gavin423

Ok, so I just set up a 29 gallon tank. Right now it has the first batch (6) of zebra danios in it. I cycled it (fishless) by seeding it from my other tank. I didn't know what I was supposed to take from one filter to another to do it that way, but I switched over some artificial plants, some ornaments, and water a few times. It appeared cycled - no ammonia, no nitrite, and low nitrates. However, apparently it wasn't enough. Because now I have the first level of ammonia and the first level on nitrite (I forget the numbers and don't have the cards handy at the moment, sorry). The fish still appear extremely active - they don't seem sick or anything but my question is, what can I do to avoid putting them through the stress of what I've done. I have sand in the new tank and gravel in my other so I didn't want to mix substrate - but I could throw in some of the gravel to help with bacteria - would this fix the problem? The ammonia and nitrite spiked on the fourth day we had the fish in the tank - which was last night. I'm getting ready to go do a 50% water change to pull down the numbers but any other help you can offer would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Tiffany

cg49me

You can wrap up some of the gravel from your established tank in panty-hose (or something like) and place it in your new tank - that will keep it from mixing with your sand, but allow the bacteria to spread.

Water change is about your best bet. If you want to further speed things along, go grab a bottle of Tetra SafeStart.

Dozey

Using some of the filter media from your cycled tank will help. But daily 50% water changes will be required until the ammonia and nitrite levels come back into check.

pepetj

Don't expect to see ammonia or nitrite toxicity (not talking about lethal levels) in such hardy fish. Not that they don't suffer consequences, but if you had some sensitive species there (e.g. Penguin Tetras) they would likely be dead.

Please consider posting your aquarium info (look into my settings). What size, stocking and age is your other tank?

If you take a good sized portion of your sponge media (say 1/5) you could cycle this tank with fish sooner than with just decor from another established tank. If you can replace the missing part with new media, it should be colonized by bacteria quite fast.

o give you some illustration, I seeded a whole filter in a heavily stocked, healthy tank and completed the seeded fishless cycle with ammonia solution in 4 days. I repeated this operation with another filter (same model, same media) but from another tank with somewhat lower bio-load and it took me 6 days. I began seeding both filters the same day (I was setting two tanks simultaneously). I used the same source of substrate for both tanks, also seeded.

Other variables might played a role here as well. The tank with higher bio-load temp was at 26-27C (79-81F), the other one was running at lower temp (had in-line chiller in there) at 23-24C (73-75F). Both tanks had pH at 7.2 but GH and KH in the latter was a bit higher (maybe non-significant difference). The coolest tank also has CO2 injection and two hours less of lights-on time per day.

The two tanks I seeded, I did so with a pH of 7.7, and temp of 26C (79F).

If I were in your position, I would place the zebra danios (if feasible to do) in the established tank and try again fishless cycle, since it would take less time to do.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

cerianthus

Numbers will help. As long as number are not too high, dont go too crazy with massive water changes.
Such massive changes can delay even more. Smaller and more frequent changes are better even though more work but def better in establishing the system.

Putting gravel as other mentioned will also help. Using established tank water (provided it's OK to use) when performing partial water changes will help.

In case number are high, could do 50 % water changes using half from established tank.

Problem persist, then swap filters for few day, if possible. Monitor the water on established tank closely just to make sure. If filters are swapped, no changes on established tank unneccessarily.

One important issue: cut down on feeding until well established.

gavin423

Ammonia and Nitrites were .25 - sorry I didn't give the numbers earlier! I went ahead and did like a 30% water change. I also took a big scoop of gravel from the established tank and put it in the new tank. Tomorrow when I do a change on my established tank I will put the water into the new tank to help along as well. I couldn't get my hands on the Tetra safestart so that was a no go. I can't move the danios to the other tank - the other tank has dwarf puffers (which will probly eat the danios, lol). My filters are not the same so I don't know how I can swap media - that's what is confusing me - the machines are not the same.

So knowing that, what is the best route? Are my numbers high enough to warrent 50% water changes daily or what do you recommend? At what point should I worry?

Thanks again, for all your help!

Dozey

Water from an established tank will not help. Beneficial bacteria are not waterborne. Any amount of ammonia or nitrites can justify 50% water changes.