New tank struggles

[Zombies]

So I have my new 20 gallon tank all set up, I read the fishless cycle instructions at least 10 times, I went to buy ammonia. My friend gave me some filter squeezings from his filter. The first night it took 70 drops of ammonia to get a reading about 1.5 ppm.

I went to the Pet store to put a hold on the fish that I wanted, I explained to the aquarium people what i was doing, they had never heard of such an abusrd thing and told me to do a water change and start over. She gave me some advice.

My friend uses the same filter as me and runs three sponges in it so he gave me one of his sponges, a plant and enough water from the bottom to fill my tank 1/3. His tank is filthy, algae everywhere and he says he doesn't change the water much, I added this stuff in my tank (the sponge he gave was a dark dark brown) let it run for a while then tested, ammonia and nitrite are both at zero and there are poo's everywhere in my tank now.

The pet store people told me if I did this my tank would be ready for fish. Is this true? I'm a little skeptical

 

[ajhainey]

Its pretty much true - with 1 of 3 sponges established and obviously working (as readings down to 0) you can definately start to add fish. In fact you should start to add fish so the bacteria don't starve to death...

As long as the fish in your friends tank don't have any problems (dodgy water quality non-withstanding) theres no reason to suspect problems - although you may want to test the nitrate and vacuum the gravel

Have fun stocking up!

aj xx

 

[kittybug]

just be sure to only ad a few fish at a time.

 

[sinistral]

Hi Zombies,

Glad to hear you're doing a lot of research! You really could have pursued the fishless cycle-- it's been demonstrated to work and to be safe for fish using the protocols listed on various sites on the web. However, as ajhainey wrote the fastest way of "cycling" a tank is to add an already established biofilter, as you have effectively done by adding the filter sponge from your friend's tank.

The plant is also helpful as its surfaces are likely to be colonized with some beneficial bacteria, though much less than the filter sponge itself. Also, plants themselves utilise ammonia preferentially and nitrAtes as well to reproduce and grow (not nitrItes, though). Giving you used tank water IMO would not be very helpful, as free-floating bacterial colonies contributes minimally or not at all to nitrogen processing. On the other hand, interestingly, by giving you some solid fish waste he did give your bacteria some nitrogenous wastes to survive on for a while... (EDIT: this website suggests ammonia is excreted almost exclusively from the gills, skin, and kidneys, but other websites confirm that ammonia is released as fish feces breaks down).

What kinds of fish are you planning on adding? You could probably stock fish more rapidly than you would have if you had cycled the fishless way, or the traditional way (with fish).

Finally, if I were you and if your filter has the capacity, I'd add a fresh sponge and allow it to become colonized with bacteria as well. This improves the filtration capacity (more surface area = more helpful bacteria) and at some point in the future gently squeeze out the old sponge in siphoned tank water, as if it gets too dirty it can impair nitrogen metabolism. That's down the road though, I wouldn't rinse it out until your second sponge is colonized.

 

[Zombies]

Great! thanks for the replies. I feel alot better now that I know I'm on the right track. I'm adding two baby Puffer fish in, only two fish. They are brackish water though, adding the salt in now to get a salinity of 1.003 (what the pet store is keeping them in) won't kill my bacteria colony will it?

Thanks for the reply sinistral, I've kept the new sponge inside the filter along with the dark brown one.

 

[sinistral]

Sounds like you know what you are up to Zombies

Salinity won't harm beneficial bacteria, as they will also colonize saltwater tanks with much higher salinity levels. As long as you do it gradually I'd wager it'll be fine.