Advice on cycling brand new tank

[Bust Rocker]

Hi everyone.
Just looking for some advice!

I've been keeping fish for a while, got a tank already on the go but I'm having some issues with a lack of lid and my cat!

Therefore I treated myself to a brand new tank! Got a lovely 90L fluval.
Now, on Tuesday (23rd Jan) I set it up and used fluval cycle and fluval aqua plus as instructed on the bottles for the first 3 days.

All seems to be going well, 2nd day the water turned cloudy (I'm assuming the ammonia build up?) 5th day it all cleared. Now I tested the water yesterday (31st Jan) and all the levels (exception of general hardness of the water - I live in a chalky area!) but everything else read as low levels, ammonia - around 0.2
Nitrite - around 0
Nitrate - around 0
PH around 7


Am I to assume its safe to put fish in there? I'll be transferring the fish from my other tank to start with.. 2 guppies a swordtail and a pleco....
I'm only concerned as the tanks only been running a week and a half... Seems like a very short cycle...

 

[mikey11]

start adding fish SLOWLY...two fish a week max,

leave your filter alone and dont touch or clean it for at least 6 weeks

 

[Essjay]

The cloudiness was a bacterial bloom, which is common in new tanks. But these are not the bacteria we want to grow, and they die off once their food supply is exhausted.

Unless you've been adding ammonia to the tank, your readings tell us nothing about whether the tank is ready for fish, I'm afraid. And Cycle is not one of the recommended brands as so many people have found it does nothing.


You have a few choices.
If you are transferring fish from another tank, transfer some media from that tank as well. Remove some of the media that came with the new filter to make room. But monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels in both tanks afterwards and do a water change if you see either of them in either tank.

Or do a fishless cycle following this method http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
If the Cycle has worked things should go faster; if it hasn't worked, you won't risk any fish.

Or add live plants, especially floating plants, wait till you are sure they aren't dying and add fish slowly, a few at a time. Plants use ammonia as food and if you have enough plants they will use all the ammonia made by the fish.

 

[Bust Rocker]

The cloudiness was a bacterial bloom, which is common in new tanks. But these are not the bacteria we want to grow, and they die off once their food supply is exhausted.

Unless you've been adding ammonia to the tank, your readings tell us nothing about whether the tank is ready for fish, I'm afraid. And Cycle is not one of the recommended brands as so many people have found it does nothing.


You have a few choices.
If you are transferring fish from another tank, transfer some media from that tank as well. Remove some of the media that came with the new filter to make room. But monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels in both tanks afterwards and do a water change if you see either of them in either tank.

Or do a fishless cycle following this method http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
If the Cycle has worked things should go faster; if it hasn't worked, you won't risk any fish.

Or add live plants, especially floating plants, wait till you are sure they aren't dying and add fish slowly, a few at a time. Plants use ammonia as food and if you have enough plants they will use all the ammonia made by the fish.

I have not added any form of ammonia, I do of course know that it is required for the bacteria reproduction but the instructions on the fluval cycle bottle aren't very clear on what to do and so I assumed it wouldn't be necessary.
I also only purchased fluval cycle as it was recommended in the documents that came with the tank itself.

I have ordered ammonium hydroxide and when it arrives I shall give it a go! Thankyou for the help!

 

[boshk]

Since your old tank is 'established' the quickest way would be to move some of your media from old into new tank to populate it BUT you would need to keep any eye on your old tank for ammonia and nitrite and do water changes.

It depends how heavily stocked your old tank is.

 

[Bust Rocker]

Old tank is a 45L and currently only holds 2 guppies an adult swordtail, 2 swordtail fry and a common pleco.

However I have only 2 weeks ago, sold about 20 guppy fry out of it and if I'm 100% honest with you.... I'd be much more confident putting as little of anything from the old tank into the new one as possible....

 

[boshk]

Old tank is a 45L and currently only holds 2 guppies an adult swordtail, 2 swordtail fry and a common pleco.

However I have only 2 weeks ago, sold about 20 guppy fry out of it and if I'm 100% honest with you.... I'd be much more confident putting as little of anything from the old tank into the new one as possible....

I see, then you would have to decide whether you are doing fishless or fish cycle.

Fishless would be easiest.
Use your Fluval Cycle
dose ammonia but you did say you have tested the water and it has ammonia?
wait a few days for it to drop....which means you have some of the beneficial bacteria to process the ammonia to nitrite...
then wait some more for the nitrite to nitrate bacteria...which can take ages....
..it can take weeks...mine is 4 weeks now....

when your nitrite is 0, redose ammonia to 2ppm.....and if within 24hrs, your ammonia AND nitrite drops to 0, you are ready for your guppies...

 

[Bust Rocker]

Nice one! Thankyou for your help!
I do think I'm gunna go fish less cycle, and I'm also waiting for ammonium hydroxide to arrive as it will allow me to be more precise! Thankyou!

 

[Essjay]

When the ammonium hydroxide arrives, follow the link I gave you in post #3. This method was written so that nitrite can never get high enough to stall the cycle. Most other methods make so much nitrite that it does stall the cycle.

In How To Tips in the top menu is a calculator; the last item in the calculator is an ammonia calculator to work out how much ammonia (or ammonium hydroxide) to use to get 3 ppm.

 

[hobby5]

A note about your fish: Do you really have a common pleco? If yes, re-home it asap, your tank is way to small for it.