Starting a 90gal tank! Cycling starts today.

[foshizzle11]

Hi All,
I am new to this site and I have found so much information already on setting up new tanks, what kind of fish to get, all that jazz.

We found and bought a used 90 gallon tank online for $60, can't beat that! We cleaned it up using fish safe methods and actually re-caulked the inside because it didn't look all that great or clean.

After a few days of preparing we are finally ready to start the fishless cycle!

we have sand as the substrate ($30 for 50lbs), we have a piece of driftwood from our established 30g tank and live plants from there as well. Currently there are a half dozen feeders in the tank just to add a little bit of bacteria for a few days before the cycle starts, don't worry they will get transferred out before we start the cycle (they will be dinner for our gar).

Today we will begin and give some information about how much ammonia we needed for the 90g's of water, as this isn't well documented from what I have read online.

I live in Canada and it has proven difficult to find the proper ammonia. After calling a dozen stores we found that Walmart carries the product that we need. A 1.8L jug is $2. Very affordable!

We are using the API's freshwater master test kit from Pisces Pet Emporium!

I will post our testing results and such as well. Should be fun. I can't wait to get started!!

Can't wait for feedback and the results. This is the first time we have tried a fishless cycle but we want what is best for our little fishies!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Welcome to AA! $60 is a great deal congrats

 

[foshizzle11]

So we added about 35ml of 10% concentrate household ammonia and that brought the ammonia level up to 4ppm for 90g of water.

I'm not sure how much we will need to add tomorrow but I'm assuming it won't be quite as much.

That's all to report for tonight. I hate having to wait but it is the right thing to do!

 

[josh7]

That sounds about right and great find. Btw your tank looks great.

 

[librarygirl]

So we added about 35ml of 10% concentrate household ammonia and that brought the ammonia level up to 4ppm for 90g of water.

I'm not sure how much we will need to add tomorrow but I'm assuming it won't be quite as much.

That's all to report for tonight. I hate having to wait but it is the right thing to do!

Congrats on the new tank! You might not need to add more ammonia for a while; it can sometimes take 1-2 weeks to see the initial drop in ammonia. You'll get there though, just hang in.

 

[foshizzle11]

Thanks! Ya. We need to be patient!

I will post more results as they come in. It will be good to monitor the progress and I like sharing.

 

[foshizzle11]

One question, if it starts to go down within 24 hours is that a good thing?? Do we let it drop right to about 1ppm before adding more??

 

[librarygirl]

One question, if it starts to go down within 24 hours is that a good thing?? Do we let it drop right to about 1ppm before adding more??

If it does, then yes, but the bacteria need some time to find their way into the tank and then start to multiply, so without any seeded media or anything from an established tank to introduce bacteria, the initial drop may take some time. Once it does start to drop, yes you can wait until it drops to 2 or less and then redose (but dose less than you did the first time if there's ammonia still in the tank when you redose).

 

[foshizzle11]

Sweet, checked on the ammonia today it is still up at the 4ppm mark. It is fun for the kids to learn about the chemistry in the water and what is required for a healthy tank.

Ill update next once the nitrite starts showing up! It was at 0 today.

 

[foshizzle11]

We tested again today and no change in the ammonia levels and no sign of the nitrite. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!

 

[foshizzle11]

We checked again today and still nothing.

We tried adding more seeding media to the filter, hopefully that will kick start it a little bit more.

My boyfriend is impatient and doesn't think we are doing it right but we really just need to wait! That's the tough part.

We will keep everyone posted.

 

[librarygirl]

You're doing fine. As long as you didn't overdose ammonia (no more than 5 ppm) and your PH is more than 6.5 you should see some conversion at some point. As I said the ammonia can take 1-2 weeks before it starts to drop. Nitrites typically show after that, in week 3-4 but those are just guidelines, every tank is different. Keep us posted.

 

[foshizzle11]

I don't think we overdosed ammonia. It looks to be sitting around 3.5-4. It doesn't look darker than 4 ppm.

We added a little more seeding material today from our 30g tank, hopefully that will help a little bit. If nothing gives after a week what should we consider??

Our pH is higher than 6.5, the tap water is naturally high. We added drift wood but what else could help permanently reduce it?

 

[foshizzle11]

Tested again this morning!

We have a reading of about 1.5-2ppm of ammonia and about 1ppm of nitrite! No nitrates yet.

We will test again this afternoon and redose the ammonia once it has dropped a bit more.

I'm getting excited!!

 

[foshizzle11]

Did another test this afternoon and the results look very promising!

The ammonia is at about 1ppm. NitrItes at 3-4ppm and NitrAtes at 5ppm.

So it is on it's way, we will add more ammonia and wait until tomorrow to test and see how it goes.

 

[foshizzle11]

Our tank finished the cycle on the weekend. We have added our Gar and catfish to the tank. We just bought a 6" Giant Raphael catfish. He looks so cool!

In the tank we moved them from we purchased 3 Butis Butis Crazy Fish. My are they hilarious to watch. We also got an eel.

I will post pictures of both later!

We also found a really sweet canister filter at an auction. $45 for the Rena XP3, including the media. It is used and we cleaned it up pretty well plus we bought new hoses. It looks to be suitable for up to 175g so we should be able to keep out 90g pretty clean with it. Which is good because the large catfish and gar have high bio loads.

Pics to come later on tonight!

 

[josh7]

What type of eel? And what's your final stock list or some fish you want jw. Haha

 

[foshizzle11]

What type of eel? And what's your final stock list or some fish you want jw. Haha

Well, we moved our fish from another tank to this one. We have a couple of gar which are only about 5" long right now, A RTC and a giant raphael catfish. My boyfriend is designing a large pond which we plan to build in the next year for the RTC and the gar to live in once they outgrow this tank, which will probably be pretty soon!

We are running two filters on the tank to make sure it stays nice and clean. And we know that the RTC needs a big home and we wouldn't have got him if we didn't feel like we could provide it.

These fish are fun to watch, especially when we throw some feeders in the tank. We also feed brill shrimp, live ghost shrimp, chicken hearts for the RTC, snails for the giant raphael and worms. So far so good, everyone is happy!

 

[foshizzle11]

What type of eel? And what's your final stock list or some fish you want jw. Haha

And the eel is a fire eel, so we hope he can grow up really big to join the other guys in the pond. He is super small right now, probably about 3" long.

 

[josh7]

The fire eel is gonna get huge. Like 2-3 feetong