Greenville Guy's Quarantine Tank Fishless Cycle

[Gvilleguy]

I was not sure I would have to do much of a fishless cycle on my new 5 gallon / 19 litre Quarantine/Hospital tank. That is apparently what is happening, though, in spite of transferring 100% mature media from my main 26 gallon tank. So I'll go ahead and log my setup and results in case it ever helps anyone else.

EDIT: I went almost two weeks using the tiny built-into-the-hood filter pictured here:

But then I gave up and installed an Aquaclear 20 HOB (rated up to 20 gallons). So my original post has been altered. Pictures included after the log...

TAP WATER STATS: (tested directly from the faucet)
Ammonia = 0.25 ppm
Nitrite = 0.00
Nitrate = 0.00
pH..... = 7.2 (this goes down to 6.4 after water sits for a day or two)[/font]

AQUARIUM WATER STATS: (water was dechlorinated)
A = Ammonia
NO2 = Nitrite
NO3 = Nitrate

Adding 0.60 ml of ammonia as needed.

Day..Date.....Time.....A.......NO2.....NO3.....pH.....Temp(F)....NOTES
1....Oct09....23:00....4.00....0.00....0.00....8.2...............Added 0.60 ML of ammonia & 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2....Oct10....14:15....4.00....................8.4....
3....Oct11....08:30....4.00....................8.2....83.7F......
4....Oct12....08:45....4.00...........................83.7F......
5....Oct13....10:15....4.00...........................84.2F......
6....Oct14....14:45....4.00...........................84.2F......
8....Oct16....14:10....2.00....0.00............8.4....84.4F......
10...Oct18....08:30....1-2.....0.00............8.2....83.2F......
Day..Date.....Time.....A.......NO2.....NO3.....pH.....Temp(F)....NOTES
11...Oct19....13:15....1+ .....0.00............8.2....84.1F......
12...Oct20....13:55....1.00....0.00............8.2....84.9F......
13...Oct21....08:20....1.00....0.00............8.4....84.8F......
14...Oct22....12:40....1.00....0.00....5.00....8.4....84.5F......
15...Oct23....20:55....1.00....0.00..............................+0.60 ml ammonia after tests were done
16...Oct24....19:20....4.00....0.00...................84.8F......
17...Oct25....09:00....4.00....0.00....5.00....8.2....84.1F......
18...Oct26....19:50....4.00....0.00............8.2....84.7F......
19...Oct27....08:50....2-4.....0.00....10.00..........84.6F......
20...Oct28....07:45....1-2.....0.00............8.2....84.9F......
Day..Date.....Time.....A.......NO2.....NO3.....pH.....Temp(F)....NOTES
21...No tests
22...Oct30....12:30....1.00....0.25....10-20...8.4....83.2F......
23...Oct31....Witches...Pumpkins...Goblins...Vampires............

At this point, ammonia added each morning to raise it to 4 ppm due to evening readings of zero ammonia.

Day..Date.....Time.....A.......NO2.....NO3.....pH.....Temp(F)....NOTES
24...Nov01....08:45....0.00....0.25............8.4....82.9F......
25...No tests
26...Nov03....08:00....0.00....5.00....40.00...8.2....83.4F......
27...Nov04....09:30....0.00....5.00....10.00...8.2....83.2F......50% water change
28...Nov05....09:30....0.00....5.00....10.00...7.8....83.7F......+1/4 tsp baking soda
29...Nov06....09:15....0.00....1.00............8.4....83.1F......
30...Nov07....08:55....0.00....5.00....10.00...7.4....83.6F......+1/2 tsp baking soda
31...Nov08....07:51....0.00....1.00............8.2....82.0F......90% water change; +1 tsp baking soda
32...Nov09....21:20....0.00....1.00............8.2...............
33...Nov10....08:21............0.00....40.00...8.4....83.2F......


SETUP:
1. 5 Gallon (19 Litre) bow front acrylic tank
2. Tank dimensions: 14 in wide x 10.5 in tall x 10 in deep (depth from center of bow front)
3. Aquaclear 20 hang-on-back power filter (100 gallons per hour)
4. Tank temperature set to 83 F (give or take)
6. API Master test kit
7. No live plants
8. 25 watt heater

(tank decorated by my kids - all you natural purists leave me alone! )

In order to install the Aquaclear on the back of the tank, I had to cut a notch out of the part of the lid that supported the old filter:

This gave me enough room to hang the filter on the back, and still have the light hood fit okay:

NOTE: the first few replies from Waterdrop below are from when my original post was written for the built-in filter. I had some questions about it. Sorry if it's confusing.

 

[waterdrop]

I especially like the deep green colors and the subtle natural look of the bogwood and the confidence one feels looking at the tightly enmeshed media that won't let any debris get past. ...ah, aren't little Qtanks wonderful?

(ok, I'll quit ) Actually broke out in to a loud laugh when I realized your kids came home with the *exact* same substrate materials mine did (think it was called Carolina Blue at my house as you can imagine.)

Yeah, do you think you could rig a light blocker without catching the thing on fire? Its not only that the algae will clog the media, its also that our two species of autotrophs don't like light, they grow in total darkness and are inhibited by light (but it might not be that big a deal.)

WD

 

[Gvilleguy]

I know - I was not happy when I saw how tiny the filter tray was! I'll just plan to vac clean the tank as needed!

The light is a problem, then. The lightbulb is not the incandenscent one that came with the tank (which would raise the temp of the tank 3 degrees all by itself!). I found a 5 watt mini-fluorescent at Home Depot that looks like a little chandelier bulb. Stays nice and cool. I'll see what I can do to cover the filter tray. Thanks for the feedback - and the ribbing!

If the tank does not cycle within another week or two, I'll probably just go buy a small HOB and not use the built-in one.

 

[waterdrop]

I use an AquaClear "Mini" (the Mini is now called the "20") It took a significantly long time to fishless cycle ('cause of course I had to use every opportunity to get in a practice case of what I preach ) WD ps. are you getting the great fall days like we are?

 

[Gvilleguy]

WD - I am SO glad the cooler weather is finally here. Getting up to 80 here today, but nice and cool in the mornings.

I thought about this some more overnight, and have just about decided that little tray filter is not going to handle this tank very well. Even when it finally cycles, the scarce media will be delicate if cleaned. And this soft water does not allow me to recover quickly from problems. I think I want something bigger like the Aquaclear you suggested.

 

[waterdrop]

Its amazing how unsatisfactory the little filters "feel" after you've studied and used the big external cannister filters, isn't it? In the past few years I've studied a lot more aspects of filter design than I ever thought about before and it really makes you realize the power of big "beds" of media sitting in tight-fitting tray designs. Its just self-evident that the water has no choice but to make a -lot- of surface contact with the media and therefor must be subject to whatever process you intend the media to perform.

The counter-balancing thoughts about this however I must credit to OM47 for helping me see and not get carried away with exaggeration. He has helped me realize that the concept of biological filtration is so simple that really small or bad designs often work much better than we think.. that we probably exaggerate our need for biomedia volume in our zeal to do it all perfectly. I feel that probably mechanical filtration suffers more from poor filter designs. The topmost mesh bag in my ACmini contains those rather large ceramic "solid barrels" that AC sells and I always think this feels a bit of a joke, after seeing the much more effective way the same principle is used in my much larger eheim - there the large ceramic cylinders are the very first thing the dirty tank water encounters and they redirect, slow and randomize the flow, allowing larger debris particles to slow, stop and get stuck, especially if they get as far as the coarse foam that caps the ceramic cylinder bed. The cylinders in the AC just can't represent all that much useful surface area and the volume of the area they are in is not large enough to allow them to form an effective "bed."

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Gvilleguy]

Total reboot on this thread - I will edit it in the next day or so to restart it. I replaced the "in hood" small filter with an Aquaclear 20 on the back. It has about four times the media capacity, and it really opened up the tank to not have that filter hanging down from the middle of the hood.

I moved the existing media into the new Aquaclear. Basically starting over on the fishless cycle now...

 

[waterdrop]

oh, that's great! You must have been able to find the right size lid equipment (always a pain i think, finding the right drip trays or glass lids, the right lights and all that.) My AC20 equiv took quite a while to cycle properly so just having the right stuff doesn't necessarily teach those little mamas how to have babies faster but its been solid as a rock after it finally got cycled. I've got 4 happy harlequins in there wishing I would get off of TFF and feed them breakfast at this very moment. WD

 

[Gvilleguy]

I had to take a saw to the lid of the tank and remove a small portion of the plastic rim that the old filter attached to. But I was able to do it in a way that the old filter will still attach and work if it ever is needed.

 

[Gvilleguy]

EDIT 10/10/10: okay - I've rebooted this thread with pics and log using the Aquaclear 20 filter. Will update it after I get my first ammonia drop. Might take a week or two!

 

[waterdrop]

Great! I checked it all out - the pictures are really good at making it all clear. I'll be checking in to see how its going.

 

[Gvilleguy]

Ah - finally getting first ammonia drop. Waiting for nitrites to show up now...

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, see your ammonia drop. Where are your nitrites?

 

[Gvilleguy]

I'm wondering where the little buggers are...

 

[waterdrop]

its fall break and they've gone on retreat