Some advice needed please

[Josh92]

So I’m currently running a 125 litre juwelrio . I’ve since bought a new AquaOak 340 litre aquarium and I’ve had it running now for 7 days adding small amounts of food and some filter boost as that’s what I’d been advised. I checked the water parameters yesterday and all was ok the nitrate was reading about 40 on the API test strips.. I’m reasonably new to the hobby but I know a small amount , I went to Maidenhead aquatics today and was advised to buy ‘salt & fresh microbe-lift NITE OUT II starter bacteria’ he told me that after adding this after 24 hours as long as the test are coming back good and there’s no ammonia in there I should add a fish or 2 or add my 6 neon tetra as I told him I had these ,, while adding the bacteria I mentioned before for about 3 days keeping an eye on them for around a week and adding one or 2 every few days after that they will be ok.. please can someone tell me if this is a good idea as when I’ve looked online etc there’s so much conflicting information it’s hard to choose the right method.. thanks

 

[FishBearer9845]

I could only imagine you'd get a hell of an ammonia spike and end up doing a fish in cycle, but someone like @essjay or @AdoraBelle Dearheart would be able to advise.

There's also a cracking cycling guide in the useful links part. Using food isn't great as you can control the measures.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

No, I don't think you should add fish yet, that would be doing a fish-in cycle, which causes stress to the fish, and puts them at great risk when ammonia and/or nitrites spike, and it's not needed. You can cycle the tank without fish and get it ready so that it handle a fully stocked tank, just takes a little patience.

Have a read of this linked thread, and don't panic if it seems overwhelming at first, people here will happily talk you through any questions you have. Using pure bottled ammonia is better than using fish food to cycle, since you can dose a precise amount, while you don't know how much ammonia will be produced by the fish food, and under or overdosing the ammonia by using that vague method could stall the cycling process, making it take even longer.

Cycling Your New Fresh Water Tank: Read This First!

Cycling Your First Fresh Water Tank What is Cycling and Why is it Important? Fish waste, and especially fish breathing, plus uneaten food and other organic matter breaking down in a tank all produce Ammonia. This can quickly become toxic to fish if it is allowed to build up to any measurable...

www.fishforums.net

You also have the options of taking some filter media from your current tank (I assume that the current one is fully cycled?) and using that to seed the filter of the new tank. You still cycle the same way as the method described in the link thread, it's just likely to be a much faster process with a seeded cycle.

A planted cycle is another option, and live plants are always a great addition to a tank that really help with water quality and environmental enrichment for fish.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

When I say a seeded cycle, literally just means squeezing out the filter media from your current filter over the new filter, and/or taking some (not all!) of the media from the established filter - either some sponge or some biomedia, and placing that in the new filter. That's what we call seeding a filter. Means you'll have some of each type of bacteria needed to complete the nitrogen cycle in your new tank for sure. Then it's a case of cycling the tank to grow those colonies enough to handle your new tank at a fully stocked (but not overstocked) level.

Using the method the Maidenhead Aquatics employee mentioned is high risk, and also means you have to add a few fish, wait for bacterial colony to grow. Add a few more, wait for colony to grow, and on and on it goes. By doing a fishless cycle; seeded or not, it means more patience in the beginning, but then your tank will be safe for you to stock it properly, although will still need monitoring for ammonia/nitrites/nitrates more closely at first even after it's cycled, since it still takes more time for a tank to become established and stable.

 

[FishGuest5123]

OK, so let me understand a few things. Is Filter Boost a bacteria in a bottle? You said you have 40 nitrates so it sounds like you zipped through the cycle. If you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 40 nitrates then you are where you want to be. Just do a large water change to get nitrates below 20 and you’re ready. I would only add a few fish to begin with.

 

[Essjay]

How much nitrate is in your tap water? UK legislation allows up to 50 ppm and a lot of places have that level in their tap water. If you test your tap water nitrate and it is a lot lower than your tank nitrate, it does mean you have some of both species bacteria but you can't know just how many. But if your tap water also tests at 40 ppm, there are no bacteria yet.


If your tap water nitrate is a lot lower than your tank nitrate it is probably safe to add those 6 neons. But at the same time, I would move one of the sponges from the 125 litre into the new tank's filter. Test for ammonia and nitrite every day to make sure they stay at zero. Once they've been zero for a week, you can get more fish - a few at a time, testing every day again.

 

[FishGuest5123]

50ppm nitrates in your drinking water? Holy poo!

 

[Essjay]

The USA maximum is almost the same - 44.3 ppm

Nitrate is like hardness or temperature - there is more than one unit of measurement and to compare them we have to convert to the same unit.
Nitrate can be measured as nitrate-N and nitrate NO3. The US uses nitrate-N; Europe (and our test kits) use nitrate-NO3.

The maximum permitted in the US (from what I can discover on-line) is 10 ppm measured as nitrate-N. This converts to 44.3 ppm measured as nitrate-NO3


So if the US used the same unit of measurement as Europe it would give the maximum permitted as 44.3 ppm which is not much different from the European limit.

 

[Koglin]

Hmm.. while I think it's better to do a fishless cycle, a lot of people get kind of stuck after jumping in head first, and that is ok if you do it safely for the fish.

First, I wouldn't add anymore fish till after the cycle.

After learning about cycling, I've read (I'll try to find a link) that if you DO get stuck cycling the tank with fish in, there's a couple safe ways to go about it.

The first is treatment. Seachem prime doesn't only remove chloramine and chlorine, it also neutralizes ammonia and nitrites for 24 to 48 hrs. Now, this doesn't remove them - it renders them harmless to your fish, but still nutrient for your bacteria. That way, your cycle can keep going while your fish are safe from the neutralized ammonia and nitrites (but they can still show up on a test). So, you can x1 dose of prime DAILY, to render them harmless till the next day while you wait for the cycle to finish. When that happens, go back to dosing on your water changes.

During high spikes, use x2 doses per day.

This route can be considered pricey, but still effective from what I learned (haven't tried personally). I imagine it could cause bacterial blooms during spiked periods as it's all balancing itself.

The 2nd way that I found info. for, was through daily water changes to do it more naturally. But I think the seachem prime route would be easier with regular water changes anyway.

I'm also somewhat new to the hobby, I just read a lot and compare advice ppl give. So if this is all a terrible opinion, hopefully someone will explain why.

 

[Essjay]

I would prefer to do water changes whenever ammonia and nitrite are above zero, but use Prime to detoxify them as they build up between water changes. A combination of the above methods.
Note that both ammonia & nitrite will still register in the tests in the detoxified form.