New 55Gal cycle with seeding?

[kyle6367]

Hey all, quick question... I had a 29 gallon up for about a year with 12 community fish (all tetras), and I recently set up a 55 gallon for my mbunas. I put the filters from the old 29 on the 55 and also put the community fish in until I decide on my cichlid stock.
My test results from this morning were:
Ammonia-0.25
Nitrite-0.5
Nitrate-0
pH-7.8
This was after the tank was up for only about 48 hours. I was under the impression If I moved the established filter to the new tank it was instantly cycled. Is this just a mini cycle? Seems too quick to see nitrites if it was actually starting the cycle from the begining. I was hoping to just start seeing 0 ammonia and nitrite since the BB would take care of it. Hopefully it is just a mini cycle and will be done soon!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Just a mini cycle from the loss of BB in the substrate, etc. it shouldn't last long. A few water changes and some patience will fix it

 

[jsoong]

Prob. just a mini-cycle. The presence of nitrites is suspect ... maybe you stirred up some muck during the transfer. I would just keep an eye on it, and a few pwc as needed should do the trick.

 

[kyle6367]

UPDATE: I checked the water parameters again this morning and was even more confused! The results were as follows:
Ammonia-0.25 (no change)
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0 (was expecting to have at least some nitrate since there were no nitrites this morning; Dropped form -0.5 to 0 over the last 24 hours)
Hoping tomorrow or later tonight ill get an orange tube!

 

[jsoong]

0.25 ammonia is not necessarily anything, as long as it is not rising.

The typical kit (Nessler) cannot tell bound from unbound ammonia, so if you just did a pwc (or set up the tank from scratch), the bound ammonia from the chloramines in the water will show up as a weak positive ammonia in your test. Not to worry, that ammonia is bound to your dechlor and is not harmful. As long as your ammonia doesn't increase, I would just chalk it up to test error.

That initial nitrite is likely an error, esp. now that it is zero. I would just keep testing & you will prob see nitrates in a few days.

 

[kyle6367]

The tank was setup from scratch, I just transfered the filters. I tested the water again just now and I'm still getting 0 nitrates. Ammonia is still around 0.25ish and the nitrates are still at 0! I guess that first reading of 0.5 nitrites was strange since I havnt gotten any since then. Would it be normal to not see nitrates and all of a sudden after a few days get nitrates in the tank?

 

[jsoong]

It takes a while for the nitrates to build up. Depending on your bioload, it might even be weeks. And since the test kit has a threshold to turn positive (typically 2-5), you won't see any nitrates registering until it hits the threshold.

 

[kyle6367]

Here is an update on how the tanks going... I was away in Florida for the week and left the tank in my brothers care with instructions to do water changes and daily testing for those nitrates! I just got done testing the water this morning and again was perplexed with the results...
Ammonia: 0.5 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm

I thoght for sure I'd see nitrates by now (Its been 4 weeks), but no such luck. Is it possible the current stock of fish isnt producing enough waste to keep a large enough colony of BB? I was also thinking of returning the community fish to the LFS and just dose the tank with ammonia to see what that does. Any suggestions/advive would be greatly appreciated!

 

[LyndaB]

I've never had an issue transferring stock from one tank to a larger one. Are you adding dechlorinator and then taking readings? That can sometimes give you false readings if they are done less than 24 hours after using dechlorinator.

 

[kyle6367]

I havnt added any dechlorinator in the last 24 hours. I'll test it again before bed tonight, but after 4 weeks with established filters I thought for sure Nitrates would show up. Is it possible there wasnt enough of a bio load to support the BB colony and they died off?

 

[LyndaB]

You transferred the same stock you had from the old tank to the new, right?

 

[kyle6367]

Yea... I had 6 neon tetras, 2 black skirt tetras, 2 cories, and another red one i forget the name of. I put some of the gravel in the HOB filter along with the bio pads.

 

[LyndaB]

You put gravel in the tank? Or in the filter?

When I transfer tanks, I usually take 50% of the existing water and as much filter media as possible. I have always ended up being 100% cycled instantly doing that method.

 

[kyle6367]

I took the filter media and put some of the gravel in a stocking inside the hob filter. Since my new substrate was sand I couldn't use transfer all of it. I figured I'd be 100% cycled as well, but the absence of nitrates at this point has me puzzled. The ammonia levels arnt rising past what they have been, but nitrates/nitrites are still 0.
That's why I was leaning toward the Bio load from the community fish wasn't big enough to support the BB colony on the transferred media. Really hoping I don't have to cycle all over, but with the parameters I'm seeing now has me wondering. My next plan would be to transfer the fish out and dose the tank with ammonia and see what happens from there. Any other ideas??

 

[LyndaB]

What are your readings now? Based on that, I would probably just treat it as a "fish in cycle" and do water changes to keep the fish safe.

Are you sure the problem isn't with your test kit?

 

[kyle6367]

As of this morning my readings are
ammonia: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
I have a lfs who will give me store credit for the fish I could use towards my cichlids so if I need to cycle again I'd probably rather bring the fish back and go fishless. The test kit is about a year old, think that might be the issue?

 

[LyndaB]

What are the strings of numbers on the bottles. That will help us see.

If it were my tank, I would just leave things as they are. If the ammonia gets above .25, do a water change.

 

[kyle6367]

Of course the numbers are rubbed off... figures. But I guess there's no harm in waiting another week and seeing what happens. If the parameters change any time soon ill keep you posted! Thanks for the input..

 

[LyndaB]

When you have any type of ammonia reading, do daily readings. You can do water changes as required based on the readings. But I wouldn't hold off on readings for a whole week.

 

[kyle6367]

I was going to keep up with at least once maybe twice a days readings... I was planning on seeing where the readings were in a weeks time and see what I should do. If have to do a fish in cycle, I'd rather get to watch my cichlids! h