Setting up new tank

viper0397

Dovii
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Nov 18, 2013
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Grand Rapids, Michigan
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Looking for a little advice. I set up a 240 gallon aquarium about 2 months ago. I seem to be having trouble getting it to cycle. I first tried a fishless cycle without ammonia, I just used the excess food method. I did that for about 6 weeks. Now I am trying the fish method. I have added around 20 fish into this tank. That has been about 2 weeks ago. I have also tried using media from an established tank to help speed up the process.

My setup for filtration is 1 fluval fx6 and 3 hydro pro v sponge filters. I only have media in the center basket of the fluval fx6. I do plan to expand that to media in the bottom basket too.

I might be being paranoid. According to my test strips I have 0ppm ammonia 0ppm nitrites and very minimal nitrates. If I remember correctly once the nitrates start showing up I am near the end of my cycle. My test strips are the jungle brand.

I would like to get my stingrays in there as my grow out tank. I just don't want them to get ammonia burn. It is time to get them out of my 75 gallon tank though.
 

Woefulrelic

Goliath Tigerfish
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Dec 7, 2013
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Generally you'll want an established tank for rays. Freshly cycled filters can be subject to ammonia spikes and certain imbalances that make keeping rays difficult. There is a lot of things that can interrupt the cycle, such as short power outages and the like. I prefer to cycle fishless because it gives you the ability to plan for future stock a little bit more easily. Fish food takes time to decay into a useable ammonia stage, so you have to prepare it in advance which can make it bit more difficult to keep the nitrites alive. Nitrates are the end goal but more water changes slow down the process. Right now you should be in the long haul to keep the unnamed fish alive and the cycle going. You want a semblance of balance but you don't want the nitrates to ever jump too high. Because you are cycling with so many fish the nitrite stage will be longer and more toxic. A difficult situation that requires some finesse. Good luck friend!
 

viper0397

Dovii
MFK Member
Nov 18, 2013
366
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Grand Rapids, Michigan
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Generally you'll want an established tank for rays. Freshly cycled filters can be subject to ammonia spikes and certain imbalances that make keeping rays difficult. There is a lot of things that can interrupt the cycle, such as short power outages and the like. I prefer to cycle fishless because it gives you the ability to plan for future stock a little bit more easily. Fish food takes time to decay into a useable ammonia stage, so you have to prepare it in advance which can make it bit more difficult to keep the nitrites alive. Nitrates are the end goal but more water changes slow down the process. Right now you should be in the long haul to keep the unnamed fish alive and the cycle going. You want a semblance of balance but you don't want the nitrates to ever jump too high. Because you are cycling with so many fish the nitrite stage will be longer and more toxic. A difficult situation that requires some finesse. Good luck friend!
Thank you. I have been keeping water changes to a minimum.

Once established I do water changes every other day. Around 20 percent.

The fish I have in there currently are 3 lemon tetra's, 5 zebra danio's, 3 giant danio's, 2 congo tetra's, 2 geos, 4 silver tipped tetra's, and 2 turquois rainbows.
 

Woefulrelic

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2013
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Thank you. I have been keeping water changes to a minimum.

Once established I do water changes every other day. Around 20 percent.

The fish I have in there currently are 3 lemon tetra's, 5 zebra danio's, 3 giant danio's, 2 congo tetra's, 2 geos, 4 silver tipped tetra's, and 2 turquois rainbows.
Unless the ray is in dire trouble of not being able to move, I would just keep on what your doing. The fish you have are hardy enough, just gotta keep cycling. Unless you start testing nitrites its probably best to just keep the course for a month, month and a half maybe, before trying to introduce anything to load heavy. When the cycle is finished you'll probably either want to either slowly increase bioload with anything you might have in the ray tank or get the ray in and take everything else. Its pretty delicate for a ray so you want to keep the water parameters withing a reliable range of trouble. Just play it by ear, and don't risk anything you can't bear to lose.
 

Drstrangelove

Potamotrygon
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Oct 21, 2012
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Thank you. I have been keeping water changes to a minimum.

Once established I do water changes every other day. Around 20 percent.

The fish I have in there currently are 3 lemon tetra's, 5 zebra danio's, 3 giant danio's, 2 congo tetra's, 2 geos, 4 silver tipped tetra's, and 2 turquois rainbows.

Nitrates are a byproduct of food that contains protein. If you have very small fish and feed very little, then it's possible that minimal water changes are removing almost as much nitrate as you are putting into the tank. Thus, low nitrates. You want to stop doing water changes at all until nitrates are clearly accumulating while ammonia and nitrites remain at zero.

Once you clearly see nitrates going up and up and up (over the course of days) with zero readings in ammonia and nitrites, you know you are cycled. Keep in mind that it doesn't mean that you have enough bacteria for a larger population of fish....only that you have enough to handle the amount of food currently being placed in the tank. For example, if you add a single mid sized ray, his food needs alone may dwarf what you had been feeding, so making a step like that is something you want to consider carefully after you are cycled. Also, remember that bacteria in a cycled tank need to still be fed, so don't stop feeding the tank as you move forward.

Basically, once you move in the new residents to the cycled tank, you have to be careful to raise the amount of food from what had been going in before the rays were there to what the rays really need to have for food. That time span is needed for bacteria populations to grow, regardless of whether you grow them naturally or add them with water conditioners or mature filter material.

Rays are gorgeous pets and I know I don't have the skill to handle them yet, but I hope yours do well.
 
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