Cycling tank with media

[Ryan87500]

I am about to start cycling a tank with media from someone else's tank. I believe I still need to go through the cycle process even with the used media it will just go faster.

Do I just keep adding about 4 ppm of ammonia to feed the bacteria until I get the right nitrites so I don't kill the Bactria or make fish suffer?

Or do I just use the sponge and add fish?


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[Masha]

If you are lucky, there will be enough bacteria to cycle your tank quickly
I would add some ammonia and test 24 hours later to see what the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are. If there is still ammonia and nitrite after 24 hours, proceed as you would with a fishless cycle - keep the ammonia level steady, and keep testing till nitrites and ammonia are 0.

I know that most guides say 4ppm ammonia, but I've found that is actually quite high. Higher than you'll probably need (unlikely that your fish stock will produce that much ammonia) and it can cause problems ( huge nitrite spikes that will mean huge water changes to prevent the cycle from stalling). So maybe try a lower dosage - I've heard people use 2ppm with some success.

 

[Ryan87500]

Thank you. I put in 4 ppm yesterday this morning it was still at 4ppm so I will keep on testing. Hopefully there was enough bacteria.


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[BBradbury]

Instant Tank Cycling

I am about to start cycling a tank with media from someone else's tank. I believe I still need to go through the cycle process even with the used media it will just go faster.

Do I just keep adding about 4 ppm of ammonia to feed the bacteria until I get the right nitrites so I don't kill the Bactria or make fish suffer?

Or do I just use the sponge and add fish?


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Hello Ryan...

If the cycled tank is larger than your tank, then remove and replace half the media from the cycled tank and put it into your tank's filter. The new tank is instantly cycled. You'll need to add fish slowly so as not to overpower the bacteria in your tank. Test the water frequently to ensure the bacteria is working in the new tank.

B

 

[Ryan87500]

It was a smaller tank then mine. So running the media from their tank in one filter and running the filter I plan to use next to it hopefully to build up bacteria on my larger one.

So far no changes in ammonia maybe there wasn't enough bacteria build up.


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[Ryan87500]

If I put a sponge from someone's tank in mine and put 4 ppm of ammonia and nothing has happened does that mean the sponge didn't help?

Also I am just running a sponge in my filter do I need to put the bio pack in too?


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[Masha]

It might just mean that the sponge just didn't have enough bacteria to process that much ammonia.

4ppm is a lot! Much more than most aquariums need to process unless very highly stocked. So it's hard to say if it did nothing at all.

I had a similar situation some time ago when setting up a quarantine tank. I found that there was no drop in the ammonia after 24 hours, but it was at 0 after 48, with no nitrites either. So in my case, there was quite a bit of bacteria present, just not enough to process 4ppm of ammonia. I had to wait a bit to allow the bacteria to increase, but it was just a day or two, not the usual weeks and weeks of a fishless cycle.

 

[Ryan87500]

Should I do a 50% water change to lower the ammonia then?


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[Masha]

Not necessary unless you have fish in there.
I'd only advise lowering the ammonia dose if you are getting really bad nitrite spikes that you are struggling to stay on top of. Better to just see how long it takes this filter to reduce that ammonia to 0, then you have that information to judge how far the cycle is.