Cycling Small 4g Aqueon Cube

[fltcrew21]

I don't have a question really but I wanted to share my current project.


Getting back in the hobby, for my daughter, after 20 years we learned to cycle our tank (with fish) safely and quickly.

This was 100% due to the information on the internet in general and especially forums like this. (How did we manage before the internet!?) The library? Word of mouth? LFS? Please!!!

Anyway, we have a small 4g cube and I a wanted to try a fish less cycle since that is all I read about these days.

I got my ammonia 4 days ago at ACE and dosed the tank to 5ppm. That was only .74mL for a 4 gallon!!! WOW! That really opened my eyes on how little ammonia that it takes to toxify your tank and it really makes the cycling process MUCH more precise and scientific.

So I added the ammonia, a Fluval polishing pad in the filter area (no carbon) and some Fluval Bio Media in a bag.

I added a bag of gravel from my cycled DT and a 4"-5" rock from the tank as well.

There are 2 small potted Anubis in there right now too that came from a tank at the LFS.

On a side note, I ordered a small bottle of Dr. Tim's bacteria for the big tank but by the time it came, my tank was done cycling on it's own. That stuff was like $14 and didn't want it to got to waste so I added it to the little tank.

The water clouded up for HOURS but is clear now and hopefully that stuff along with my rock from the cycled tank are working and growing like CRAZY.

So this morning, which is day 4 I guess. My readings are:

4ppm ammonia
5+ nitrites (probably off the scale)
40ppm Nitrates. Very hard to read this scale. I could get talked into 20ppm or 80ppm to be honest. The bottom line though, is that I have s significant amount.

I am kinda surprised that the ammonia just BARELY went down (maybe 1ppm) while the other skyrocket. I was looking for a more related difference.

I am putting a few flakes of food in each day to help with organic compounds to feed the bacteria. (read this deficiency can cause cycles to stall)

I am also in the camp of hobbits that does not believe high Nitrites will stall the cycle. (rather the reason above)

I know as well as anyone that we get ourselves in circumstances where we have to do a fish-in cycle. But I promise I will never do one again!!

 

[courtanee]

Keep us updated! Its always interesting to know how well those bacteria bottles work for ppl. I used seachem stability and it worked awesome.

 

[fltcrew21]

Stability

Hey,

Yeah, I am also giving that little tank about 3-4mL of Stability everyday too. It was left over from my bigger tank's cycle and I totally believe it works.

Prime and Stability are two awesome products in my opinion.

With the gravel and rock from the other tank AND using Stability AND using an entire bottle of Dr. Tim's in that little tank, there is A LOT going on.

With so many variables I sort of "de" scientific'ed the process.

Still, I am imagining a nasty fast 7-10 day cycle on this baby and when it's done, I'm going to let my daughter pick out a beautiful Betta and keep it on her nightstand. Using the black LED light function for a nightlight

I imagine a snail or 2 in there as well but I'll see about that in a separate thread!

 

[courtanee]

Stability has never failed me! And yes descienced is a great word lol. Sometimes it feels like you have to have a masters in biology and chemistry to have fish tanks. I've always wanted to keep a betta but I dont know if I can convince my husband to get another tank. Good luck with the cycling! Let us know how it goes! It'll prove useful for someone down the road I'm sure.

 

[fltcrew21]

Past 24 hours

So yesterday at 10am I posted that my readings were:

Ammonia 4 (this was down from 5 the day before as originally dosed)
Nitrite 5+ (off the chart)
Nitrate 40

This morning I had zero ammonia after only 5 days!

Readings were:

Ammonia 0
Nitrites off the chart
Nitrates 80

I did a 50% WC just so I could monitor the Nitrites better then re-dosed the ammonia back up to 4-5.

Since things are really happening in there, I am going to check it again this evening.

Would love to see that thing fully cycled by the end of the week so my daughter can go shopping for a Betta.