Started fish-less cycle method, question about readings after seeding from est. tank

[dlwn88]

Hey Everyone,

I'm familiar with the nitrogen cycle, however, I've never seeded a tank before with gravel from an established tank. I've read this sometimes cycles a tank instantly, or speeds it up...but I want to ask and be sure so I don't screw up lol.

My 75g tank has been running nearly for...I'd say two weeks now. Added pure ammonia from ace hardware, I'm at 4ppm right now. Did this for my buddy as well 4 days after starting mine, gave him my old 20g, and his showed nitrites two days ago. Even though I'm using a powerhead for surface agitation and doing the majority what the article on this site suggested (I didn't add the ph down). Not sure how that happened but I'm figuring not having the lid helped him, he didn't buy one till yesterday. Any ideas? I've read on here that size doesn't mater as far as how long it should take.

Anyways, yesterday I was able to get a decent amount of gravel from someone that had an established aquarium. It's been exactly 24 hours since it's been inside my tank and my nitrite test tube isn't blue anymore woohoo! I'm at .25ppm and it appears that my ammonia is just starting to go down.

But my main question is...

When you seed a tank this way should I see the nitrite spike all the way up, then go down as nitrates increase like a normal cycle? Or is it possible that I already have enough nitrite to nitrate bacteria from seeding and the ammonia will slowly disappear but will see little to no nitrites, and nitrates will increase?


Thanks for your help guys.

-Dave

 

[TraceyB4602]

When I seeded I never saw any nitrites I went straight from ammonia to nitrates. I thought this was odd so I posted on here and it has happened with others before too. It is definitely possible for you not to have a nitrite spike just keep testing your water to make sure. If any of your levels get to high it might stall your cycle.

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium

 

[ejaramillo01]

I cycled 2 tanks fishless, both cases I had a spike of nitrites first before nitrates.

Both cases I used "some gravel" from a cycled tank, I don't think that the gravel will have enough bacteria to avoid the spike of nitrites in a 75G tank, unless you used a lot of gravel,

 

[dlwn88]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll see what happens. Either way I'm getting closer to finally completing the cycle.

 

[steeledarren]

hi there, hope i can help, i seeded my tank after i moved house, after adding filter media from lfs, i saw a nitrite spike nearly straight away, this after dosing with ammonia to 4ppm, all i did after that was to keep dosing to around 4ppm, then test, then test next dayb before i added ammonia again, as soon as ammonia was converted to zero within 24 hours its done, then do large pwc to bring nitrated down hope this helps

 

[dlwn88]

I've come home to find there are roughly 20-30 tiny little snail looking creatures moving around my tank. Is this bad? Some of them are on my two amazon swords that are sittin in there but don't appear to be doing any harm. Not sure though. Also, my driftwood has a lot of white crap growing all over it. I've read that it's normal and will go away but it doesn't look normal at all. I hope my tank isn't screwed now

Edit: My fault, I should have at least included some readings before I made that post.

Very interesting though. The .25ppm nitrite went away, it's at 0 now. Ammonia is at 2.5 or 3ppm instead of 4ppm. and Nitrate is at 5ppm woohoo. It's looking like I'm experiencing what I thought may have happened.

 

[dlwn88]

I just thought of something. My tap water seems to be coming in at a pH of 7.6. Since there some driftwood in my tank I'd imagine it will slowly drop over time. If it drops to lets just say...6.8 and I'm doing a water change with a python using 7.6 ph tap water will the change basically kill the fish, what happens to the ph?

With my salt tank I'm used to adding the salt and the pH is always exactly where I need it at.

What can I do to prevent any pH swings in this new tank once I add fish?

 

[ejaramillo01]

First congratulations! Looks like your tank is getting close to cycle! Keep monitoring, if the ammonia gets to 0 don't forget to keep adding.

I don't think that the driftwood will drop the ph as much as you think, if your tap water is 7.6 , there is a high chance that the water is hard and have enough buffers to prevent big swings on the pH.

My suggestion is to keep reading the ph, I think that you will see a stable ph, close to your tap water. If that is not the case, let's see what others advice, but right now my recommendation is not to over react.

 

[TraceyB4602]

I've come home to find there are roughly 20-30 tiny little snail looking creatures moving around my tank. Is this bad? Some of them are on my two amazon swords that are sittin in there but don't appear to be doing any harm. Not sure though. Also, my driftwood has a lot of white crap growing all over it. I've read that it's normal and will go away but it doesn't look normal at all. I hope my tank isn't screwed now

Edit: My fault, I should have at least included some readings before I made that post.

Very interesting though. The .25ppm nitrite went away, it's at 0 now. Ammonia is at 2.5 or 3ppm instead of 4ppm. and Nitrate is at 5ppm woohoo. It's looking like I'm experiencing what I thought may have happened.

Did you recently purchase the plants? They sometimes hide tagalongs... snails.. They aren't bad but they do reproduce a lot and could over crowd your tank. Maybe you should look into getting a snail eater... I forgot what size your tank is but maybe some zebra cories they love snails. Your tank isn't screwed, just let the cycling happen.

 

[dlwn88]

Yeah I did. a week ago. I noticed something that looked like a few tiny snails on my amazon sword but they had disappeared not long after. Now there's probably 20-30 of these things, one of them almost about 1/4th size of something like a dime. It literally exploded overnight, I'm hoping it will even out over time because the fish I plan on getting don't eat these...south american cichlids. Thanks for the info Tracey!