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Unread 04/24/2012, 10:58 PM   #1
mariahcolleen
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Cycling Question!!

Hi everyone!
I have a 30 gal that I set up with live rock and dry sand. I am in day 6 of the cycle and have readings: ammonia: 0.5 ppm, nitrite: 0.0 ppm, nitrate: 0.0 ppm. I just added about 20 ounces of filter squeezings from a friends 55 gal that has been established for about a year. My question is, will this speed up the cycling process? And do you have any time estimates for when it will be done? Thanks so much!


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Unread 04/24/2012, 11:11 PM   #2
mikid
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cycling....

everyone has their own opinion, but mine is after about 2 weeks add a chromis or 2....at about 3-4 weeks you should be able to start adding,but go at it slow, dont overload your bacteria with to much of a bioload, good luck and enjoy......


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Unread 04/24/2012, 11:17 PM   #3
pnavarro170
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I would look into dr tims one and only and add some fish now.


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Unread 04/24/2012, 11:17 PM   #4
mariahcolleen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikid View Post
everyone has their own opinion, but mine is after about 2 weeks add a chromis or 2....at about 3-4 weeks you should be able to start adding,but go at it slow, dont overload your bacteria with to much of a bioload, good luck and enjoy......
Is that with seeded material or without??


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Unread 04/24/2012, 11:27 PM   #5
mikid
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?

when i got back into the hobby in 2007, i set up a 29gal reef tank and was adding fish after 2 weeks, not even chromis....to me its not just about the cycle....its about the clarity of your water, i would do 5 gal water changes every week, and even cycled my tank with fresh live rock,i was running a hang on back bio-wheel,a jebo skimmer,150w mh fixutre,that tank ran for 1 year, then upgraded to a 75g,then a 120g, noew a 120 display with a 135g sump......heavy bio load after 4 years......


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:28 AM   #6
mariahcolleen
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Is an airstone/bubble curtain good or bad for this??


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Unread 04/25/2012, 06:16 AM   #7
f3honda4me
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Some not very good advice here.

Yes if you are adding established bacteria from another established filter that will speed up the process. Don't rush. If you are impatient, this hobby is not for you and you're going to lose a lot of money by being impatient.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 07:12 AM   #8
Jocko
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The filter "squeezings" was a good idea. That should increase the diversity of bacteria strains in your system. Remember the cycling process is forever. So having a greater variety of bacteria involved in the cycle is good for your tank in the long run.

You simply need to wait until you are reading 0 for ammonia, nitrite and and nitrate. At that point you will know that your bacteria population has grown to a level where it is able to process all of the ammonia sources in the tank. Of course in a new tank there is not much bioload, so not much ammonia. And since that is what the bacteria eat, you'll have a fairly small bacteria population. So when you are reading 0's, it's time to increase the bioload a little.

So think about which fish you want in your tank and choose the most appropriate guy to be the first (hardy, not too territorial, etc.). Don't get a damsel or a chromis unless those are actually part of your long-term stocking plans. The small increase of bioload from adding one fish will not cause much of an ammonia spike (if any), but that small increase will provide a little bit more food for your bacteria, so the population will grow slightly.

The general rule of thumb is add things a little at a time. And never add things unless you are reading 0's. Follow that and you will slowly grow a nice healthy population of bacteria in your tank and have a nice balanced nitrogen cycle going.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 11:47 AM   #9
mariahcolleen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by f3honda4me View Post
Some not very good advice here.

Yes if you are adding established bacteria from another established filter that will speed up the process. Don't rush. If you are impatient, this hobby is not for you and you're going to lose a lot of money by being impatient.
My intent on this thread was not to find a way rush the cycling process, but to see if there was a point to adding bacteria from another tank. Squeezing someones yucky filter isn't exactly fun and I wanted to make sure there was some benefit to it. I have had freshwater and brackish aquariums for 15 years and am well aware of the patience any hobby involving living things will require. Please don't make assumptions about me. That kind of attitude won't lend your advice to being well received. I'm sure you have a wealth of knowledge; don't waste it by being dismissal.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:01 PM   #10
jerseygurl
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Hang on a second.

Your cycle isn't nearly complete, you have no nitrate and still have ammonia. What you need to do is either throw a raw shrimp in or ghost feed, bring your ammonia up to 1 or 2, and watch your nitrates go up. Once all the ammonia is gone, do water changes until your nitrate goes to near zero, then your ready for a fish.

PLEASE DON'T CYCLE WITH A LIVE FISH IT'S CRUEL.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:08 PM   #11
mariahcolleen
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Originally Posted by jerseygurl View Post
Hang on a second.

Your cycle isn't nearly complete, you have no nitrate and still have ammonia. What you need to do is either throw a raw shrimp in or ghost feed, bring your ammonia up to 1 or 2, and watch your nitrates go up. Once all the ammonia is gone, do water changes until your nitrate goes to near zero, then your ready for a fish.

PLEASE DON'T CYCLE WITH A LIVE FISH IT'S CRUEL.
I dont have any fish. And am using the ghost feeding method. I have cycled tanks before I just didnt know if there was a point to using filter squeezings. Its gross and I wanted to get around it if I could.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:11 PM   #12
MrTuskfish
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mariahcolleen View Post
Hi everyone!
I have a 30 gal that I set up with live rock and dry sand. I am in day 6 of the cycle and have readings: ammonia: 0.5 ppm, nitrite: 0.0 ppm, nitrate: 0.0 ppm. I just added about 20 ounces of filter squeezings from a friends 55 gal that has been established for about a year. My question is, will this speed up the cycling process? And do you have any time estimates for when it will be done? Thanks so much!
I may be paranoid; but parasites can be introduced this way.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:19 PM   #13
mariahcolleen
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I may be paranoid; but parasites can be introduced this way.
I don't think you're paranoid at all! That was another of my chief concerns and I wondered if anyone thought the same thing. What sort of parasites should I be on the lookout for?


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:26 PM   #14
jerseygurl
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Okay cool, didn't mean to get all uppity I just really really hate it when people cycle with a poor innocent fish.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 12:34 PM   #15
gweston
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A lot of factors can affect how long it will take. I had a tank cycle in two weeks once, but with well established sand and rock that I cycled for some 8+ weeks before hand (in a brute trash bin). Test, and the tank will tell you when it is ready (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and rising nitrates).

From your 0.5 reading at one week, your cycle is probably just starting. You could toss a raw/clean shrimp in to help kickstart things as it sounds like you are pretty well seeded. If livestock is added too fast or before the cycle completes, it could lead to an ammonia spike and potential deaths.

If you haven't put in livesand, a cup from an established tank would help too.. no need to go overboard and buy a bag of livesand though. A 10lb bag of petstore livesand I'd suspect is nowhere as good as a cup of livesand from a well established tank. You aren't only getting nbacteria, you are getting lots of additional beneficial critters too.


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Unread 04/25/2012, 04:24 PM   #16
chad316
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTuskfish View Post
I may be paranoid; but parasites can be introduced this way.
Mariah, I think this ^^ could be one of the only few (potential) negatives with adding squeezings from someone else's mature filter. As far as cycle time, I think it's fair to say that every tank is different in this regard. Ergo, I don't there's definitive answers to your original questions. Glad to see you are seeing hints of ammonia though


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Unread 04/25/2012, 07:19 PM   #17
mariahcolleen
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Okay cool, didn't mean to get all uppity I just really really hate it when people cycle with a poor innocent fish.
Me too. Sadly I did this with my first tank nearly 15 years ago. That guppy was never quite normal and got sick very easily.


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Unread 04/26/2012, 08:39 AM   #18
MrTuskfish
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mariahcolleen View Post
I don't think you're paranoid at all! That was another of my chief concerns and I wondered if anyone thought the same thing. What sort of parasites should I be on the lookout for?
Ich is the main one. Velvet, brooklynella, and other diseases and parasites are also possible. I don't assume anyone's tanks are safe, except my own. It isn't unusual (on the disease section of the forum) to have someone report that his tank was wiped out when he added a fish from a friends tank.


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