Question about cycling my tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
You're overfeeding the wrong bacteria by, well, overfeeding. There are 2 different bacteria at work in your tank. Nitrosomonas (bacteria 1) break down ammonia to nitrite. Nitrobacter (bacteria 2) turn nitrite into nitrate. The problem is you don't have enough nitrosomonas to keep up with the ammonia. The reason your seeing 0 nitrite and 5 nitrate is because you have enough nitrobacter to keep up with the small amounts of ammonia that ARE being broken down.
 
Well, you're backwards. Nitrosomonas (bacteria 1) is what you should be referring to, and yes in time they will build. The only reason you need to do small water changes right now is so not to kill your firemouth. This is why you need to continue the small water changes so you can dilute the ammonia some. As for the question with changing out your fish, you will want to either keep the firemouth there for a while to build the appropriate bacteria, or switch him out for just a couple of the fish you are wanting. You can then gradually add the remainng fish.
 
and the reason i over fed was because i thought more ammonia would mean more nitrite which would mean a bigger pool of BB turning everything in nitrate. so when i do decide to take my starter fish out and throw in like 6 small fish it can handle the bio load.
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thats the beauty of a fishless cycle, you want to spike the ammoia high to end up with a large BB population but a fish cycle is backwards, you have to keep the ammonia low so you don't kill the fish and then after it is cycled you can up the feedings and ammonia going into the tank and long as you don't over do it the BB will increase to handle the additional ammonia so it won't harm your fish.
 
ricey0809;1469340; said:
are fish less cycles faster then fish cycles?
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Yes, to get the tank fully stocked might take 6 weeks if you go with fish.

Fishless it's probably 2 weeks, but you cant have ANY fish in there untill the tank is cycled. But once it's done it's ready for a full stock of fish.

This is because if you go fishless you can take the ammonia level up to ~5ppm and really get the bacteria growing. When you are cycling with fish you have to keep it down less than 1ppm or you risk the fish dropping dead.

Personally I allways go with fish anyway, but I allways clone an existing filter in some way. Run the new filter in an established tank, move media, move spare filters etc. That way you jump start the cycle and make life a lot easier for your fish.

I think fishless becomes more usefull with the monster fish though, a 2ft fish creates a huge bioload, even in a large tank. Without working filters they could be dead in a day. With 'guppy sized' fish the ammonia build up is much slower and by the time it gets dangerous the filter has started to cycle.

Your only mistake was trying to rush things with excess food, fix that problem and once the ammonia drops back to zero you will be OK to carry on and add a few more fish.

Cheers

Ian
 
so is my cycle done but i just have too much ammonia? or is my cycle still not completey finished yet
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You are still in the middle of it really, when ammonia and nitrite drop to zero and stay there, it's safe to add more fish.

Cheers

Ian
 
i prefer to clone tanks by adding a filter/bio media/sand in combination with a fishless cycle, mostly because i don't like exposing fish to any amount of ammonia and also becuase i don't like buying fish i don't intend to keep. last time i cycled my 1g in a week and i only added used media on day 2. i'd say you're cycle is probably only partially done, you shouldn't have ammonia readings that high for this length of time if it was cycled.
 
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