second opinion

[croppy]

the
In the middle of Nov. '17, I purchased a forty gallon acrylic aquarium. I had it all set up, and after testing the water with the API master kit, found the water was extremely hard, so I decided on cichlids.

I let the tank run with nothing in it but the grave and rocks, (I don't believe in cycling while fish are in the tank), and after it was cycled, changed the water, all of it to rid it of nitrates. After learning that changing the filter as well was a bad idea, i put one of the old biofilters in, and the tests returned to normal quickly.

The day before I was to order my fish, I did a 75% water change while soaking the biofilters in the water I had siphoned out of the tank. The old water to preserve the bacteria. After refilling the tank and adding a dechorinator, I found I had sky high ammonia, no nitrites or nitrites.
This is the short version. Anyway, I'm having to start from ground zero with cycling, but I have no idea what I did wrong. I had the same things in the tank, a filter that had been running, for about three weeks (the filter was made for up to 75 gallons with no problems, nothing new was added. I can't find the source of the problem. The extra time to recycle does't bother me, but I don't want to cause a problem for the fish. Does anyone have an idea of what would cause this backslide?

thanks,
croppy

 

[ZxC]

Where you dosing an ammonia source? Without a source of ammonia, the biofilter will die off

 

[V227]

IMO, you probably didn't have a totally cycled tank. I think the massive WC's were a mistake too. I know the current tank cycling trend is the "fishless" method. I guess to eliminate the possibility of being cruel to fish.
If you intend to continue the fishless cycling method, you are going to be more or less a chemist, take your time, no huge WC's and stay on top of your testing.
If your fish arrive and you are forced to do a fish-in cycle. Conduct a small 20-25% WC every three days, feed sensibly, test a couple times a week and in a month to five weeks, cycle complete. Much easier, and if performed correctly, not harmful to the fish. I'm sure things will level out soon.

 

[Angellove78]

Sounds like you lost your cycle when you did that big of a water change and having a bigger filter changing and soaking you killed it all. It being a new tank it has to mature and that takes some time. You should only 0 out the ammonia, not the nitrate. Only change out enough what your test is on ammonia. And change with same temp of water.too hot, too cold will kill it too.

 

[Coralocean]

IMO, you probably didn't have a totally cycled tank. I think the massive WC's were a mistake too. I know the current tank cycling trend is the "fishless" method. I guess to eliminate the possibility of being cruel to fish.
If you intend to continue the fishless cycling method, you are going to be more or less a chemist, take your time, no huge WC's and stay on top of your testing.
If your fish arrive and you are forced to do a fish-in cycle. Conduct a small 20-25% WC every three days, feed sensibly, test a couple times a week and in a month to five weeks, cycle complete. Much easier, and if performed correctly, not harmful to the fish. I'm sure things will level out soon.

I was under the impression that BB do not live in the water column. I'm doing a fish-in cycle and have been changing water daily, hope that isn't setting my cycle back.

 

[smallfry53]

IMO unless there is a large ph swing, there is no reason to do pwcs, but I don't see how it would really hurt that much either...

 

[Angellove78]

I was under the impression that BB do not live in the water column. I'm doing a fish-in cycle and have been changing water daily, hope that isn't setting my cycle back.

If your testing the water daily and finding high reading of ammonia you have to do water changes and get ammonia down(With fish in cycle). But doing too big of water changes will slow the process down. With hardly fish your ammonia level can stay at .15-.25 and it will cycle faster. B.B. is your filter, decoration, gravel, glass... Just don't clean, or change the filter till you think it's caked, and tank is cycled. You should be seeing nitrite in your tank by now. But could be another wk.

 

[Coralocean]

If your testing the water daily and finding high reading of ammonia you have to do water changes and get ammonia down(With fish in cycle). But doing too big of water changes will slow the process down. With hardly fish your ammonia level can stay at .15-.25 and it will cycle faster. B.B. is your filter, decoration, gravel, glass... Just don't clean, or change the filter till you think it's caked, and tank is cycled. You should be seeing nitrite in your tank by now. But could be another wk.

Every morning I test the water and get about .25ppm ammonia. On Thursday I received the Angel Active sponge and today all readings are 0. No ammonia! Wondering if I accomplished some cycling?? I know I need to see Nitrates but none yet.

 

[smallfry53]

Awesome! Do you have nitrites? Glad to hear things seem to be looking up for you.

 

[Angellove78]

Every morning I test the water and get about .25ppm ammonia. On Thursday I received the Angel Active sponge and today all readings are 0. No ammonia! Wondering if I accomplished some cycling?? I know I need to see Nitrates but none yet.

You might be. Test it today for nitrate.

 

[smallfry53]

croppy, I'm going to guess washing the filter pads/maybe washing them too much caused things to go backwards a little bit. Especially if you are just using pure ammonia there is no reason imo to wash the pads anyway. You just have an empty tank, nothing to dirty the filter. You should be able to re-cycle quickly since you should still have some BB in the tank.

 

[Coralocean]

Not getting nitrite yet but the lfs said there is a trace of nitrates not enough that the API would detect yet. Not sure what they tesed with. This is not Petco it's a VERY nice fish and reef only place.

 

[Angellove78]

Not getting nitrite yet but the lfs said there is a trace of nitrates not enough that the API would detect yet. Not sure what they tesed with. This is not Petco it's a VERY nice fish and reef only place.

A trace can come from the tap too. But if you didn't have readings of nitrate before then it's a pretty good sign the cycle has begun and your tank will just start to mature now. hopefully! But either way, be patient. It will happen.

 

[croppy]

Ype of ammonia

Where you dosing an ammonia source? Without a source of ammonia, the biofilter will die off

I use Dr. Tim's ammonia. All that is in it is ammonia and purified water. The doses are made by drops per gallon rather than mls per gallon.

 

[croppy]

When I did the change that fell below that filter intake, I took the biobrushes and biobags and had them soaking in a large bowl filled with what I was filtering off the tank so the bacteria should have survived. The first time I did it, I did let the filter pads dry out, but that was a long time ago and the system just went into a mini cycle and returned to normal in two days. That is one reason why I don't understand what happened when the bacteria were preserved.

 

[coralbandit]

Have you tested your source water for ammonia? Was the tank mini cycling again and what are the readings now a couple days later?