like a million shrimp. I just wouldn't pull the foam back out since that's most likely where all your conversion is coming from.

 

[tiguardo]

Is the foam just sitting in the tank, or did you manage to squeeze it into the filter?

If you can get some in the filter...honestly I wouldn't worry about feeding it ammonia. The day before you pick up the shrimp just fill the tank up with water, move the filter media from the main tank over...and stock. You can run the small filter on the big tank for a while...but it takes a few weeks for it to really establish a decent colony of BB.

If you do decide to cycle it...I wouldn't worry about 4ppm. Shrimp barely have a bio-load, and I'd say 1-2ppm max would be plenty sufficient. It'll cycle faster and totally be able to handle like a million shrimp. I just wouldn't pull the foam back out since that's most likely where all your conversion is coming from.

The foam is in the tank as it's just a nano filter. I think I'm going to run the filter in my main tank for a couple of weeks as I'm not going to stock until then anyway. Might do a PWC in the meantime to clear any ammonia from the nano tank?

 

[eco23]

Pwc is your call. In reality, if you wanted to leave it set up and cycle it at a low ppm like 1-2...you might be able to stock it faster than waiting for the filter to become established in the main tank. Like I said though...the concern would be removing the sponge after it's cycled. Maybe squeeze the filter for all it's worth into the shrimp tank...then throw it back in the big one.

 

[tiguardo]

An update.....

I restarted the heater in my Nano tank & added mature sponge from my canister filter directly into my Nano filter.

I tested on Sunday afternoon and I think that there must be residual ammonia etc from when I started to cycle fishlessly. My readings were: ammonia 1.6, nitrite 0.8, nitrate 50, ph 6.0.

I started everything up again and tested last night and my readings were: ammonia 0, nitrite 1.6, nitrate 110, ph 6.5. Upon testing this morning I had seen no change in these readings.

Do I dose with a small amount of ammonia, or do I just let the nitrite be converted to nitrate & then do a PWC to bring that down? I'm only adding cherry shrimp so the bio load is going to be small & the filter foam is well established.

Don't know which path to choose, lol!?

 

[eco23]

I'd just do a total water change to remove the toxin residuals, wait a day to make sure they stay zeroed out, put in established media, add shrimp