Cycling Status on New 55 Gal...and Q's

T

TetraFreak

Church of the Freshwater Aquarium!
Dec 14, 2005
537
19
18
Sweet Home "Northern" Alabama
Been doing fishless cycle of new 55 gal and things are starting to look good.

Been running just over 3 weeks, Started with filter gunk from my other 2 tanks & even dropped in a used filter cartridge from my Eclipse5 hex to help. Also added a bit more filter GUNK when topping off from evaporation.


Been testing Ammonia, NitrItes, & NitrAtes daily :dance:

last couple nights: :joke:
After dosing the Ammonia back up to ~4
Get home the following day,
test & get the fiollowing numbers:
Ammonia: <.25
NitrItes: 5+
NitrAtes: ~20

Then Dose Ammonia back to ~4
next evening, about the same readings when I get home from work & test.

As it appears that things are establishing nicely, would it be a good idea to do a massive water change, dose with ammonia, wait 24 hours to get readings & if Ammonia & NitrItes are good, start stocking with fish???

I'm asking because my Plex are getting too big for my 25 gal. :duh:

Thanks!

-TF
 
:coffee2:
 
Roan Art said:
Sometimes I miss threads :)

Roan
Click to expand...
Don't we all!


so thoughts on massive water change & start stocking tank at this point???
 
Some may disagree, but I think you are ready to do the WC and then stock. My reasoning is that if your tank goes from 4ppm to a trace in a day, you must have a good load of bacteria. As long as you are not overstocking badly, this tank should be ready after the water change. As a matter of fact, I'll bet you have some amount of bacteria die off after adding the fish because they won't produce enough ammonia to keep that colony alive. I think mine did that when I fishless cycled my 29 gallon.

I say do it, you've waited long enough!

bogey77
 
Thanks,

I think the filter media from my 25 gal helped establish the bacteria a bit quicker than a standard fishless cycle.

Now to decide what to put in there...
 
I'm sure the filter media helped the cycle. My cycle really never got off the ground until I got a hold of a couple of used filters from an established tank. Within a week or so of adding the filters, I was cycled and ready to go. Good luck.

bogey77
 
Update:

Tested last night...

Ammonia: <.25
NitrItes: ~2

Looks like it'll be done on it's own here shortly even if I don't do the water change! :dive2:
 
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