Please help me with my new tank

[AnDr3w]

Hi, Im new here. I have 2 fish tanks. A 30, and a 75. Ive had the 30 running about 6 months and its doing great. I just bought the 75 gallon tank about a week ago. My dad has a 250 g salt tank, and has someone maintain it. He told me that if I want to cycle my tank, I should put a bunch of feeders in there and heavily feed them 3 times a day.. Is this true? I didnt do this to the 30. The fish in there are about 20 rosy reds (feeders) and 2 sengal birchers. The parameters are
Amonia: .5 ppm
Nitrite: 4 ppm
Nitrate: about 180

Is this normal? And if its not please tell me what to do. I have an Eheim 2215 filter.

 

[islander671]

Hi, Im new here. I have 2 fish tanks. A 30, and a 75. Ive had the 30 running about 6 months and its doing great. I just bought the 75 gallon tank about a week ago. My dad has a 250 g salt tank, and has someone maintain it. He told me that if I want to cycle my tank, I should put a bunch of feeders in there and heavily feed them 3 times a day.. Is this true? I didnt do this to the 30. The fish in there are about 20 rosy reds (feeders) and 2 sengal birchers. The parameters are
Amonia: .5 ppm
Nitrite: 4 ppm
Nitrate: about 180

Is this normal? And if its not please tell me what to do. I have an Eheim 2215 filter.

Welcome! in theory you could cycle that way, but there are more fish friendly methods to use, do a quick search on here and weigh your options. As for you water params, you want to keep ammonia and nitrites at 0ppms and nitrates fairly low 180ppm is to high. i try to keep mine no higher than 20-30 ppms. How often do you do water changes? i would start there to get your parameters down. im not familiar with eheim products, so i dont know if thats adequate filtration or not for your tank.

 

[AnDr3w]

Thank you, I know how the Nitrogen cycle works, but how long will it take everything to get to 0 ppm? Thanks, Andrew

 

[islander671]

Thank you, I know how the Nitrogen cycle works, but how long will it take everything to get to 0 ppm? Thanks, Andrew

depends on how effective your bio filtration is, i would start by cutting back on feedings and start doing small water changes. also additional filtration never hurt either. Nitrates are hard to get down to 0ppms without plants or purigen.

 

[AnDr3w]

How often do you think I should be doing water changes to the new tank? Maybe like 30-40 % like every week? Or more or less frequent? Thanks for any help

 

[islander671]

How often do you think I should be doing water changes to the new tank? Maybe like 30-40 % like every week? Or more or less frequent? Thanks for any help

For the new tank? i wouldnt do water changes until it is cycled. i thought you were refering to your existing tank's water parameters. sorry for any confusion. give the new tank a few weeks and just monitor you parameters. you should see your ammonia drop first, then your nitrites. again i wouldnt do water changes until the cycle is complete (when your ammonia and nitirites are at 0ppms.)

 

[AnDr3w]

ohh. lol. Thats ok. How long will it take to get it fully cycled? maybe 2-3 more weeks? thanks

 

[islander671]

ohh. lol. Thats ok. How long will it take to get it fully cycled? maybe 2-3 more weeks? thanks

honestly its hard to tell, ive had a tank cycle in under 2 weeks with the use of established filter media (transfered from an existing tank). But it can also take up to 6 weeks and in some cases longer. your rosy reds should get it done in a few weeks, i would move the bichers out to avoid a nitrite spike if possible. wish i had a more definite timeline for you but its hard to say, i think 2-3 weeks would be a good guestimate.

 

[AnDr3w]

Thanks. The only reason i have the Birchers in there is because there were 2 babies at the LFS and I've been waiting a very long time to get them. I'd put them in the 30, but there jus little guys at 2.5 inches. I have a P Bass in there, A hujeta gar, and a 7 inch channel cat in there along with a couple cichlids. I just dont know how long it would be before they get eaten. Ill just by an extra 5g with an air stone. Thanks

 

[DaneDodger]

There's definitely better ways to cycle. You could cycle that way but it sounds like a hard, fast cycle! I agree, take your bichers out for now so they aren't damaged and let your rosys do the rest. I wouldn't overfeed them so grossly though. Just feeding them regularly should be enough to cycle the tank.