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04/24/2012, 10:58 PM | #1 |
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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! |
04/24/2012, 11:11 PM | #2 |
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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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04/24/2012, 11:17 PM | #3 |
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I would look into dr tims one and only and add some fish now.
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04/24/2012, 11:17 PM | #4 | |
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04/24/2012, 11:27 PM | #5 |
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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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Mike Dickenson....Marine Aquarist Roundtable of Sacramento, Co-Founder Current Tank Info: 187 Gal Display/125 Gal sump/Reefkeeper Elite/Rw20s/Leds |
04/25/2012, 12:28 AM | #6 |
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Is an airstone/bubble curtain good or bad for this??
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04/25/2012, 06:16 AM | #7 |
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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. |
04/25/2012, 07:12 AM | #8 |
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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. |
04/25/2012, 11:47 AM | #9 | |
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04/25/2012, 12:01 PM | #10 |
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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. |
04/25/2012, 12:08 PM | #11 | |
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04/25/2012, 12:11 PM | #12 | |
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If God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat. Steve Current Tank Info: 180, 2-240 FOWLRs, 240 reef |
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04/25/2012, 12:19 PM | #13 |
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04/25/2012, 12:26 PM | #14 |
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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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04/25/2012, 12:34 PM | #15 |
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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. |
04/25/2012, 04:24 PM | #16 |
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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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04/25/2012, 07:19 PM | #17 |
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04/26/2012, 08:39 AM | #18 | |
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If God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat. Steve Current Tank Info: 180, 2-240 FOWLRs, 240 reef |
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