Has anyone had a tank that seems like it won't complete it's cycle

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reefman

reefman

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2005
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Out of my 25 years I don't think I've ever had a tank this stubborn lol. My 180 has been set up coming up on a year and it just won't finish cycling. I'll get ammonia spikes and bacteria blooms. I do a 50% wc every 5 days originally for filtration I have 2 ehiem 2250 filled with bio balls. I even swapped all the bio balls that was in another tank filter that's been set up for years. It helped but not totally. So recently I added a sunsun 304b. I have plenty of filtration and a huge airpump with a big airstone. I just don't get it
 
No I haven't had this problem.

Bad test kit? Low pH or temperature?

I will assume you have fish in the tank but how many and what size?
 
I think there's a bit too many fish for that tank.
Also, filtration is limited to the amount of oxygen in a tank. I'd raise those spraybars/move them to point at the surface, and create a really good surface movement. Oxygen is used up by fish, by decomposition, by the nitrifying bacteria, by a ton of other oxydising processes, all competing for oxygen and you've barely got any surface movement in a very well stocked tank...

Your airstone only oxygenates as much as the surface movement it creates, which is very little in your tank...

Lowering the bioload would help too of course.

I can see on your video that the sides of the surface barely move.....The water is cloudy too but that's because you've got water quality issues and will sort itself out once you sort out the oxygen issue to handle the bioload..


You need the lot of that surface in a wave movement. Examples of mine


And an older tank of mine that broke
 
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The best paragraph I always remember about oxygenation is:

"Oxygen is absorbed in water by direct diffusion and by surface-water agitation. Solubility of oxygen in water is so small and by diffusion process alone in still water, it was culculated that it would take 6 years for oxygen to diffuse from surface to a depth of 6 meters in quiet water. Absorption of water is very minor, that almost all the oxygen enrichment of natural waters takes place by agitation of water."

One should always keep this in mind when setting up a tank and I noticed your other smaller tank is also very low on surface movement.

Source:http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AC183E/AC183E04.htm
 
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Coryloach said:
The best paragraph I always remember about oxygenation is:

"Oxygen is absorbed in water by direct diffusion and by surface-water agitation. Solubility of oxygen in water is so small and by diffusion process alone in still water, it was culculated that it would take 6 years for oxygen to diffuse from surface to a depth of 6 meters in quiet water. Absorption of water is very minor, that almost all the oxygen enrichment of natural waters takes place by agitation of water."

One should always keep this in mind when setting up a tank and I noticed your other smaller tank is also very low on surface movement.

Source:http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AC183E/AC183E04.htm
Click to expand...
The 90 has a wetdry. That tank is self sufficient I barely do anything to that tank
 
Coryloach said:
I think there's a bit too many fish for that tank.
Also, filtration is limited to the amount of oxygen in a tank. I'd raise those spraybars/move them to point at the surface, and create a really good surface movement. Oxygen is used up by fish, by decomposition, by the nitrifying bacteria, by a ton of other oxydising processes, all competing for oxygen and you've barely got any surface movement in a very well stocked tank...

Your airstone only oxygenates as much as the surface movement it creates, which is very little in your tank...

Lowering the bioload would help too of course.

I can see on your video that the sides of the surface barely move.....The water is cloudy too but that's because you've got water quality issues and will sort itself out once you sort out the oxygen issue to handle the bioload..


You need the lot of that surface in a wave movement. Examples of mine


And an older tank of mine that broke
Click to expand...
Ill move the spray bars see if that makes a difference. Thanks =)
 
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reefman said:
The 90 has a wetdry. That tank is self sufficient I barely do anything to that tank
Click to expand...

Yes, a wet dry filter is very efficient for that same reason, it gets plenty of oxygen but I doubt it about it being self-sufficient? I am not sure what you mean by that.
 
reefman said:
Ill move the spray bars see if that makes a difference. Thanks =)
Click to expand...

I think I saw one being vertical? I'd move both of them horizontally covering the back length of the tank and pointing slightly towards the surface as to create a good water agitation. This way even the flow direction is way better too as it will sweep the entire tank. You may get more evaporation with more surface agitation but that's a minor issue compared to the benefits.
 
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