Hey guys.. last Thursday I did some work to the tank and now I'm cycling again. I've had sand in my tank for 6 years, and I swapped it to gravel 3 weeks ago. I didn't like the gravel so I bought some Estes color quartz and replaced the gravel with that on Thursday. I drained around 70% of the water in my 125g and I went ahead and cleaned the filter. My FX5 has 3 trays full of Bio Matrix and Pond Matrix. I rinse the the 6 sponges in the faucet, however I use the tank water in the FX5 to shake up the Matrix to remove any trapped waste. After I put it back together I fill the FX5 with tank water again. This is the way I've done it for years (every 1 - 2 months), so I'm having a hard time believing that changing to rocks after only 3 weeks would cause me to cycle again. I also added a sponge filter a month ago and surely it would have seeded by now. I also use Prime as a conditioner, I add 3 caps for my 125g.
Anyway, the day after the substrate change I had a bacteria bloom. I tested for ammonia and the best I could tell it was between 0 and .25. I did another 50% water change on the following day and the bacteria bloom was gone the day after that (Sunday). I tested my Ammonia again Sunday and it still showed around .25. Yesterday however the Ammonia was showing 1.0 and this morning it seems like it was showing 2.0. I have yet to show any Nitrites and my Nitrates always show around 10.
I'm assuming somehow I inadvertently crashed the cycle, or does this sound like a mini cycle? I just really find it hard to believe with the sponge filter and all of the Matrix that I'm using that this would happen even if I swapped the substrate (that was only in the tank for 2-3 weeks).
I'm thinking about picking up some Seachem Stability and giving that a try, comments on that or suggestions on doing something else other than water changes and the waiting game..
Anyway, the day after the substrate change I had a bacteria bloom. I tested for ammonia and the best I could tell it was between 0 and .25. I did another 50% water change on the following day and the bacteria bloom was gone the day after that (Sunday). I tested my Ammonia again Sunday and it still showed around .25. Yesterday however the Ammonia was showing 1.0 and this morning it seems like it was showing 2.0. I have yet to show any Nitrites and my Nitrates always show around 10.
I'm assuming somehow I inadvertently crashed the cycle, or does this sound like a mini cycle? I just really find it hard to believe with the sponge filter and all of the Matrix that I'm using that this would happen even if I swapped the substrate (that was only in the tank for 2-3 weeks).
I'm thinking about picking up some Seachem Stability and giving that a try, comments on that or suggestions on doing something else other than water changes and the waiting game..
