Tank Is Cycled...A Few More Questions Before Adding Fish..

M

maryalice81403

AC Members
Oct 2, 2006
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Salinas, CA
3 Gallon Eclipse Tank

My tank cycled yesterday after 1 week using the Bio Spira and clear ammonia method. I added ammonia again this morning to keep the bacteria fed until tomorrow when I have time to add betta.


Question#1: Should I add ammonia again tonight or quit adding ammonia now and do a water change before adding betta tommorrow? 50% or 100% water change?

Question #2: The filter looks pretty funky and smells a little. Should I change filter every 2 weeks like they suggest or leave it in there since that is where the good bacteria is? I am assuming the bacteria is in the bio wheel also but it looks clean so I am not sure. I don't want to change the filter if that is going to cause me to have to cycle all over again.

Thanks!
MaryAlice
 
maryalice81403 said:
3 Gallon Eclipse Tank

My tank cycled yesterday after 1 week using the Bio Spira and clear ammonia method. I added ammonia again this morning to keep the bacteria fed until tomorrow when I have time to add betta.


Question#1: Should I add ammonia again tonight or quit adding ammonia now and do a water change before adding betta tommorrow? 50% or 100% water change?

Question #2: The filter looks pretty funky and smells a little. Should I change filter every 2 weeks like they suggest or leave it in there since that is where the good bacteria is? I am assuming the bacteria is in the bio wheel also but it looks clean so I am not sure. I don't want to change the filter if that is going to cause me to have to cycle all over again.

Thanks!
MaryAlice
Click to expand...

The whole point of the BioWheel is to maintain your biofilter even between normal media changes.

I'd quit adding ammonia for now. Double check that ammonia and Nitrite are zero just before getting the fish, and then to a water change to bring Nitrate down to 10ppm or so.

SIrWired
 
some bacteria will reside in the bio wheel..I would suggest you only lifghtly rinse the filter in old tank water.

why use ammonia when adding live bacteria..you could have just added the fish and the bio spira..the tank would cycle in 4-5 days and you wouldn't need to worry about adding ammonia.

now that said go get the betta.. :rolleyes:

you could add a bit of ammonia just to keep the bacteria fed.
 
maryalice81403 said:
How much of the water should I change?
Do a gravel vac, right?
Click to expand...

Perform as much of a water change as necessary to bring Nitrates down to 10ppm or so. This may be a single 50% change, it may be two or more 80+% changes.

And yes, use your gravel vac to perform the change.

SirWired
 
Just a thought.
this is a newly cycled tank I would not recommend a heavy vac till the tank has had time to set the cycle.
light vac to remove loose mulm/waste on the top of the gravel.
yes you will have bacteria in the wheel but you will find beneficial baceria on a lot of surfaces.
also test your tap for nitrates as this may alter your readings.

getting the nitrates to 10 or below is fairly arbitrary and depends on other factors.

I have a noitrate reading from my source of 20 so getting nitrates to 10 would be hard to do(doable in a planted tank).

reealistically, we use the ntrate readings to 'gauge' a water change..we are really trying to reduce the TDS(total dissolved solids of waste material.

for nitrates to be harmful the reading would rise much higher than 20. 80+ s should get alarm bells ringing.
 
I stopped the ammonia and will test tomorrow and add Betta after a light gravel vac and a water change.



Thank you both for the advice!
 
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