cycling tank

ok so i started to cycle my tank I have the temperature at 26 degrees Celsius and have added a small amount of fish food only thing is i haven't got any ammonium reading from the fish food.

I originally started with a 100 litre tank but it leaked so i replaced it with a 330 litre tank I kept a seperate container with some fish food in it just to see if i would get ammonium readings. The tank and the container with fish food in it have given negative readings for ammonium.

The tank is only up and running but the seperate container has had fish food in it for over a week now.

What is the best was to effectivly cycle a tank there seems to be alot of people with different opinions.

There may well be many different opinions.

To kick it off, you say you have negative readings for ammonium.....what do you mean? is that saying you have minus 0.2 mg/litre?

Also, what kit are you using? is it one that measures ammonium or ammonia or both?

That is important because the meaning of the value from the measurement depends on exactly what is being measured and depending upon that the pH and temperature will also affect the meaning.

Have you been given a recipe to follow?

To speed up the process of getting ammonia/ammonium from fish-food you'll need a good colony of ammonification bacteria to be set-up first. Usually, they establish themselves and grow quite rapidly.

ian

Get some squeezings of Filter media from someone whose Tank has had no health problems, it's a turbo charged way of cycling a Tank.

Kev.

I am getting 0 readings thats what i meant by negative sorry should have been more clear.

I have the api freshwater master test kit it check for ammonia the water stays clear when i test it

Kev/ian how long would the bacteria live for out side of the system, i mean lets say your over the northside i'm leaving tallaght by bus, do you think it would last that type of journey? i'm curious as i will be shipping my bacteria. but i will have transport and means of aerating the friendly little buggars. now i'm not saying this chap has no means of transport but lets say if this fellow was to get a bottle of mulm, would throwing in one them oxygenating tablets be of any benefit or would you think the water movement within the bottle/container would be sufficient.

why is it being done in a container? is there a filter in this container? if not wat is the point of it? dump it and focus on the tank. how much food are you using? throw in some thing else that will decompose prawns maybe or just dump in a load of food, you wont be putting fish in till the ammonia is gone and a fresh top up is put in. but as stated get some (very local) mulm and throw that in. it is a funny oul world, the fish world, i was the same i got no readings for near two weeks but bam third week it was up and running where as some folk can be doing it for 6ish weeks

Donated Filter dregs will last a few hours , as they are aerobic any container they are in needs to have around a third of the volume consisting of Air, that way they remain oxygenated, to increase the surface area, lay the container on it's side, I do this with any Fish I buy as it has the same results. If you were traveling any long distance and in warm weather, a portable battery powered pump will work a treat, I bought one in the US and it's saved me more than once.

Steer clear of Oxygenating Tablets, when they have done their work there are residues left and they cant be good for the Bacteria, just my opinion, not documented.

It's Horses for courses, you either like it or don't but it's handy to be aware there is more than one solution to any problem.

It's cheaper than buying the Cycle product which I have little faith in.

Kev.

I'm a fan of seeding from another tank (although there needs to be some care in choice of source tank) even though I do have (and sometimes use) bacterial seeding products.

Within my own tanks, I have a choice tank that I use for most others.....a nice mulm-generating filter system in a greedy Discus tank. The filter mulm has a lovely smell...no fishiness. I also use that water to set-up other tanks.

I always have a handy supply of ammonia-adsorbing resins around just in case something does go wrong with a tank.....and there are times when a filter or aeration system fails and you need that quick get-out clause.
And I have bottles of API stress-zyme.

When transferring the aerobic nitrosofying and nitrifying bacteria from one tank to another there will be a loss of bacteria, but you can experience the same losses over the period of day within the tank if the pH (and other parameters) start moving around too much.

The colony will start to adapt to its new environment somewhat....and it is a good source of seeding.

Of the nitrosofying and nitrifying bacteria, the nitrifying bacteria are the ones most sensitive to changes and lack of oxygen.
But the most vital, the nitrosofying bacteria, are a lot tougher and their regeneration time is much faster.

There will be a reasonable nitrosofying bacteria concentration in the water column.

So, even though the process of nitrite to nitrate conversion may be compromised a great deal, the more important part of ammonia to nitrite conversion is not as compromised.

But good practice always tells us not to over-stock in a new tank.....and I would say that should always be adhered to.

@Dar....as Kev says regarding the transport....I agree.
Don't use them oxygenating tablets.

ian

But say you cant seed tank from an existing one or borrow sponges or filters; if you really did do it from scratch without any chemicals; i mean just from totally new filters and water staright out of tap- it is gonna take 1-2 weeks before you get any ammonia reading no? i found many times that the little ammonia reading you get is not the actual ammonia cycle reading.I would suggest dropping little food then hardy fish after cycle to really make sure tank is rdy.

Yes, cycling a Tank is totally possible without any of the suggestions previously but it will take longer, have bigger fluctuations in Nitrate/nitrite spikes etc because it is impossible to gauge the amount of decomposition required to make things stable, doing it that way requires constant assessment of water quality via test kits.

Kev.

Thanks Kev; i thought poster might want to know he can just continue doing what he is doing but just need much more time.