cycling a new 55 gallon

[thetmaxx]

since i never acctually acheived cycling of my 10 gallon until it just happened, after a few months, i really dont know what too expect with my new 55 gallon. its been up for 2 days now, i know how to do the chemicals to get it going. but i trust the people here, so im wondering how many days before putting fish in? and what to do about the chemical levels. all i know now is the chemicals are all good, but the water is getting cloudy. im guessing the water is going to get bad high nitries, and nitrates, and amonia, and do i do water changes when this happens? and eventually it should be ok right? thanks!!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

What chemicals did you use to get it going?

The 55 gal will take longer to cycle than the 10 gal. It would help to take some of the gunk from the filtration unit of the 10 and put it on one of the pads of the 55 unit. You're tank will become cloudy from the ammonia spikes (if you are adding ammonia which you should, depending on the chemical that you're using), but will start to subside once the ammonia converts to Nitrite, then to Nitrate. When you're readings come out with 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and present Nitrates, then it's cycled. Slowly add fish as to not cause too high of an ammonia spike. When you add them, you may be doing a couple unscheduled water changes if the ammonia gets too high. I've never done a fishless cycle so I'm not sure how long it takes to cycle. Sorry.

 

[thetmaxx]

ok, thats a very good description, and helps a lot. thank you!! its getting slightly cloudier, but haven't tested the amonia yet. i did move some of the decor from the 10 gal to the 55, hopefully some bacteria came with.

would moving some of the gravel b good? since its the same stuff?

 

[mattrox]

The filter material will carry the bulk of the bacteria you want growing. Other tank accessories and gravel will have them on , but you can achieve a faster cycle by using filter material from an existing healthy tank in the filter of a new tank.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Exactly correct Mattrox. The filtration unit has the majority of bacteria. It can't hurt to add some gravel from the 10 into the 55. If you are planning to put it back into the 10 gal, put the gravel in a media bag or a pair of pantyhose and set it in the back of the tank or even in the filtration unit (depending on which one you have). The cloudiness is good, it means that the tank is cycling and it will subside once the ammonia gets lower. What kind of chemicals are you using? Bio Spira?

 

[TomK2]

I cycled a 55 gal using fish with no ammonia or nitrite spikes by stocking low and going slow. but once you choose fish, you are committed to care for them through any problems you encounter. Once you choose adding ammonia, you are committe to finishing that before adding fish. Since there is not much discussion of how to cycle humanely with fish, I will post a link to my webpage on the topic:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0017.htm

Neither low bioload fish cycling or ammonia cycling is better, just different ways to achieve the same result.

 

[mattrox]

I prefer to cycle with fish, do it the natural way. I stock low and go slow, and I have never had new tank syndrome. I also do frequent water changes. I don't think that the time it takes to cycle is important unless you are doing an ammonia from the bottle cycle, because you want to get the fish in there asap.

 

[thetmaxx]

i was told before by an aquarium person to use stress zyme (sold at walmart) for eliminating amonia and nitrite and speed the growth of the biological filter. I also use prime as my water change/ new tank water chlorine remover( it says nitrites and amonia too) hmm, just noticed that...so technically it probably has all the same stuff the stress zyme does? petco told me prime a long time ago....

tested for amonia and its either zero or barely registering... and someone stole my 5 way test strips ( at 15 bucks a bottle) arg... but last check nitrites and nitrates were low, but the water is barely cloudy.

since i have a whisper on my 10 gal, and a bigger whisper on my 55, should i just let the small filter soak in the big one somewhere? i guess that is what your refering too?

 

[thetmaxx]

one more question.... how long, or do i have to wait to move my argentine sword?

 

[TomK2]

Well, you don't want to remove all the biologic substrate for your 10 gal filter at once. If you did, your 10 gal might go through another abbreviated cycle. However, taking some of the 10 gal biofilter substrate would accelerate the 55 gal cycle. If the 10 gal has a sponge for its biofilter substrate, you could snip a piece of it off and place it in the new filter, or squeeze it out onto the new filters biologic substrate (sponge?). Or place part of the 55 gal biologic substrate in the 10 gal filter for a week or two. Or even both- squeeze the 10 gal filter sponge into the larger filter, and put some substrate into the 10 gal filter that you can transfer in a week or two to boost the 55 gal biofilter later.

Your gravel in the 10 gal will also have the needed bacteria on it. Since it is easy to do, put some gravel in a pourous bag ( they sell them at lfs) and drop it in the 55 gal tank. Take it out in a few weeks and put it back in the 10 gal.

It just occurred to me, are you going to transfer everyone out of the 10 gal into the 55 gal? if so, move the 10 gal filter, the plants and the fish over all at once. If no ammonia, nitirite after 2 or 3 weeks, start adding to the tank. Keep the little filter on the big tank, and if you ever set up the little tank again you just move the filter back and you are ready to go!

 

[thetmaxx]

alright, i just found out at the pet store that i have been doing it all wrong for two years with my 10 gal. I got it from a freind, and the water filter never had a biological spnge filter, so i've never had one, because i thought that kind of whisper didn't use it... my new whisper came with them, but I didn't know how to use it, or where it went, since i got it from a freind too.

I saw the box for both of them on the shelf at petco, with the biological sponges in there.... ahhhh!!!!! I've never used it!!! what kind of problems do you think this was causing me with my old tank? all it had was a carbon filled cotton sack. i changed every month, or less.

needless to say i just put the bio sponges in the new one like they are supposed to have. and i guess i have to let it set for a while to build that up. (dang it i just remebered i forgot to pick up test strips... off to wal mart i go!! lol

 

[carpediem]

Stress zyme is live bacteria to boost your bio filter.
Stress coat (by the same company aquarium pharmaceuticals) is a water conditioner to remove chlorine and has aloe in there to replace the natural slime coating and help healing, but does not bind ammonia.
Prime is like stress coat, a water conditioner, but functions also like ammo-lock to bind ammonia and convert it into a non-toxic form.

It was suggested to me not to use anything converting the ammonia but to do partial water changes instead.

Good luck with your cycling.

 

[TomK2]

You would do better with an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals freshwater liquid master test kit than the test strips

 

[thetmaxx]

but its so expensive, im on a very tight budget curently. i had just enough to get 'er going... but later i would like one of those, and a new light...(one of the ballasts is burned out)

 

[Fishyfanatic]

You can get one from Big Al's for MUCH cheaper than at a lfs. We just ordered another new one last week.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

If you purchase a master test kit from Big Al's it will be $19.94 after shipping. If you consider the price of the test strips (roughly $15) you will get far more water tests out of the Master Test Kit than the strips. We had out kit for quite a while, I'm wanting to say about 8 or 9 months and never replaced any of the bottles until recently we gave our old one to my brother and just bought ourselves a new one.

 

[thetmaxx]

whoa that is a good price!!!

 

[TomK2]

but its so expensive, im on a very tight budget curently. i had just enough to get 'er going... but later i would like one of those, and a new light...(one of the ballasts is burned out)

Arent those test strips kind of pricey too? Mostly I recommend the liquid FW kit because it is more accurate and reliable. They are about $15 online, and around $25 at petsmart. If you order some other stuff, even with shipping the online price leaves you way ahead. I am guilty of "shopping" at my LFS and "buying" online, though I do support the LFS enough already!

edit: ooops! Ditto the above, didn't read down far enough, again!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I know. When I was shopping on their website last week I had to double check it to make sure that it actually came with all of the testing supplies and not just the viles. When it came in I opened it up right away to tripple check it. And indeed it is MUCH cheaper than what you can buy it for in stores. Our lfs sells them for $40 each. Everytime I go in there and see someone looking at them I always refer them to Big Al's. I just can't imagine paying twice as much for something just to have it that day. We placed our order on a Monday and received it on Friday.

 

[thetmaxx]

ok, aside form the testing method, (although i am going to order the one you mentioned when these run out... Very good deal), i need to ask about the results

My pH wont come down, im at 8.4. i've been adding the pH decreaser by jungle. It went down a little... could this be because of the soft water in our house (which is the worst investment my parent have ever made) should i try a water change with the hard water out side the house? becaus ethe test strip is showing very soft water, and im thinking.... could it? im sure it probably wasnt good to do, but they just got it fixed after being broken for 2 years, and i totally didnt think about it.

thnaks again!!

p.s. the rest of the cycling seems to be as complete as its going to get i just need to add some fish, and see how it handles the increase in amonia. but i dont want to pH shock my poor fish