1. After I set up and planted my new tank (a fluval flex 15g), my LFS gave me a bag full of dirty water squeezed from their filters full of beneficial bacteria to kickstart the cycle. The owner of the store was adamant that after a day of adding this water and running it through my filter the tank would be safe for fish and he said if I didn’t add fish all the bacteria would die. I have followed his advice and have had a fish in there for a week and just added a few more yesterday. Daily water testing has so far revealed no problems. Does this strategy sound okay?
Cycling is needed because of the toxicity of ammonia. Ammonia in water breaks down into two compornents, NH3 which is the nasty gas we all know and which is extremely toxic and NH4 (ammonium) which is way less toxic. For the most part hibby test kits measure Total Ammonia (TA) which is the sum of both NH# and NH$4. The bacteria (fopr the most part) prefer NH3 while live plants and algae prefer NH4. Even more imortantly, plants can consume NH4 way faster than bacteria consume NH3. Additionally, aquatic plants naturally have the nitrifying bacteria living on them. So when we add live plants to a tank, we are also adding nitrifying bacteria. The mulm you were given contains a lot of the needed nitrifying bacteria. What you did was to got at ammonia mitigation from both directions and your tank was able to pricess ammonia way way sooner than would be the case in a typical fishless cycle.
Your store guy was correct on helping making your tank safe. However, he was not accurate on what he told you about how fast the bacteria might die in the absence of an ammonia source. This is a different topic which I won't pursue here.
2. If one were to do a normal in-fish cycle without following the strategy above, how long would it take for ammonia to start showing up? How quickly does it build? And then how long after that do nitrites and then nitrates start appearing?
Have a read here for the answer
https://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/freshwater-cycling.84598/page-22#post-2969575
There re no hard and fast rules here. How many fish, which fish, what size tank etc. etc. Then there is the fact that one must stick gradually when trying to cycle using fish. But if you are asking how long from dat one until the tank is fully stocked, i would say 3 months maybe 4. A successful fishledd cycle allows one to stock 100% when it is done and that takes anythere from a rapi d 4 weeks to a slow 10 weeks. This assumes one does not have any source of added bacteria at the outset.
3. In terms of Ammonia tests I’m using an API test kit. I’ve found the ammonia test hard to read and it seems to change depending on light conditions. It is never a bright yellow like on the test strip, it’s much more pale; in some lights it looks like it might have a tinge of green in it, in others, it doesn’t. The color has remained remarkably consistent and hasn’t changed over time. Does anyone have experience or advice about reading the water color on the API test?
When reading the result, place the test tube against the white backgrund on the color card along side of the color bars. Have the light source coming from behind you and lighting up the card and test tube from that position. Sunlight is best, but artificial light can work almost as well if you make sure the light is behind you. By ddoing things this way you will equalize the color of the bars and of he contents of the test tube in similar fashions making them more comparable.
4. My tap water has approximately 1.00ppm of ammonia in it (and that does show up in an API test as a dark green). Should this change the frequency with which I do water changes or how I do them? When I do them I’ve been treating the water with Seachem Prime. Is there anything else I should do about the ammonia in the tap water?
When and how are you measuring the tap water. Do you add any dechlor before you test it? Prime is not only a declor, it is also an ammonia detoxifier. So it should neiutralize any ammonia in the water, up to a point. Unless you have absolute control over your water supply which would include from it ioriginates and how it may be processed in between, there is nothing you can do except to use an ammonia detoxifier.
Many dechlors, including Prime. can break down chlormine into its two components. chlorine and ammonia. This is why many dechlors also contain an ammonia detoxifier.
5
. Does Seachem Prime (when used with normal or double doses) harm the fish at all? Are there any downsides to treating water with Seachem Prime?
It depends upon who you ask. I have excellent water from out private well. I do not use dechlors. However, over the years I have sold fish at events and had to use hotel water. I have both Amquel and Prime for such events. I am not a fan of Prime for one reason, it contains something to help with the slime coat of the fish and I prefer not to use such chemicals. I will not put Aloe Vera into my tank water either. This is a personal decision on my part and there are millions of fish keepers using Prime.
6. If Seachem Prime is used to neutralize ammonia, nitrites or nitrates can the API water test still detect its presence at the original levels?
No. In fact Sechem will tell you this on their site if you know where to look. Go here, scroll down and click on FAQ
https://www.seachem.com/prime.php you will see this among other info:
I am using Prime® to control ammonia but my test kit says it is not doing anything, in fact it looks like it added ammonia! What is going on?
A: A Nessler based kit will not read ammonia properly if you are using Prime®... it will look "off scale", sort of a muddy brown (incidentally a Nessler kit will not work with any other products similar to Prime®). A salicylate based kit can be used, but with caution. Under the conditions of a salicylate kit the ammonia-Prime® complex will be broken down eventually giving a false reading of ammonia (same as with other products like Prime®), so the key with a salicylate kit is to take the reading right away. However, the best solution ;-) is to use our
MultiTest™ Ammonia kit; it uses a gas exchange sensor system which is not affected by the presence of Prime® or other similar products. It also has the added advantage that it can detect the more dangerous free ammonia and distinguish it from total ammonia (total ammonia is both free ammonia and non-toxic ionized forms of ammonia).
Sechem will also tell you they have no clue how Prime neutralizes nitrite or nitrate.
6. How much of an impact do plants have on the nitrogen cycle? Do they absorb ammonia, nitrites and nitrates? If so, how much?
See my answer above. Here is the problem with trying to answer your question. How much and how fast plants use ammonia depends on the species of plant. It further depends on the level of planting one does. One tank is lightly planted, another moderately planted and the third is heavily planted. If they used the exact same species of plants, then the more there are, the more ammonia that will be handled. This is complicated by the fact that too much ammonia can harm plants just as it can harm other living things in a tank,
The only way I know to get a handle on how much ammonia any planted tank can process is to dose and test. The most sensitive plants cannot withstand much ammonia. So I suggest one use the following method with planting a tank and testing to see how ammonia "safe" it is. Plant the tank and give it 10-14 days for the plants to settle in and establish roots if they are in the substrate. Then do a test. Add 1 ppm of ammonia to the tank and then test at 12 hour intervals. If the ammonia is gone in 12 hours, you can add some fish. If it takes 24 2, you can add a small number of fish. If it is not gone in 24 hours it needs to develop more bacteria (or you can add more plant). Developing more bacteria will require you resort to doing a mini-fishless cycle.
If you clear 1 ppm of ammonia in 12 hours and would like to stock the tank fully, you should first repeat the above test but at an ammonia level of 2 ppm. Use the same 12/24 hour testing. If you can clear the ammonia in 24 hours or less, you can add a full load of fish, but do not overstock. I do not advise ever adding more than 2 ppm of ammonia to a plantted tank.
Adding plants to a tank changes the nitrification paradigm. The ammonia which gets consumed by the plants does not produce any nitrite and, therefore, no nitrate either. Only the micro-organisms do this. Further, plants can use nitrate. Most prefer ammonia, but they can process the nitrate though less efficiently. To my knowledge the plants do not use nitrite. Bear in mind that trying to do a fishless cycle in a planted tank will confuse the heck out of those new to the hobby. How can you see how a cycle is progressing if the numbers for nitrite and nitrate are very low or even absent? One needs to rely heavily on the ammonia test. The one thing we know for sure is we do not want to see nitrite showing up on our test kit before we add fish.
I will conclude by saying that the most effective filter any tank can have is a planted substrate. The next best filters after that would a Hamburg Mattenfilter or a properly set up and maintained reverse flow undergravel filter (not recommended for planted tanks as the roots clog the substrate and reduce the flow though rate).
