snowdude said:
The other day i checked the ammonia in my 65
gal display tank and it was .25.. today it was back to 0. i dont get it. I changed my filet pads and cleaned the one in my overflow on sunday 4/25 , maybe i got rid of to much bacteria??
Most likely was too much too fast. Next time when doing the filters, if cleaning use
SW removed from the tank as apposed to
FW. It will preserve a majority of the bacteria reducing water quality issues. If you are in need of replacing some, only change one filter pad a week and just rinse the other(s) as above. As you add more and more rock, I would suggest removing some of the filter pads material as well. You want the
LR to do a majority of the work.
But what i am going to do is, and please tell me if im wrong. ... Im going to keep fish out of it for a month... today i plan on getting 15-20 lbs of
LR to add to my already existing 10 lbs. I assume that the ammonia WILL spike again due to the
LR. So in a month hopefully i should be good to go, provided my
QT tank is stable as well.
Sounds fine but if you can afford it I would get twice as much rock if not more. I would also suggest dry base rock as a cost alternative. Any rock added after the tank has cycled has the potential to damage the water quality, it just depends on the amount of die off. Water changes will help keep it to a minimum. If you are unsure of what caused the fish fatalities, I'd go for a 6 week fallow period to be safe.
My 12
gal qt tank has an ammonia of .50. I have a small piece of
LR in it currently, i filled it with the water from my display tank. I assume that this has to go through a cyceling period as well? is there anything i can do to speed it up? or will a month be sufficient? and should i add a grouper or damsel to it like i did with my main tank?
When using
LR to cycle a tank you rarely need anything to increase the ammonia. The die off from the rock will do it well enough. If purchasing well cured
LR, a small piece of raw shrimp is the best and safest route. Fish aren't necessary and in fact not advised. Basically what you need is something that creates waste and in turn produces ammonia. The rock and/or shrimp will do that.
I would honestly suggest you remove the rock from the
QT unless it's already been affected by medication. In most all cases it will cause more problems than it solves. All you need is enough hard surface areas for the bacteria. That can be better accomplished using inert plastics like
PVC piping.
The only way to speed up the cycle is to use filter material from the main tank if it where also properly cycled. Since both are basically in the same shape (and the main may be infected/infested), there's not much you can do unless you know someone that can help you out locally. Since the main tank must sit fallow for awhile, you still have a few weeks time before the
QT could really be used anyway.
Cheers
Steve
