New Tank - Using 'seed' material - Question

[dinokath]

Hi all,

I am setting up a 10 gallon tank for some red cherry shrimp and have a question or two....

I took 1/2 of the biological media (Biomax) out of my canister on my main tank (55 gallons) and put it in the new tank. I also took 4 plants (amazon sword, annubis nana, coffeeolia and wisteria) along with about 20 lbs of gravel out of the main 55 gallong tank as well.

The tank was set up with filter running and nothing else except water in the tank for about 2 hours after adding dechlorinator. I then added the substrate, plants and biological media to the filter.

My questions:

- Is this tank effectively 'cycled'?

- If no, why not?

Been doing fish for about 25 years but really only 'set up' about 4 or 5 tanks. It is my understanding that the bacteria live on the bio media, filter material, gravel, rocks, etc. If I added all those parts from an established tank, it should by cycled 'out of the box', right?

Thanks in advance!

Dean

 

[Sonomakid]

Still may take some time for the bacteria to spend, i took 4 sponges out of my canister formy 90 when starting my 55 and still took 5 days to cycle, best to test the water

 

[IslandHopper]

It is cycled... but probably not "stable" yet... add fish, you'll probably see a couple little spikes from ammonia and nitrites over the next few days, then it'll all get caught up.

(At least that was my experience with my latest new tank... and I only used filter media... didn't transfer any plants or substrate.)

 

[dinokath]

Thanks all. I was looking to do a 'transplant' of my current tank to a much smaller scale. I added a handful of danios from the main tank just now to see if I get a spike.

Any further comments are very much welcomed! Thanks.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

The only way to really tell is to 'feed' it either with food or pure ammonia to see if the levels remain at zero.

 

[dinokath]

Yeah, I figured I'd test it before adding my new RCS. Well, the AP came back at 20ppm ammonia. I couldn't believe it so I tested with the Red Sea test and it came out at 0ppm... THEN I remembered WHY I had two test kits.....

My water company recently switched to chloramine from chlorine. It was driving me nuts when I had some tank problems (a percieved problem that is...) a while back when I had a bacteria bloom. It all worked out but I discovered that the AP test shows positive for ammonia when your water company uses chloramine. I confirmed this by testing with some DI water and then tap water. DI water came out clean (duh) and tap water was positive at 20ppm on the AP kit and 5ppm on the Red Sea.

I am going to let the tank run for a while before I put the RCS in there just to be sure, but at 20ppm, I would think the Zebras I put in there would be in that Big Tank In The Sky by now and they look OK to me!

Thoughts are always welcome!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Are you talking about API (aquarium pharmaceuticals) test kit? The color card only goes to 8ppm and essentially anything over about 2ppm is pretty indistinguishable. I know this from fishless cycling a 225 and cutting the water with RODI to get an accurate reading.

Just use Prime it detoxes chloramine and ammonia into a bio-available ammonia form that your bacteria can use but won't hurt the fish. You need 1mL of it for every 10 gallons. It lasts forever.

 

[dinokath]

Doh! 20ppm, 2ppm. 5ppm, 0.5ppm.... It's all the same, right?? Thanks for noting that! I feel stupid now...

I did dose Prime but I am still scared. I know it shouldn't hurt the fish but I just got into the red cherry shrimp and don't want to kill them off. Come to think of it, I don't want to kill off any of my fish! From all I have read, they are really sensitive to ammonia. You really feel they will be safe after dosing Prime? Thanks!

 

[dkpate]

But Prime only takes care of so much, it will tell you either on the back of the bottle or on their website, (google Seachem's Prime conditioner).

The best thing to do would be water changes to get the ammonia down, if you have any.

 

[DragonFish71]

Also, if you do have ammonia, don't use any of the ammo-rid additives that are on the market, like ammo-lock. The water changes will be enough to get you through the cycle. The ammo-rid additives can block cycles and throw everything into a tizzy.

You're off to a good start by doing the seeding, now let nature take it's course. You probably won't have long to wait IMO. If you want to beef it up some, I've heard great things about using Seachem's Stability. I only use those types of "live bacteria" additives for starting a cycle, I don't suggest them for regular tank maintenance.

 

[dinokath]

Yep, doing the water change today to keep it in check until it is all stable. Ammonia is zero and nitrites are at .2ppm this morning before the water change at 30%. Looks like it is all doing nicely. Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Mark Hewitt]

My water company recently switched to chloramine from chlorine. It was driving me nuts when I had some tank problems (a percieved problem that is...) a while back when I had a bacteria bloom. It all worked out but I discovered that the AP test shows positive for ammonia when your water company uses chloramine. I confirmed this by testing with some DI water and then tap water. DI water came out clean (duh) and tap water was positive at 20ppm on the AP kit and 5ppm on the Red Sea.

Chloramine is basically chlorine mixed with ammonia. As you know both are very bad news for fish.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Plus it still shows up as ammonia after Prime treatment, just FYI, but it's locked up as ammonium (still bio-available to BB)