Makavelli02
Aquarium Advice Activist
75 g tank is running with fish. 3 oscars at this time then will ad my plec when cycle is over. Fluval 404, emperor 400 and 1140 penguin power head 300 gph. Any suggestions?
75g up and running
- Thread starter Makavelli02
- Start date
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Makavelli02
Aquarium Advice Activist
Smitty
Aquarium Advice Addict
Check the ammonia daily if not multiple times a day to make sure it doesn't get over .25 ppm so that the fish don't die until the tank is cycled. If the ammonia does get over .25 you will need to do a water change in order to get it to drop.
Other than that, the tank looks nice. Looks like a lot of flow in there too!
Other than that, the tank looks nice. Looks like a lot of flow in there too!
Makavelli02
Aquarium Advice Activist
Smitty said:
Thank you. The drift wood and fake plants are from my existing cycled tanks. And I have been putting nutrafin cycle in every day. Do you think this will help making the cycling process easier?
Smitty
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yes, I think it will help but the driftwood isn't too big and that plant isn't too big either so I don't know how much it will help. It is MUCH better than nothing though! Did you have any old media from your other tank that you can add to your filter? That would also help. With existing good bacteria then it should shorten the cycle if nothing else.
I'm not familiar with nutrafin cycle so can't comment on that.
I'm not familiar with nutrafin cycle so can't comment on that.
doogle
Aquarium Advice FINatic
you can take water from established tanks and put it in, it works
mfdrookie516
Aquarium Free - 2+ Years
The water column contains very few, if any nitrifying bacteria. All you would be doing is putting dirty water in.
Makavelli02
Aquarium Advice Activist
So what is the best way to help the cycle along? I have another peice of driftwood in my 30g tank (which will now be a community tank). I also have a cycled 20g That i am going to tear down. I can take the media out of the aqueon 20 that is on it.
BigJim
Aquarium Advice Addict
The established filter media would be the best way to go.
Smitty
Aquarium Advice Addict
+1
doogle
Aquarium Advice FINatic
i used my water from my 55 in my 20 and it was cycled in less than a week. why would it be DIRTY? you will take a real ''DIRTY'' filter and put it in ''CLEAN'' WATER, ... I WOULD CONSIDER IT SUITABLE WATER INTO A NEW FILTER OR NEW WATER INTO A CONDITIONED FILTER ITS APPLES VS. ORANGES. THINK ABOUT IT! THE END RESULT IS THE SAME you will have a mini cycle but thats to be expected.
doogle
Aquarium Advice FINatic
okay, i have been thinking about this more and now i can put it into words...(thanks, i know)... you take media from an established tank like you say, the beneficial bacteria will die if there is no ammonia to feed from, so you can put a filter or gravel from an established tank all you want(if you can spare it!) but without ammonia to feed the nitrifying bacteria it will die off, and the good bacteria will only* be less than * or equal* to the amount of ammonia present in the tank. so once again i think adding ammonia or dirty water is better and faster at growing "good" bacteria because it will die off untill there is enough ammonia to grow and FEED the"good" beneficial nitrifying bacteria we all want to grow... okay, im done...what do you guys think about that ?
Smitty
Aquarium Advice Addict
I somewhat concur. If reading that the way you are indenting (I having had any coffee yet this morning!). The biggest thing I don't think I agree on is the old water.
Granted, if you are upgrading from 1 tank to another and moving your fish, then yes I think you should move at least 50% of the old water, if nothing else the fish are used to that water. If just cycling a tank then I would say no because the good bacteria doesn't really exist in the water itself and there could be more bad stuff in it than what the bacteria needs. Granted, if you are moving a bunch of stuff that already had bacteria on it, the cycle could be really short or almost none. I would still throw some kind of source in there just to check.
Also, I was speaking in general terms before. Just because you don't have an ammonia source doesn't mean the bacteria will die off right away, it will take a bit of time (I don't know how long, but we are talking weeks). So you don't have to be urgent about it.
Another thing to remember with upgrading is even if you move everything from say a 20g tank to a 75g tank, you can't add livestock up to the point of being full in the 75g tank because you still have to give time for the bacteria to get used to the higher load, that is the reason why people are told to add only a couple fish at a time.
Sorry for being long winded!
Granted, if you are upgrading from 1 tank to another and moving your fish, then yes I think you should move at least 50% of the old water, if nothing else the fish are used to that water. If just cycling a tank then I would say no because the good bacteria doesn't really exist in the water itself and there could be more bad stuff in it than what the bacteria needs. Granted, if you are moving a bunch of stuff that already had bacteria on it, the cycle could be really short or almost none. I would still throw some kind of source in there just to check.
Also, I was speaking in general terms before. Just because you don't have an ammonia source doesn't mean the bacteria will die off right away, it will take a bit of time (I don't know how long, but we are talking weeks). So you don't have to be urgent about it.
Another thing to remember with upgrading is even if you move everything from say a 20g tank to a 75g tank, you can't add livestock up to the point of being full in the 75g tank because you still have to give time for the bacteria to get used to the higher load, that is the reason why people are told to add only a couple fish at a time.
Sorry for being long winded!
doogle
Aquarium Advice FINatic
no problem, yes it was moving fish from a small tank into a larger tank. you can overstock a tank from the start as long as all the fish are slowly acclimated to the rising ammonia and nitrite. if you add more fish during a cycle the fish get shocked from ammonia and die. the secret to succeed is keeping ammonia levels low during the cycle(20ppm)and do partial water changes to keep ammonia low,dont listen to people who say not to change water during cycling. the amount of ammonia you remove from the tank is not substantial enough to slow a cycle and the good bacteria gets a chance to catch up, you are not removing good bacteria with the water changes,people who tell you not to change water because you will stop the cycle process are ill-informed and are giving bad advice,and hurting and killing fish more. i dont recommend it but it can be done, and is easy if you test your water 2 or 3 times a week during your cycle. ammonia is key factor in cycling a tank. keep it low and the bacteria will grow.
doogle
Aquarium Advice FINatic
you dont agree, i know... but i dont feel adding bacteria helps more than adding ammonia, that is what will feed and grow your bacteria.
bacteria may help stabalize a influx of unwanted ammonia...get er done, im trying a bottle of cycleing bacteria right now (thats a first) and it haS "dormant" bacteria(synthetic?) in it, so it is something i am looking into, after all, like everyone else here.... i want to be informed.(u guys sick of me?...lol) - doogle
bacteria may help stabalize a influx of unwanted ammonia...get er done, im trying a bottle of cycleing bacteria right now (thats a first) and it haS "dormant" bacteria(synthetic?) in it, so it is something i am looking into, after all, like everyone else here.... i want to be informed.(u guys sick of me?...lol) - doogle
