Five day cycle?

Dragon Queen

Dragon Queen

AC Members
Feb 17, 2005
243
0
0
I set up my 20H Sun and did the 5 ppm ammonia, put a sponge from my Penguin powerhead from another tank in there and a new Penguin 200 powerfilter w/biowheel. Everything was fresh except that sponge. I tested my water tonite, 5 days later, and 0 nitrites and 20ppm nitrates, and there are no nitrates in my tap. Is it remotely possible that its cycled or a fluke. Anybody had a tank fishless cycle anywhere near that time period? Thanks.
 
ph is 7.5
there is no heater currently so somewhere between 65 -70
gh 10 and kh 7
haven't checked the ammonia yet I will get the better kits out tonite and recheck everything.
 
Have you been adding ammonia to the tank every day? You should be testing ammonia daily and add to achieve 5ppm until cycled. By using a mature sponge you've given the tank a kickstart anyways.

To check if the tank is cycled add 5ppm ammonia and let it sit overnight. If ammonia and nitrites are at zero and nitrates are higher than your 20ppm then I'd say the tank is cycled.
 
You took a cycled sponge and added it to a new tank.The new tank was for all intents and purposes cycled as soon as you did it.Its often reffered to as instant cycling.Now the downside is without a source of ammonia the bacteria will start to die off so either add fish or ammonia asap.-Anne
 
I did add and continue to add ammonia each day, I had just added it last night before I checked nitrites and nitrates, so I couldn't check Ammonia. I am going to tonite.
 
I keep spare filters operating on mature tanks for just this reason. You in effect did a massive inoculation of nitrification bacteria, so yes you did cycle in less than a week. Fishless as described for novices is not at all the same for multi-tank folk. For those with spare filters on mature tanks, cycling a "new" setup with a well-inoculated filter is rarely longer than ten days, frequently much less. I count on 3-4 days when I have moved a mature filter over, basically just time to ammonia-challenge the setup and see positive nitrate production.
 
OK, so you are inoculated but not fully cycled. The increase in nitrate titer say that you have some functional ammonia-oxidizers and some some functional nitrite oxidizers. Keep the NH3 titer down to ~3ppm so that there no issue with inhibition of the nitrite-oxidizers.

Is your KH okay? That is, at and above KH = 4-5 degrees.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom