Cycled?
- Thread starter goldenchld
- Start date
Ianab;1261657; said:Whats the nitrate reading on your tap water? Some places have 5-10ppm nitrate (or More) in their tap water already.
2 guppys may not be enough bioload to really get the cycle started in a 50 gal tank, although they will be doing something on a small scale I guess.
I would add a couple more / bigger fish and continue to monitor the water. A couple of fish each week for the next 6 weeks and you should be fine. Do the tests to make sure and if you get traces of ammonia or nitrite, dont add any more fish untill they go away.
Cheers
Ian
That's what I'm thinking. Two guppies in a 50g of water is about zero bioload. If your really want to see if your tank is cycled(which IMO it's not) through a raw shrimp into the tank and monitor it. With doing this your will see your tank is not cycled and the ammonia from the decaying shrimp will start the cycling.
Yeah, the 2 guppies shouldn't have already given you 5-10ppm of nitrates. Did you add water from any other tanks? Test your tapwater?
Well like I said i added gravel from my established tank and put the filter media from it into the extra slot on my Penguin. I added the Guppies on day 3 or 4 to help even more.
I just tested tap water, 0 Nitrate. Good call though Ianab.
I know seeding a tank speeds it up, but I didn't expect my parameteres to be good this early and I got excited
I just tested tap water, 0 Nitrate. Good call though Ianab.
I know seeding a tank speeds it up, but I didn't expect my parameteres to be good this early and I got excited
Thats okay brent, you were being helpful I thought
goldenchld;1262507; said:Well like I said i added gravel from my established tank and put the filter media from it into the extra slot on my Penguin. I added the Guppies on day 3 or 4 to help even more.
I just tested tap water, 0 Nitrate. Good call though Ianab.
I know seeding a tank speeds it up, but I didn't expect my parameteres to be good this early and I got excited
Thats okay brent, you were being helpful I thought
It's not that the media wasn't cycled, it's that 2 guppies don't add enough waste to create than many nitrates in a 50g tank within a few days. You may have had something decaying in your filter media or gravel which may have added some bioload.
Be careful and add fish slowly though and you should be fine.
BTW seeding a tank does not necessarily just speed it up. Add enough biomedia and you can instantly stock a tank with no problems. I do it all the time, but it requires that you have enough extra biomedia on hand. Also, if you remove biomedia from another tank it will cause that tank to have a small ammonia spike. Not necessarily enough to cause problems, but it's best to take media from a tank with tough and hardy fish where they aren't going to be stressed by this.
Why more little runty guppies? Add the smaller fish. Then towards the end, add the plec and con. Seeding a tank is ALWAYS a good idea. It speeds up the cycling process and help the bacteria to multiply on the new biomedia a fair bit faster.
