Joined today to ask You knowledgable people...

[fibreheart]

Hi,
I have been lurking on this site for a few years and have decided to join because I recently was given a new 90 gallon aquarium by my lovely hubby(after much complaining by myself about my 55 gallon). This is the first time I have had a "brand-new, out of the box" tank. I want to make an African show tank with this. My 55 gallon housed CA/SA cichlids so I thought lets go to the other side of the globe.

Now I set it up 3 days ago and my readings today are as follows
Ammonia 0.25, Nitrites 1, Nitrates 160ppm. My GH has been steady at 180 and my KH is steady at 180 and my PH has been steady at 8.0.

My nitrites were 0 and my nitrates were 200 yesterday.

I transferred all my rocks from my 55 gal to the 90. I poured my HOB filter water into my Rena XP3 canister filter(which I also ran on my 55 for 24hrs to seed and to perform a wet test). I placed the 2 bio floss filter media into the canister and I dumped dirty water into the tank. I filled up the tank half way with water from the 55 into the 90. and I an further seeding with a bag of old sand with food pellets on top tied to the spray bar of the filter.

Temp is 80 degrees. Lights are set to change from day to night every 12 hrs. I have 2 2" convicts in there. I am also seeding from the washings from my daughters 27 gal cichlid tank.

I also dosed with cichlid reef salt and seachem stability and Prime(further dosing as per instructions).

When do you think I can start to add my africans? Also, when should I do my fish water change?

Any insights or advice on the next steps would be wonderful! Oh and the first are very happy with all the room from the 55 which has 20 convicts in it(don't worry they have pots to play in still ). They're digging holes and looking for ways to rearrange my decor

Thanks everyone

 

[Emi929]

Hello there! Glad you have joined AA!!!! your setups sound very nice! The only thing is that right now you are doing a "fish-in" cycle, am I understanding correctly? It's much easier to do fishless cycles IMO. can you take the 2 cichlids out?

Your nitrates are through the roof, and if there are fish in the tank, they are probably in some distress. Do a 30% water change to bring those nitrates down to at LEAST 80-100.

Again, welcome to the AA world add me !
Hope someone else puts some input on this, cause im definitely no expert

 

[fibreheart]

Hi Emi,

Thank you so much for your reply.

I will start the water changes for sure. Just didn't know when in the cycle. I can take out the cichlids for sure. I did another reading a minute ago and my ammonia is at 0.25, nitrite 0.5 and my nitrate is at 100. Not sure what this means. I guess numbers are going to be all over

 

[Emi929]

Good your numbers look like a cycling tank to me how long have you been cycling for?

 

[fibreheart]

tonight will be day 3

 

[Emi929]

What are your #s today?

 

[fibreheart]

Hi I guess I should update My numbers have been ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates 40-80 for the past 4 days. I ended up transferring most of my sand and filter media and all of my rocks over to my new tank on my 2nd to 3rd day. So after a week of going through what I found out was essentially a mini cycle I put fish in yesterday I stocked her right up! I tested the water with my friends API Master water kit and all levels are normal! Yay me. And I tested again with my API knock off kit. And still normal. All my rocks, new and old, have the fuzzy bacteria film on them, which I am used to seeing in my 6yr old 55 gal so it looks like the bacteria survived quite nicely in the transfer.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to FW getting started forum. More people will see it there.

 

[Emi929]

Sweet!! Sounds good! Make sure you keep your nitrates below 40 though, I'm glad your evening out though! Good luck, welcome to AA again

 

[ShawnMMcKenna]

Hi I guess I should update My numbers have been ammonia 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates 40-80 for the past 4 days. I ended up transferring most of my sand and filter media and all of my rocks over to my new tank on my 2nd to 3rd day. So after a week of going through what I found out was essentially a mini cycle I put fish in yesterday I stocked her right up! I tested the water with my friends API Master water kit and all levels are normal! Yay me. And I tested again with my API knock off kit. And still normal. All my rocks, new and old, have the fuzzy bacteria film on them, which I am used to seeing in my 6yr old 55 gal so it looks like the bacteria survived quite nicely in the transfer.

I believe your tank has cycled. You added bacteria from the old system, which jumpstarted your cycle, IMO. Just remember to religiously clean your canister filter to cut down on nitrate production. Also, you could add some purigen in place of carbon. I run purigen in my tanks and my nitrates read extremely low...at or near zero. Good luck with the new tank!

 

[fibreheart]

Thank you Mike

I add Prime on my PWC to apparently keep levels low. At least that's what the bottle says. I also used stability in the first 4 days but ran out. I'm not sure what purigen is though. I run a Rena xp3 which comes with a biobag instead of a carbon filter I think and my hubby picked up an extra box of ceramic rings too for it. I filled the other empty compartment with my old filter media and have one empty compartment left. Could I add something there?

Also how often do you clean your canisters.
My dad has a fluval on his 55 which has a red devil and 2 JD and an albino chocolate pleco. All HUGE fish. (Don't get me started on the size conversation. :S)

Anyway, he cleans his every 6 mths. He has the crushed coral rock/gravel not the sand. I have crushed coral cichlid sand and aragonite sand if that makes a difference. I looked today and I can tell I need to clean it because the flow is lower and I can see sand in the bottom of it.

 

[fibreheart]

Sweet!! Sounds good! Make sure you keep your nitrates below 40 though, I'm glad your evening out though! Good luck, welcome to AA again

Thank you Emi. I'm going to clean my filter before I settle in for the night. Any tips on that so I don't loose my cycle?

 

[Emi929]

You won't loose your cycle if you rinse it with tank water, and swish it around. Don't use tap water, because the chlorine in it will kill the bacteria growing on it.