cycle question

Ghost shrimp will not produce anywhere near enough ammonia to get a decent cycle for fish. I would look into a fishless cycle sicne you haven't started yet. Try reading the stickies on cycling in the newbie forum.

you made me ink said:

i currently have a 10 gallon tank which houses my two convicts, can i use some of the water from that tank also i plan on turning into mabey a guppie tank so i wont have to worry about anything outgrowing my tank -lol- thanks for the help

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The water doesn't contain very much if any bacteria. The bacteria live on surfaces and in your filter. Some filter media from your 10 would help get things started but you need to feed the bacteria. Add enough pure ammonia (no soap or fragrance) to keep it at .5ppm, then start testing for nitrIte and nitrAte. Once you have nitrAte and your ammonia and nitrIte are consistantly 0, you're cycled and it's safe to start adding fish! Patience and research is the key!

Moving the filter from the 10 gallon to the larger tank will instantly cycle the bigger tank to the level of fish currently in the 10 gallon. Then slowly adding new fish and giving the bacteria time to catch up will make for easy cycling. But just add fish in no more than once a week and test the water before adding any new fish to make sure that ammonia is zero, nitrite is zero and keep nitrates low (less than 20ppm is fine but lower is better).

When the big tank is cycled (using the old filter and a new filter) then you can move the old filter back to the 10 gallon and add some guppies. Once again when moving filters test both tanks and watch for any spikes which you can deal with by doing water changes.

you made me ink said:

how much ammonia should i put in? is bleach pure ammonia?? (sorry if this is a dumb question) thanks for the help

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Don't use bleach!! That's chlorine and would kill any bacteria you might have. Make sure you use dechlor in any water you add to the tank. You can usually get a jug of ammonia (no soap, no fragrance) at the hardware store or grocery store. Check the ingredients and make sure it says just ammonium hydroxide or ammonia. You can also shake it to make sure there is no soap in it (if it suds up, it's got soap).

If you don't already have them, get test kits for, at least, ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte. Then add a few drops of ammonia at a time and keep testing until you get to .5ppm. Then test everyday for ammonia and nitrIte. Keep your ammonia at .5ppm until you start seeing nitrItes then back off on the ammonia to .2 or .3ppm. Start testing for nitrAte then as well as ammonia and nitrIte and when you have nitrAte but no ammonia or nitrIte, you're cycled! Do a big water change and get some fish!

Adding filter media from your established tank will make things go alot faster!

not .5 or .3, but 5.0 and 3.0.

wataugachicken said:

not .5 or .3, but 5.0 and 3.0.

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No that would be to much ammonia. You want .5 and .3