Inherited tank, uncycled but with fish

Hello!

I just inherited a tank from a neighboring apartment (seeing mine they decided I would give it a good home when they had to move unexpectedly). 10 gallon, glass. It was moved with water still covering the gravel, and I assumed the bacterial colonies would be fine. It also came with a pleco (I don't know what species yet, still working on that). They had been using test strips :-( and when I did liquid tests, I found ammonia at 0.25, and nitrates/nitrites at 0. This has remained consistent over 3 days. There's a HOB aqueon filter with carbon cartridge, pH is 7.1-7.2, temp varies 78-80. With the levels staying the way they are, I'm concerned that the tank is not cycling.

I seeded it with gravel from another of my tanks, and threw in used filter to float. Normally I cycle fishless with pure ammonia. I can move the pleco to another tank and re-cycle, but obviously with no quarantine or observation time I'm concerned about the risk to my other fish.

What would you recommend doing? Also, I have read other fish sites that state that the carbon cartridges actually interfere with the cycling of the tank. Please comment?

Thank you so much for your input!

 

You could always do a large water change and add TSS to the tank for a big boost for the tank.

 

I would just keep the seeded gravel in the tank and do 40-50% water changes daily to help move it along and keep the fish safe.

 

A partial water change a day with TSS would work for one, at least until the tank is cycled.

The water change would keep down the ammonia and nitrate levels down and the TSS (Tetra Safe Start) would help build up beneficial bacteria colonies in the filter.

Put the piece of filter that you have floating from your main tank into the filter of the new tank, don't just let it float around.

Once the tank is cycled and it is ready for new fish, get rid of the pleco (as in selling) or move it out. For one, I know that no pleco deserves to be in a 10 gallon, not even dwarfs.

 

PHP, I have to respectfully disagree with you. When using Tetra SafeStart you are not supposed to do any water changes until the tank cycles.

Sopapbed, besides getting too large for a 10 gallon tank (no matter what type of pleco you have), pleco's are huge waste producers. It is possible that the pleco will be producing so much ammonia, that you have a difficult time getting a large enough bacteria clony to get that tank cycled.

Carbon will have no ill effect on cycling a tank. Carbon only removes impurites in the water (and medications) but does nothing to ammonia or nitrite.

Since the tank is only 10 gallons, I would do daily partial water changes of about 40% using Prime as your water conditioner until fully cycled. The water changes will keep the ammonia/nitrite levels low enough that the Prime will be able to detox 100% of the ammonia/nitrites.

 

I agree about the pleco, but he'll have to sit tight until I can find him a better home.

I found TSS, and also got some great advice from my LFS guy- he says aqueons actually have a bit of trouble in the beginning because the basket is so smooth and the waterflow high- recommended roughing it up with sandpaper so it catches the bacteria more readily. Thoughts?

Thanks again for all of your help!

 

Oh, and the LFS guys said the pleco looks like a bulldog/bristlenose cross. If you could let me know in your opinions the minimum tank requirement for him (he's supposed to get up to 5") so I can find the right place for him, that would be great.

 

I wouldnt think it is a must but a little scuff prob couldn't hurt.

 

Oh, and the LFS guys said the pleco looks like a bulldog/bristlenose cross. If you could let me know in your opinions the minimum tank requirement for him (he's supposed to get up to 5") so I can find the right place for him, that would be great.

I think you can have the pleco in a 20 gal minimum but a 29+ gal is recommended.

 

My 25 gallon tank came with an Aqueon filter and I have to say I never counted on (nor trusted) bacteria growing on the plastic. The filter cartridge is a much better home for bacteria and it will definitly prefer to live in the filter floss over the plastic.

But since the carbon is only good for about 3-4 weeks, I cut a slit in the back of the cartridge and dumped the carbon out. Carbon is not necessary so if you do the same you can either just not use carbon or add loose carbon back in.

Since I have two goldfish in my 25, I actually use an AquaClear 50 along with the Aqueon filter. I really like the AquaClear filters because they are almost like a cannister filter in the respect that they have a sponge filter on the bottom, a bag of carbon in the middle and a bag of ceramic bio rings on top. This makes it very easy to change your carbon every 3-4 weeks, while not disturbing the bacteria.

 

Okay, so I added TSS. Next day Ammonia at 0.25ppm( same as before), but Nitrate at 1-3ppm (hard to tell which shade of orange...) and Nitrite at 0. But it's been a few days now, and the ammonia levels have not decreased, while nitrate levels haven't gone up. Still the same readings. I'm used to the ammonia level gradually fading to zero, as nitrate climbs. Did I miss something? Is it normal for it to take this long, or did the bacteria cycle a bit and then die? Sorry to be so troublesome, but thank you for all your help.

I thought about the above comment about plecos producing too much waste, but I would in that case still see an increase in nitrates, yes?

 

Ive done a fish in cycle man I did 50% water changes everyday and after around a week and a half - 2 weeks its cycled.
I have had the support from members here and also used prime doing water changes worked a treat for me!

 

I had that problem for two weeks with my tank.... ammonia, ammonia, ammonia...it just wouldn't start the cycle. I picked up some tetra smartstart......and whola!!! cycle started!

 

See that is why it is recommended that you do not test your water until 10 days after adding SafeStart...the test results can make you crazy. Just try to be patient.

 

Yes, under the more freshwater aquarium topics there is a thread for the nitrogen cycle and in there pinned to the top is a great thread on TSS, I highly suggest a read thru of it.

 

Oooh, thanks! Great info! I am justly reprimanded- will wait another week, test, and then report! Thanks guys!

 

The saga continues! (please note the elapsed time- I was patient I promise )

I did my nitrate testing again tonight (I've just been checking ammonia/nitrite every so often to make sure my pleco didn't get burned in the meantime).

Ammonia- 0.25ppm (constant this whole time)
Nitrite- 0ppm (constant this whole time)
Nitrate- maybe 1ppm, if that. The tube looks pretty yellow, but when I did a strip to double check, it registered between 1-20ppm nitrate.

You will note that this is a decrease in nitrate from before. Which makes me ask, where did it go? I do not have live plants in this tank.

I have been giving my pleco the occasional chunk of algae pellet, but those should all be dead, so I'm not sure if that might have an effect. He's also snacked on some boiled peas, but again I figured those would be dead. I have been feeding sparingly, but I don't want him to starve either. I realize that his large waste production is likely responsible for the continuation of ammonia readings, but I'm waiting to see nitrates rising.

Other than that, I left the tank alone as TSS said to, with one small fish. The ammonia levels haven't gone up at all, which would imply some cycling, but they haven't dropped to 0 either.

Again, thank you for all of your advice and help. I really appreciate all the input.

 

I'm not sure how many days into SafeStart you are, but if it's been 14 days or more it sounds to me like it may have failed. It does seem odd that your ammonia has stayed steady at .25ppm without a rise in either nitrite or nitrate. One would think that the Pleco is constantly adding ammonia to the tank, so your ammonia wouldn't stay steady at .25 without a corresponding rise in nitrite or nitrate.

 

your at about 10 days, give it a couple more, sometimes it takes just a hair longer without a lot of ammonia. There have been instances where TSS has failed, but it seems to have a decent rate of success. I had a problem with the ammonia not wanting to come off of that pesky little number and I found it was that my pH had crashed. Might be the problem, might not be, just something that happened to me.

 

Thanks- I'll wait a few more days. And thanks for the tip on pH- I checked mine again and it's actually a tiny bit higher than usual (bordering 7.4).

 

PH sounds good then, I would watch it regularly for a good month and then keep an eye on it for a few months after that just to know what it will do.

 

Hey guys!

So after day 14, it seemed like TSS had definitely failed. I read some more, and took the opportunity to change filters before trying again- the aquaclear was rated so well here, and the aqueon really did not seem set up to facilitate bacterial growth.

Put on aquaclear 20, used another bottle of TSS, and MAGIC! Readings are looking amazing. Ammonia dropped to 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 2, then 10 ppm.

So either I had a bad bottle of TSS, or the bacteria just didn't find a good place to latch on. I'm keeping an eye on them now. Either way, thank you all for understanding and support in the mean time!

And for those concerned about the pleco, I'm happy to say I found him a nice new home in a 55 gallon community tank of a family friend's. He'll be leaving as I get new fish out of quarantine (I don't want to lose my cycle now! )

 

Great to know you finished your cycle! The same happened to me. I think it was a bad bottle of TSS. I use an Aqueon aswell. I didnt try TSS again though.