I have a new tank and want to do a fishless cycle. My current tank is around 12-14 weeks old. Does it have enough bacterial growth in it to make it worthwhile to borrow some of the gravel, plants, and a filter pad from it to jump start the new tank?
My parameters are still somewhat bizarre at:
.25ppm Ammonia
0ppm Nitrites
0ppm Nitrates
I'm stopping by the pet store tonight to buy a Nitrates test. My current test is the API drip test.
Zambize your parameters still confuse me... where are your nitrates... you had some then they leave them they come back then they leave, very odd. You definitely should be cycled by now... and have more than enough bacteria to transfer to a new tank (as long as you are producing nitrates means you are balanced with beneficial bacteria). If you are upgrading you will need a few days for the bacteria level in your new tank to reach cycle.
I would test nitrates with a different liquid drop test and see what you get... the only problem i had with this ever was when i was measuring nitrate incorrectly. Lets see what happens.
oh i just reread... if you are only partly transporting stuff and not everything, then your cycle will take much longer, but still be shorter than starting with nothing obviously. I think it will cut your cycle down to a couple of weeks.
Thanks, I'm going by PetsMart today to see if they have a Nitrates-only test. The ammonia comes and goes too between 0-.25ppm. I just can't imagine. I don't think I'm doing anything weird and I have a light bio load.
I'm not transferring everything over to jump start my tank because I read that it can shock the existing tank, and god knows this tank doesn't need shocking...
And just so no one's confused...I'm not male, just wanted to straighten that out since there have been some references to me being a guy. I don't care, but didn't want anyone to feel lied to.
The ammonia changes are normal depending on how well you clean and how often you feed, I wouldn't worry much about the ammonia unless it starts to peak over .50 ... ideally you want zero... but at this point we need to figure out why nitrates are zero, it just doesn't make sense unless your cycle restarted which i don't think it did. Lets see what the new test says.... ma'am :)
Maybe I'm wrong, but I fully expect 0 ammonia because I do a water change 25% every 7-10 days. I feed once a day sparingly and I have two Penguin 150s with extra filter pads on this little 28 gallon tank. I really stir up the substrate when I vacuum. Maybe...*maybe*...I'm trapping to much gunk in the plants? I'm densely planted with artificials and I don't dig them up with every vacuum. Although I do vacuum the leaves.
im looking at your pic... so the wood and the plants dont move when you vacuum? If not, how do you vacuum the substrate beneath them, as they take up quite a good amount of substrate area?
Well, I haven't been vacuuming under the plants and wood. That sounds sort of stupid now though. I got so little gunk just vacuuming the more open spots I just didn't think about anything significant being under anything. I guess I should move everything every time I vacuum? Newbies...
I got the Nitrates only test. It did show a trace of Nitrates, but it was less than 5ppm. Certainly not 20-40ppm....
And for my ongoing high pH I got some peat moss. But it includes plant food...couldn't find any plain peat moss. Is this ok or am I returning it to the store?
You only need to vacuum the substrate every other water change with your fish load, in my opinion. The other time you can just change out the water. But definitely you need to be moving the plants and wood to get underneath.
As for the nitrates, it seems it was your API liquid, maybe something was wrong with it... the nitrates you are showing is good, as long as there are nitrates you don't have to worry... and 20-40 is bit too much, if you show that much you need to do a water change.
I don't know much about peat moss, sorry. But that could be a reason for your ammonia... if there are no live plants, this food is decaying and turning to ammonia most likely.
this could be the issue, if you go to a greenhouse they will have sphagnum peat moss with no chemical plant food additives, the other thing you can do and i recommend before adding the peat moss, soak it thoroughly in the nylon and then squeeze it out and do this two more times, what will happen is you will get all of the plant food or chemical ferts out of it and it should be safe to put in the filter.
I wouldn't put anything with added fertiliser into your tank. This fert is for terrestrial plants, not aquariums.
If you don't have live plants it can't be that much trouble to remove all your decor and vacuum all the gravel. I actually would remove all the decor and with my hand I'd stir up the gravel till the water is really nasty looking, and then do a 50% water change. Sometimes I stir up the gravel and make the water nasty, turn off all pumps and aeration, and when the gunk settles I vacuum it off the top. Turn the pumps/filter back on when you're done, and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes total.
As for me, I thought you were a woman mainly because of the girlyish avatar you use. It's beautiful, but not something most guys would use. It reminds me of my girlfriend with all the flowers she has all over the dash of her car. I keep telling her she's gona get strangled by her flower rope someday. All in jest though! I drive her car sometimes and people give me looks, but oh well!
If you have one tank that is cycling correctly it should be quite easy to get the other tank going by simply putting a pad used in the established tank into the new tank. I'd be surprised if you had any spikes of nitrite or ammonia as long as you add fish slowely. I thought you were using "spring water" and it was working for you. I'd do the same with the new tank.
I've done some speaking with someone who does use R/O water, and that person adds a product called R/O Right to make R/O water perfect for aquariums.
It's just something to considder.
I'd put 1 or 2 fish in right away, and then if parameters are good add a fish every couple days.
I never seem to have problems with ammonia, or nitrites. Actually I've never had a positive reading of either with any of my tanks. I always have live plants though, so this may be why. I don't do water changes very often either. My main reason for water changes is to dilute the minerals and other substances that remain when the water evaporates over time.
I top off my tanks every week or so, and I do a 30% or something water change every month thereabouts. I don't worry about nitrates because the plants use it up as fertiliser.
I add some fertiliser to my high light, co2 pumped, planted tank, but it contains no nitrogen (a main ingredient in houseplant fertiliser).
