New tank, cycle with existing bio media

[talieandsasha]

Hi everyone,

I've had a small 12gallon tank set up for 5 ish years with plants and fish/shrimp and yesterday I brought home my new 32gallon! I added dirty sponges, some bio beads + I got bio beads from a friend from her tank.

I will start testing the water today but wondered what to expect in terms of numbers & time

Should I be seeing ammonia + nitrite or just nitrate ?

I used this forum to help me cycle my OG tank 5 years ago but forgot basically everything in terms of what numbers should be on tests etc lol
Thanks!!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Have you moved livestock from your old small tank to the larger tank, or is this new tank going to be stocked from scratch?

 

[talieandsasha]

Not yet, I plan on moving my shrimp & tetras once it's cycled

 

[Aiken Drum]

So you are planning on a fishless cycle involving dosing ammonia until the tank is cycled?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Looking over your post history, you had good advice on a fishless cycle. If you havent already done so rereading what you did would be useful.

In brief though, dose ammonia to 4ppm. Test daily for ammonia. When ammonia drops below 1ppm redose back to 2ppm. Keep testing daily and add a nitrite test into your daily testing. Every time ammonia drops below 1ppm redose back to 2ppm. Eventually you will see 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrite in your daily testing and nitrate should be steadily rising. You are cycled, big water change to bring down nitrate. Acclimate your fish and shrimp to the new water conditions of the bigger tank before moving them.

Normally the process takes 6 to 8 weeks. Hopefully as you seeded your cycle with media from your established tank it will be much quicker for you.