Question About Cycling

[Deb]

I need a reminder on cycling a tank. I set up my new 72 gallon tank on the weekend and used filter material and some gravel from both my 10 and 20 gallon tanks. I also used a couple of gallons (about 5) of water from both of those tanks when setting up. I'd been told that I could add fish after the tank had run for a day or two and the temp stabilized. I've added 6 Black Skirt Tetras and a few plants and everyone is looking quite happy. My question is around the water readings. Currently the Ammonia and Nitrite are both reading 0 ppm and my nitrate is about 5 ppm. This is the same as the existing tanks. Since I started this tank with materials from the existing tanks, will it go through the same cycle as a new tank? I wasn't expecting the cycle to be the same as a brand new tank with brand new material, but I do expect a partial cycle atleast - especially given the difference in the size between the 10 gal/20 gal and the 72 gallon. Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect in the coming days/weeks?

Thanks.....Deb

 

[Rodders]

Should all be ok as you added media from an established tank.

 

[Torrean]

First of all its kinda pointless to add water from an established tank, not much ben. bacteria live there but a good bit of bad bacteria do.
Second, there is no reason to wait 2 days to add fish after you add the media from the established tanks. As long as you are using a dechlorinator. The heat should be taken care of before adding the media. In fact waiting can ruin the whole thing. The bacteria need ammonia to survive, therefore waiting to add fish could starve your bacteria. I don't think you need to worry about this because you have such a light bioload at the moment, but if you ever plan on cloning a tank it is very important for the bacteria to have ammo. Consider that it takes the bacteria a while to break down the ammo into nI. During that time half your bacteria (the NI bacteria) are starving. I actually recommend that you add fish before seeding your tank so they have an ammo base to feed off of to begin with.
One more thing, the plants consume Ammo so you may not be getting any readings because of that. Once your bioload increases you should experience a cycle.

 

[rdd1952]

A tank isn't cycled just by adding media from an established tank. That will speed the cycling process but not make it complete. Think of it this way. If you have say 30 fish in the established tank and you take 25% of the filter media from that filter and move it to the new tank/filter, you have only moved 25% of the bacteria (at most) so the new tank could possibly take about 7 fish instantly but definitely not a full fish load. You could also experience a small mini cycle in the established tank since you have removed part of the bacteria colony from it. It should be small though and maybe not even noticable.

As for the water, Torrean is correct. The water would have no beneficial bacteria in it. The only reason ever to move water from one tank to another is if you are transfer the fish form one to the other. Moveing the water would prevent having to acclimat them since they would be going right back into the same water they came out of.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I agree with Torrean and rdd1952, another thing though is that for the mean time your tank will probably be mostly ok for water quality due to the very light stocking in so many gallons, if you do see any ammonia/nitrites present in the tank you should do a 20% water change with dechlorinator to remove it(aviod using any other chemicals in your other than dechlorinator, which is vital, and aquarium plant fertilisers, which are optional, as the vast majority of other chemicals out there will either mess with your ph or bacterial ecosystem which is not good).
What sort of fish are you planning to put in there and how many eventually? The key to stocking a new tank, no matter how mature or large, is to stock gradually .

 

[Deb]

Thanks for the input.......The other tanks I started from scratch with no media from an existing tank. I wasn't sure what to expect with using filter media, etc from the existing tanks. I do plan to stock the tank slowly but wasn't too sure how many more to add at this point in time. My plan for the tank is to eventually move my other 5 full grown Blackskirts to the tank from my 20 gal. I also want to move my 4 Dwarf Rainbow Tetras and add maybe another 5 to 8 of the Dwarf Rainbows. I primarily got the tank with Angels in mind so will be adding 4 to 6 Angels. I may add a small school of corys eventually as well. I definitely don't want to overstock so hopefully that won't be too many.

I'll likely move atleast 3 of the full grown Blackskirts this weekend and then closely watch the water readings from there. I want to stock gradually so as not to overstock too early until the tank is well established. The Angels will not be added for a couple of months.

Deb

 

[rdd1952]

If I'm counting correctly, that's about 20 tetras and the angel fish. YOu should be fine with those but I think I would keep the angels to 4 rather than 6 as they are a little territorial and 6 may be too many for a tank that size. You could probably post that question in the New World Cichlid section and get a better answer.