Starting a 20 gal breeding tank

[DukeNukem713]

Hi i just picked up a 20 gal tank from home and want to use it as a breeder tank. it use to be used for a turtle, i gave a real good cleaning and now am ready to set it up. i want to know what i'll need to do to cycle it properly.

 

[librarygirl]

Hi i just picked up a 20 gal tank from home and want to use it as a breeder tank. it use to be used for a turtle, i gave a real good cleaning and now am ready to set it up. i want to know what i'll need to do to cycle it properly.

You can do a fishless cycle. You'll just need a bottle of pure ammonia (ACE hardware brand is good if you can get it) and a good liquid test kit. If you have another established tank or know someone with a tank you could get some filter media from the established tank and add it to your new filter for the 20 b to help seed it and get the bacteria started and continue with the fishless cycle. If you have another tank you could also just run the new filter onto your current tank for a few weeks and that should see it enough to instantly cycle the new tank.

There's a link in my signature called 'new empty tank' that'll guide you through the process.

 

[DukeNukem713]

im reading ur link now, thanks its alot of help. but how high is "so high" nitrite and nitrate levels?

 

[librarygirl]

im reading ur link now, thanks its alot of help. but how high is "so high" nitrite and nitrate levels?

If it's darker than the color on the test kit color card. You won't need to worry about that for a while though. It's OK if both nitrite and nitrate climb high for a while. Nitrates will just climb, they won't come down on their own. The ammonia you add to the tank will start being converted after a while; so, if you add enough ammonia so that it's 4 ppm on the API color kit and the next day it's 0, that means there's enough bacteria to convert the ammonia to 0 in 24 hours. For the nitrite, it'll typically rise a while after the ammonia starts falling and itlll climb to the highest level on the chart. It can stay high for a while then it'll come back down to 0 on it's own. When both ammonia and nitrite stay at 0 after 24 hours of dosing the tank with ammonia, you'll have a cycled tank. It doesn't happen overnight, but it'll happen. And if you have some seeded media from another tank it'll help a lot as well.

Just post if you have any questions along the way; some even start their own fishless cyling thread to post daily test results, etc. so we can help you along.

 

[DukeNukem713]

this new tank, im looking at it now. i need to clean it a bit (it was used) but it came with gravel. now i dont know when the gravel was last used but it feels a little damp so i believe it was recently. should i leave it in to help with the process? or boil it?

 

[librarygirl]

this new tank, im looking at it now. i need to clean it a bit (it was used) but it came with gravel. now i dont know when the gravel was last used but it feels a little damp so i believe it was recently. should i leave it in to help with the process? or boil it?

YOu can leave it in it may have some beneficial bacteria on it that will help the cycle along. As long as you're certain that the previous owner took good care of the tank and there aren't any diseases lingering, b/c any diseases in that tank will now be yours. Although if you cycle it fishless it can take 3-6 weeks on average, by then most parasites would have died off without a host (fish), but not sure if they all are like that. It's up to you whether you want to take the chance. Same with the filter media if that came with the tank and was used also.

 

[DukeNukem713]

ok cool. i have another question about my 40 gallon. idk if you remember but my fish were dieing because its in the process of cycling. im picking up one of thoe API (?) test kits right now and will post the results. but i did an amonia check yesterday (not the strip test kind) and my amonia came back negative - no amonia. is this good, bad? should i add more? according to the strips its the nitirite is still pretty high, but my fish seem to be doing ok

 

[librarygirl]

ok cool. i have another question about my 40 gallon. idk if you remember but my fish were dieing because its in the process of cycling. im picking up one of thoe API (?) test kits right now and will post the results. but i did an amonia check yesterday (not the strip test kind) and my amonia came back negative - no amonia. is this good, bad? should i add more? according to the strips its the nitirite is still pretty high, but my fish seem to be doing ok

Well you don't want to add ammonia if there's fish in the tank. The fish produce the ammonia through waste. Once enough beneficial bacteria grow they will consume the ammonia in the tank and it won't show up in your water and will not harm your fish. If you have zero ammonia (and I wouldn't fully trust the strips) but nitrites you may be in the nitrite phase of the cycle. This is difficult b/c nitrites are just as toxic as ammonia so you want to continue with large daily water changes any time nitrite are over .25. How high are they now? The fish may seem OK outwardly but inwardly they are taking in poisons and it's just a matter of time before they show signs. Sounds like more water changes are needed.

 

[DukeNukem713]

so petco didnt have the full test kit, they only had single ones (like amonia, nitrate, ph, etc...) so i picked up what i thought was a nitrite one b/c thats what i want to be testing for and accidentally grabbed a nitrate one. im going to return it tomorrow and see if i can find the nitrite one. i just did a water change. also i picked up a bottle of prime. it says that this stuff also helps with the nitrite!

 

[librarygirl]

Did they have an ammonia liquid kit too? I'd pick up one of those as well. You could keep the nitrate and just get the nitrite test; you want to test nitrates too. With all the water changes you should be doing to keep ammonia and nitrite down, nitrate shouldn't get too high, but once the tank cycles its' a good idea to keep an eye on nitrate and make sure it doesn't get above 20.

Prime is excellent. It does help detoxify in-between water changes; just don't use it in place of water changes.

 

[DukeNukem713]

yeah yeah ofcourse. yeah i checked my amonia with a liquid kit yesterday. it was 0

 

[librarygirl]

Oh ok. Good. Ammonia may very well stay at 0 if you're passed that phase of the cycle. The nitrite phase is just as dangerous so you definitely want to test for it daily and do water changes to keep it under .25. Just a warning that the nitrites are going to want to spike high and fast, so it may take a lot of pwc to stay on top of them. Until you can get your test kit, a 50% daily water change would be a good start. Good luck.

 

[DukeNukem713]

wats pwc? p... water change?

 

[steez]

partial water change

 

[jetajockey]

What are you gonna breed?

 

[DukeNukem713]

guppys

 

[DukeNukem713]

hey i was wondering if there was a different process to doing a single-fish cycle?

i set up an 8 gallon tank with light, gravel, and filter on sunday the 9th. i added amonia that day to the tank. i was thinking of picking up a cichlid and doing a single fish cycle in that tank so when it is all cycled i can move my guppys there and use my 40gal as a bigger aggresive fish tank

 

[librarygirl]

hey i was wondering if there was a different process to doing a single-fish cycle?

i set up an 8 gallon tank with light, gravel, and filter on sunday the 9th. i added amonia that day to the tank. i was thinking of picking up a cichlid and doing a single fish cycle in that tank so when it is all cycled i can move my guppys there and use my 40gal as a bigger aggresive fish tank

If you're just using the fish to cycle the tank I wouldn't do it. It's really hard on the fish and just not necessary. For a tank that small you might be able to pull some filter media (a small bit) from one of your cycled 20 gals and use it to help seed the 8 gal; a fishless cycle shouldn't take long that way (using pure ammonia; letting the tank just run empty won't cycle it). Just check your 20 gal tank for a few days after to make sure it doesn't go into a mini-cycle.