Draccoca

I'm trying my hand at a brackish 10 gal tank and doing a fishless cycle for a week and a half. The tank is going to be for a red clawed crab. I've used cycle (which worked very well in my 20 gal tank) and the ammonia was sitting at .50 for the first week without a change. I got the fog and it cleared so I did another test and no change. So I took the filter from my 20 gal when i changed it and placed it in the water hoping to get the bacteria to come into the tank and now the ammonia has spiked to 2.0 and I'm now not sure on what to do.

I'm using a small air filter as I'm trying to avoid an escape route and a 3 stage filter isn't going to work as there is only 5gals of water in the tank. I've also used aquarium salt for the tank. I know I know I should use marine salt but I also talked to a few people from the LFS's that have used aquarium salt in a brackish tank without problems.

Should I wait longer or do I need to start over?

OMG i just did another test and now it's at 4.0

Shawnie

Hi draccoca ...using the filter from an already established tank is great~! just got to give it time to establish..if you are doing it fishless, you need to feed the tank twice a day with a lil bit of fish food or throw a small peice of raw shrimp in the tank..then just patience....cycle doesnt work unless you use it for the life of the tank...its something that doesnt work just the first time..u have to continue using it EVERYTIME ...so best to cycle without it...id wait longer with the established filter media in there

Draccoca

The filter media was just sitting in tank not actually in a working filter. I just did another test 24 hours since the 2.0 reading and now it's at 4.0 but i will try the feeding part

Shawnie

ok so what needs to happen is this....50% water changes daily and feed the tank as i said up above....since you are doing it fishless, you could even drop the changes to 40% but it still is going to take patience...and still needs to be done daily.....the old filter probably doesnt have any good bacteria if it was dried out...congrats on a fishless cycle !!!! it makes it less stressful on you and your fish...with a 10 gallon tank, it shouldnt take long .... goodluck

Lucy

Hi Draccoca Welcome to Fish Lore

This could be way off base, so wait for someone else to weight in.

With an ammonia reading of 4.0, it might be beneficial to see how long it takes the bacteria in the established filer to process the ammonia already present. (with out adding any more ammonia).

Test daily, when the ammonia gets to 0, add more and see how long it takes to process.

I hope some one corrects me, if this is wrong.

Draccoca

ok so far thanks for the help I've just added algae wafers to the tank and going to do a water change tonight (no time for it right now.) and I'm going to stop using cycle in it now.

the filter I'm using right now is http://www.aquariumguys.com/smwofi.html should I change to the tetra whisper filter http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2753028

or could I go for a under gravel filter as this is for crabs only

Shawnie

I would use the second filter....the whisper..and even bump it up one to a 20 gallon if possible ...more is better...goodluck!

Draccoca

Did a 50% water change today as well as I've got a new filter going http://www.petsparade.co.uk/aquarium/filters/?p=1724 with the carbon pad in the center. hopefully this works I'll keep you updated.

COBettaCouple

Cycle contains bacteria different from the nitrifying bacteria that comes from cycling a tank. It can actually kill good bacteria and could account for the ammonia levels. I'd recommend not using it and using carbon to clear it out.

Draccoca

thanks for the help guys, I've been doing water changes for the past few days as well as feeding the tank and the ammonia levels have dropped to 0.5 I've also changed the way the tank is set up so there's a little more water (roughly 7 gals now)

I've also stopped using cycle in both my tanks. I'm using Hertz all in one for water conditioning.

Should I still do the water changes or let the tank sit test it daily to see how it's doing?

COBettaCouple

I'd continue daily water changes and just test the water right before you're going to do a change.

Draccoca

Still working on the problem, my ammonia is still sitting at 2.0 nitrites are at 2 and nitrates are at 5 I'm still doing the water changes

The one thing i noticed today is after I did the water change I rinsed out the filter from my pump and noticed that the filter media was blue and it transfered into the water turning it blue. I know it's dust from the rocks. ( i guess I didn't rinse them out good enough) but can this dust cause problems with the nitrogen cycle?

COBettaCouple

I don't think it does, but it isn't really good for the fish. It could be damaging the good bacteria in the filter media, but I'm not sure on that.

I think API makes a product that is supposed to cause the gravel dust to clump up and you'll want to clean the filter media out in a container of used tank water real good every day or two. Some extra water changes could help to.