Has anyone cycled a 2.5 Mini Bow?

[Haiku]

My Eclipse 3 gallon is almost cycled. The ammonia levels have been 0 for a few days and today my nitrite has dropped to 0.25, nitrates are between 5 and 10 at the moment. I can't get my 2.5 Mini Bow to budge though. I still get ammonia spikes and always 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates. I turned the filter up from low to medium last week to see if increased water movement would help, but I'm still not seeing any changes. Has anyone here successfully cycled a Mini Bow, and if so did it just take a lot longer or did you do something to help it along? I have moneywort growing in there and the whisper filter on medium.

I've had a lot of blue-green algae looking stuff growing in that tank, which after reading up I'm guessing because of 0 nitrates.

Sometimes I wish I had a live-in fish/tank expert around here till I get all this stuff figured out . I really want to get both tanks cycled if possible, since there are ammonia readings in my tap water and I think cycled tanks will give them much more stable water conditions. Orion's is doing beautifully (because of the Bio-Wheel?). I'm at a loss with Draco's I thought about putting this in beginner questions but I figured betta people would most commonly have experience with the 2.5 Mini Bows.

 

[SarahBravo]

I've never used a mini bow so can't give specific advice. But is there anyone (or an lfs) where you could get some already cycled filter material or gravel to 'clone' the tank? This may give it teh kick start it needs.

 

[Haiku]

Well the only pet stores in this area unfortunately are PetCo and PetsMart and I assumed (though I might be wrong?) that they wouldn't offer that kind of thing. But.. maybe I could take some from Orion's once his tank is cycled? I wouldn't want to move too fast and wreck the progress I've made with his cycling though..

Right now I'm wishing I had spent bit of extra $$ for a second Eclipse. My guess is the Bio Wheel system in that tank made it go a lot faster.

 

[FrisaGirl]

Hello,
I've cycled my 2.5 gallon mini-bow . I used the undergravel filter (sold with the tank), as well as a heater set between 75-80 degrees. I used Stress-Zyme to get the bacteria started, and cycled with 1 fish (not by choice, I was given a surprise betta from a friend who'd been neglecting it ). It took between 1 and 1.5 months for both ammonia and nitrites to read zero . Do you have a heater? Have you tried Stress-Zyme? How long have you been cycling it?

 

[Haiku]

Frisa, thank you for your reply. I've had it set up for approximately 5 weeks, but for the first three weeks, I was using Ammo-Lock because I was worried about the ammonia in my tap water, but finally realized that was killing my attempts to cycle. About two weeks ago, I did nearly a 100% water change and quit using Ammo-Lock. Since then, my Eclipse has nearly finished cycling but the Mini Bow has not altered in the slightest in my water testing. I would expect it to take some time cycling, but I figured after a couple weeks I might see some sort of sign that something is happening. However I didn't turn my filter up higher until last week.

Also, mine came with a Whisper filter and you said yours came with an under gravel filter? I am not sure if that would make a difference or not. Did it take over a month before you saw any nitrites start to appear etc? It seems on the Eclipse, once nitrites started to appear it went pretty quickly. I have heating pads under the tanks but I haven't been keeping them on because in this room the water temperature has stayed a pretty constant 76 to 78 F. I haven't tried Stress Zyme.

 

[FrisaGirl]

Haiku,
It definently took less than a month for nitrites to appear, but I can't recall exactly when they started up. I was thinking, if you've used ammo-lock, that would probably have majorly slowed the cycling process (no food for good bacteria), so I would guess that your tank has only been cycling for about two weeks.

That said, I am currently cycling another mini-bow (the same type as the first, a "betta mini-bow" with undergravel filter). I've only been cycling for about four days, without a heater, and my ammonia level has already decreased slightly.

Perhaps the problem is the whisper filter? When I was cycling my first tank, I was concerned that the undergravel filter was stressing out my fish, so I thought I would change to a whisper filter. When I asked the fish store owner about changing, he said that whisper filters wouldn't provide enough oxygen for the good bacteria to grow, and that I couldn't cycle with one. Since the store specialized in aquatics, he was probably right. I would suggest turning your filter up to high, to try and provide the bacteria with more oxygen. If that doesn't work. . .maybe another filter?

 

[rdd1952]

I've cycled 2 of them. Both have the Whisper 10 filters that came with them. You need to turn the filter wide open and make sure you have an airstone running. Also turn the heat up to about 85. They do go slow but they will eventually cycle. One of mine just finished 2 days ago. I am still adding a couple drops of ammonia daily until I can get my betta moved over to that tank from the 5 gallon he is currently in. That is actually my quarantine tank and I should be getting my angels for the 75 gallon this weekend so I need that tank back.

 

[Haiku]

Would I always need to keep the filter running on high then or would I be able to turn it down some once it cycled? I just worry about it because Draco is the one who got unhappy with very much current before. Thanks for helping me with all these newbish questions. ) I turned the heating pad on a few hours ago and it brought his tank to 82 now. The Eclipse was SO much easier. I'm really kicking myself for not spending the extra $10 to get a second one