1g Cycled, Water Changes Are How Often?

[soritan]

Whoa, what a basic question.

I plan on moving my male betta, Sori, into a cycled 1g tank. I know 1gs are hard to cycle, harder to maintain, etc etc etc, but I figure it's worth a shot. I'm going to use a Red Sea Nano filter, if he'll allow it. Those guys are rated at 3 gph, and have an adjustable flow.

I think I'll run it in my 10g for a while before moving it to my 1g, while that's happening, I'll just continue business as usual with the water changes -- 100% twice, weekly.

I'll probably also move over some river stone from my 10g for the bottom of his tank, or marbles. Since the river stone and the marbles are both on the top most part of my substrate, I imagine they'll have some beneficial bacteria on them. However, I am also thinking of making his substrate sand, for easier cleaning (DIY 'sand siphon' for small tanks), but I'm not honestly sure it would actually be easier to clean...

He's going to have java moss in his little cycled tank, he's got it already, and a single silk plant. Possibly a terra cotta pot, if only I can find an appropriate shape for my 'tank'.

Anyone else done/doing this? How often would you suggest doing a water change? The most common percentage I'm hearing is 50%, although I've noticed that a few water change weekly at 90%, and a few also water change thrice weekly at 30%...

Since that's difficult-ish question to answer, I think what I'll have to do is test my water. I have an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test kits.

I think what I've read with small, cycled tanks goes along the lines of... you start with a bowl with 0 ammonia, and you feed and care for your fish normally and test daily. As soon as you get an ammonia reading of .25, you do a water change. If you find that your ammonia becomes visable on the charts every 5 days, do your water change on day 4... or some such.

Anyways. It's an idea I'm kicking around, I figure I got the time, I got the fish, I might as well give it a try.

Their current homes.

 

[ral]

I am not an expert on cycling tanks... but my understanding is that if you do 100% water changes... they are not going to cycle. Also, I was told, cycling a tank takes two weeks.

Why not leave the fish in there for a week, and than test ammonia level?

 

[soritan]

You misunderstand.

If I'm using a filter, most of the bacteria lives in that, not in the gravel or the water. If I put my filter on my 10g tank, it'll cycle in there, and then once I move it over, it'll be 'cycled'. If I don't do water changes while that's going on..uuuh, that'd be silly - since the 1g bowl is basically not a part of the cycling process, get it?

Keeping the fish in there and not doing 100% water changes would, in a sense, be cycling a tank with fish, which is something that really isn't required in this case. It'd be easier simply to pick up a few 'seeds' from my 10g and move them over to my 1g, and use my 10g to cycle the filter.

 

[ral]

The bacteria in the filter feed of ammonia. If the ammonia production stops, than the bacteria starve to death. At least that is my understanding. When ammonia production = ammonia consumed, than part of the cycle is completed (the other part being the nitrite to nitrate cycle).

It is not just the filter that needs to by cycled, but the entire tank. Though that should give the filter a head start.

Usually in cycled tanks, small 10-20% changes are made weekly.

 

[soritan]

But you don't understand me.

I am NOT going to be doing 100% water changes on the tank while it's cycled.

 

[ral]

What is most likely going to happen is the ammonia might spike up a bit... but eventually should go down to zero, at the end of the second week.

Leaving the fish in the tank for a week without a water change wont harm it. After a week I would check the ammonia level and nitrate levels, and probably make a small water change. Than check again after 3-4 days.

On my 15 gallon Cory tank I do a 15% change weekly.

 

[sukie]

Honestly - I think get where you're coming fr. . . w/ wanting to cycle a 1gal. But are you sure??

I haven't tried this. . . I just think it's easier to change the 1gal.

But I would for sure want to know your results and if it works.

My best suggestion is to up the gals. . . .I have the nano filters - and it would help cycle a 2.5-3gals, have you thought of that??

Let me know how it goes!

 

[nino]

IMO, I think that for a 1 gallon bowl that filter is going to be too much. Even if it has a low current, that bowl isn't going to give the betta a lot of room to move around.

Another thought, can you have a cycled ten gallon with just frogs and shrimp? I've never heard of such a thing so I wonder if it's possible.

Also, if you do a water change on a cycled 1 gallon how much water are you going to change? I think what Ral is trying to tell you is that if you do a hundred percent water change when you get a 0.25 reading of ammonia, that's going to throw your bowl back into cycle and will overall require more water changes.
Seems easier just to do 100% to me

 

[soritan]

Thank you all for replying, I appreciate it.

I'll give it a whirl and let you guys know how it turns out, if you're interested. *shrug*

I was just hoping for a few words of experienced advice.

 

[nino]

I was just hoping for a few words of experienced advice.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. I think most people don't bother cycling 1 gallons so that probably made it hard to get advice on it.

 

[sukie]

Ah prove us wrong eh??

 

[Synirr]

It almost certainly won't work. In such a small volume of water the ammonia level is going to be so erratic that the bacteria will not have time to cope with the rapid changes and the cycle will simply cease to be. The ammonia level will be greatly diminished after water changes which will cause some bacteria to die off, then between water changes will build up more rapidly than the bacteria can multiply to deal with it. This is why it's pretty worthless to even try cycling anything under a 5 gallon. The larger the volume of water, the more stable the ammonia supply will be, and the more stable the bacteria colony will be.

I have small filters in a few 2.5 gallons, but this is because I'm weak and hate toting them to and from the sink... the filter means I can do 90% water changes instead of 100% without having to worry about gradual ammonia buildup, since the filter can handle the teeny tiny amount of ammonia left. However, if I didn't do such large water changes, ammonia buildup would certainly be a problem.

For a 1 gallon, I'd say just suck it up and do 100% changes, it's going to be a hell of a lot more trouble than it's worth to try and cycle something that size.

 

[ral]

Have to agree with Synirr. I tried cycling 4 2.5 gallon tanks... it seemed to work for awhile... 10% water changes 3 times a week. Three out of four fish died within six months. After that, I gave up on small cycled the tanks.

If I were to try to use small filtered tanks again, I would probably try carbon filters to strip ammonia from the water rather than try to get a full blown nitrogen cycle running on a small tank.