I may be in trouble.... What's a cycle?

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haydenm315

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Feb 14, 2005
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I recently setup a 40 gallon tank to feed my addiction and to alleviate the overpopulation of my 10 gallon. I never knew about this cycle thing until today. Here is what I did, and what's going on.

I conditioned the 40 gallon with acquarium salt, a couple 7.0ph tablets, and aquasafe. I've got the temp stable between 76-78F. I'm using an aquaclear 300 (I think it's a different model now, but I had one in the past and it's the same thing) The filter is running carbon, the ammonia guard stuff, and some weird good bacteria bag stuff that came with it. I'm also blowing some fresh air into the tank. I let it run for about a week with nothing in it. I moved the 5 baby whatevers into it and kept it at that for a week. I decided to move the plecostemus into the tank and the red tail shark. The red tail shark died from a freak accident. I found him on the floor outside the tank in the morning after the 3rd day. I think he was playing in the bubbles and somehow made a leap of faith through the only small hole in my tank cover. :mad:

I'm looking for suggestions on what I should do from here to minimize the risk of death. From what I've gathered, I need to monitor my ammonia levels and change water accordingly. I'm going to move my ammonia indicator thing from the little tank over to the big one immediately. I know there isn't much food in the tank for the pleco, so I've been feeding algae disks at night. They seem to be disappearing.
 
There is a sticky on cycling which you should read through all the way. Basically, you need to establish bacteria to break down fish waste. Aquarium salt is not needed unless used as a medication(e.g. for ich)What is your ph that you would need to use those tablets? In any case they are a PITA unless you really need them and you really can use them accuratly every time. Carbon filters are used to remove medications from the water, and will become inactive in a few weeks, no need to replace this. I am curiouse as to what "wierd good bacteria bag" is. If it is bio spira, you got some decent stuff, most other products of this nature do nat work as thier supposed to.

You are correct you need to monitor ammonia(as well as 2 other things). You should go get a liquid type test kit for ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte. You will want to keep ammonia and nitrite at arround 0 ppm(water changes will keep that level). After a while you will see nitrAtes. This means the bacteria are established. There is a bit more to it, so go to the top of the forum and read up on cycling. GOOD LUCK:)
 
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Every square inch of surface area in your 10g (especially the filter media) is covered with bacteria that convert ammonia (poisonous fish waste) into nitrites, and then into nitrates. Your new tank does not have any of these bacteria yet. They 4-6 week period that it takes for these bacteria to colonize and reproduce to a useful level on your tanks surfaces is called the "cycle". You have no worries though. The sponge of your old aquaclear is covered with millions fo the bacteria you need. Cut it in half and place it under the sponge of your new aquaclear. The bacteria will emmediatley start to deal with the ammonia being produced in the 40g and will spread to the new sponge. Just to be safe, don't add anything else to your new tank for a couple weeks unless you move everything (including the old filter) over to the new tank.
 
Since there are fish in the tank, you NEED to keep ammonia and nitrite (once it starts showing up) at or very close to 0 if you want the fish to live. Both are very toxic to fish. Be sure to read the sticky on cycling, it will be more info. than you can probably digest, but should give you a good idea about the process
 
Holly9937 said:
Since there are fish in the tank, you NEED to keep ammonia and nitrite (once it starts showing up) at or very close to 0 if you want the fish to live. Both are very toxic to fish. Be sure to read the sticky on cycling, it will be more info. than you can probably digest, but should give you a good idea about the process
Click to expand...
Oops :( been a while since i cycled with fish....... thank you so much for pointing out my mistake!!!(I fixed it above too)
 
plecos and salt don't get along too well. you really don't need to use it at all unless you get ich. the pleco will also appreciate canned green beans (rinsed) or a small chunk of fresh zucchini. boil some water with a clove of crushed garlic in it, and put the zucchini in the boiling water for about 45 seconds. that will kill any possible fungus and make it softer. put it in at night and leave until the next day. you can use a veggie clip from your LFS or weight it down with something. shove a spoon through it, tie it to a rock, i use some allen keys.
 
Like mooman said, you're better off than most with new tanks because you have an exisiting one. In addition to the filter foam, you can also borrow decorations and some gravel out of your old tank to get some bacteria into the new. If it's different gravel and you don't to mix it, put it in a mesh laundry bag, or in a topless container.

Of course, if the goal is to move all of the fish over, I don't see any reason not to move them all, including wanted decorations and the water. And run both the new and old filter on the aquarium so the new filter can develop bacteria colonies. He already has enough biological filtration in the old tank, filter and decorations to handle the bioload. The only downside is that the old filter is not going to produce as many change of water in an hour. Any opinions?
 
Thanks for all the help. I'll stay away from the salt. In my established tank I am using the little whisper biobag filters. Each of the filters has a little foam shield after the biobag. Since I've got 2 of them, and really only need one, I'm going to move one over into the new tank. Unfortunately I threw one of them out the other day when changing the 10g's water because the bag looked kinda goopy brown slimy. (I'm assuming this is the good bacteria?) Which reminds me... I'm going to look around the forum on how often I should replace the carbon filters. I should be tearing up that ammonia pretty good I think. I plan on scooping some of the gravel out after work today. I guess it was good for me to take some of the decorations out of the old tank. I took the little hiding area which should be full of the bacteria. It's been in there a week already.

I can't believe how far off I've been with the whole fish thing. I'm surprised I was able to keep 2 red bellied piranhas for over 5 years back in my hs days. Unforunately I was irresponsible back then and didnt' clean the tank enough. I accidentally forgot to plug the filter back in after rinsing, and it was over after that. :rant2:
 
That "foam shield" is the "bio-foam." That's exactly the place in that filter where the bacteria are supposed to grow. The filter cartridge, the Bio-bags, are disposable and are supposed to be replaced regularly. Since they come before the bio-foam in the water flow, they should keep the bio-foam fairly clean-looking.
 
Holly9937 said:
Since there are fish in the tank, you NEED to keep ammonia and nitrite (once it starts showing up) at or very close to 0 if you want the fish to live. Both are very toxic to fish. Be sure to read the sticky on cycling, it will be more info. than you can probably digest, but should give you a good idea about the process
Click to expand...

The development server at work has been under the knife for a little bit so I was able to read the entire thing. I was completely wrong before with my water changes being based off the ammonia levels and I consider myself lucky for keeping the number of fish I've managed to keep.

It is a lot to digest, but I've got a firm grasp. I'm a computer programmer with an MS degree, and I have the guts to take the motor of my car apart and put it back together all while under the pressure of my engineer father telling me I dont' know what I'm doing. I can digest just about anything unless you're talking about women. Sometimes I just don't understand my fiance. :D

Thanks for all the pointers so far.
 
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