Cycling(fl), Cloning, Stocking....

[pammy172]

Hi all

We set up out Juwel Vision 260 a week ago. info as follows:

7th Feb 09:

37.5 kg Play Sand

180 litres water – treated 90ml aquasafe

16.00
9ml ammonia.9.5%

8th Feb:
16.30
9ml Ammonia 9.5%

9th Feb
21.00
9ml Ammonia 9.5%
PH7.5 (tetratest)
No2 <3 (tetratest)
Ph 6.8 JBL
No3 10 jbl – I think
No2 0

10th Feb
18.30 – 50% water change( 90litres with aquasafe)
Ammonia test – 4ppm
Temp raised to 84f

11th Feb
18.00
Ammonia test – 4ppm

12th Feb
09.00
20ml King British Safe Water added
Temp turned up to 86f
12.00
lots of plants added
18.00
Ammonia test – 4ppm

13th Feb
16.00
Ammonia test – 4ppm

14th Feb
15.30
Ammonia – 4ppm
Nitrite – 1ppm
Nitrate – 5ppm
Ph – 7.2

20% water change
Ammonia – 3ppm


15th Feb
07.00- tests using API kit
Ammonia – 2ppm
Nitrite – 5ppm - (Tetratest kit shows 1.6ppm done for fun )
Nitrate – 10ppm
Ph 7.2


So my question - we're due to get some mature media on Tuesday morning courtesy of a fellow forum member which will be dropped into our tetratec EX1200 immediately. we understand this will be cloning their filter and so shoud mean our tank is ready for fish. We're not wanting to put fish in the same day but I do want to protect the media. My original plan was to feed the media using ammonia etc and measure for about a week and if all was well to start stocking in about 10 days time if all was well. So we arrive at 10 days time having kept our bacteria going - we started thinking about how to stock as we don't want to starve the bacteria we will then have, and actually haven't a clue lol .

I've started getting some movement in my own media as can be seen from the stats above. I do think the early days 4ppm ammonia were probably under stated actually and I prob overdosed having misunderstood something I read on here, but when we did a big water change we saw better, clearer readings which then resulted in nitrite and nitrate being measured.

Basically we want to make the most of this mature media and don't want to risk killing off the bacteria and want to introduce fish at the right time and at the right rate.

So what's the best thing for us to do please? I guess the last thing I should be doing in readiness for the media is a water change? But then what? Help please

 

[pammy172]

Polite bump please?

 

[Miah002]

Have you done a weekly water change yet to remove the nitrate.

Feed the tank some fish food. This should keep the bacteria alive.

Wait a bit longer about another week or two before you add the stock.

 

[pammy172]

Have you done a weekly water change yet to remove the nitrate.

Feed the tank some fish food. This should keep the bacteria alive.

Wait a bit longer about another week or two before you add the stock.

Many thanks for the reply

Have got lots of plants which I hope will deal with nitrates on an ongoing basis - but did a 50% water change 6 days ago and a 20% change yesterday. Should I do another change before Tuesday when I get the mature media and if so what percentage please?

Timing sounds good as we were hoping to be able to get some fish in two weeks time which would fit nicely, but am I right then in that we feed fish food and not ammonia until we get the fish? And what fish should we get and how do we keep the bacteria going while we progressively stock?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really struggling to get my head around all of this and want to do the best for the fish.

Thanks for your patience

 

[OldMan47]

A good way to treat the newly cloned filter is to keep doing your fishless cycle. It will probably move along much faster than it would without the clone. Once you are in the last stages of the cycle, which could be a day or two later, you can start your qualifying week to make sure things are stable before doing the large water change and adding fish. The fish food approach is an alternate method that some people use when there is no ammonia available for purchase, it is not something you will need for your situation.

Water changes during a fishless cycle may be needed at 3 times. The first is if you have low KH water and experience a cycle stall due to low pH. The second is if you have the nitrite spike seem to be lasting forever and want to get nitrites on scale for your testing method so that you can rack the changes. The third time applies to all fishless cycles, it is the enormous change you do to remove built up nitrates right before you stock with fish. There are no weekly changes with a fishless cycle unless you want or need the practice.

The plants are not a substitute for regular water changes. They will remove nitrates and some minerals from the water but things will still build up that need to be removed by doing a partial water change. Some of my tanks have enough plants that I actually end up adding nitrates in the form of dry chemicals but even those tanks get their water changes to remove pollutants.

 

[pammy172]

Many thanks for that OM47 - does fit with my thinking so that's great. Getting to understand I think lol.

What about stocking then when the time does come? Any thoughts there please?

 

[OldMan47]

As long as the fish are compatible, my initial stock in a cycled tank would be about half of a full stocking. It is light enough to be fairly safe and heavy enough not to worry much about losing the bacterial colony that you have established. After that, I would make sure everything is staying good before adding any more fish. new fish would then go in as a percentage of the existing biological load at say 20 to 30% maximum for each move higher. If my first stocking were 20 fish in a large tank, the next move would be maybe 5 more about the same size. If your tank is 260 litres, I'm not familiar with UK brands, I would start with about 30 to 40 adult inches of fish for that first stocking.

 

[pammy172]

Super! So a nice group of say 6 corys (trinliatus) and 8 Emperor Tetra and maybe a couple of honey gourami be an OK start?

 

[OldMan47]

If I guessed right on the tank size, that sounds about right to me.

 

[pammy172]

Yes it is 260 litres but after substrate and wood and stuff we expect more likely 220 - but we'll know for sure when we do the big water change.

Many thanks for your help. Very much appreciated.