Instant Cycle Fail

I just set up a 10 gallon tank yesterday evening using about a half cup full of Matrix from my cycled 20 long. I tested the water this afternoon and there is 0ppm ammonia, 1.0ppm nitrite, and 5ppm nitrate. Will the nitrite drop over the next day or so? I'm confused as to why I have nitrite if I have nitrate. I was under the impression that I would have an instant cycle since I used media from a cycled tank. Maybe I didnt use enough media?

 

It takes a few days for the bacteria to completely colonize the tank. It speeds it up but it’s not instant. The bacteria still need to grow in the substrate and other filter media if you have it.

 

Do I need to dose with Prime and do water changes until it is fully colonized?

 

Sorry, guess I should have mentioned I already put six glowlights in the tank last night. They've been nipping at my gourami so I wanted to remove them asap.

 

Yeah I would do a small water change to kept the nitrites down until it levels out. I wouldn’t add prime since that will bind the nitrites and delay the cycle

 

Just wanted to give an update. I did two 50% water changes (one on Sunday and one on Monday) and as of this morning, my nitrites are at 0ppm. So, in my case at least, after seeding a 10 gallon tank, it takes two or three days for things to acclimate.

 

I thought everything was good, but now my ammonia is elevated again (0.5ppm). Nitrite is down to 0ppm as mentioned previously, and the nitrate is 5 ppm. So I went from 0/1/5 to 0.5/0/5. What is going on? Am I going to see another nitrite spike? Or perhaps my nitrosomonas colony (ammonia eaters) has not built up enough to deal with the bio load whereas my nitrobacter (nitrite eaters) has?

 

Just wanted to give an update: my nitrites are elevated again. So I currently have 0.5ppm ammonia, 0.5ppm nitrite, and 10 ppm nitrate. Needless to say, my instant cycle didn't work out. Evidently I needed to transfer more than a handful of Matrix from my cycled tank to get the new one started. And perhaps I should have started the 10 gallon with 5 gallons of water from the 20 gallon tank as well. Oh well.

 

I started my 75gal with 70% tank water from my cycled 40gal. I also had my SunSun 304B canister filter seeding along side my AC110 HOB. I transferred the SunSun 304b to the 75gal without touching the media inside. Just a quick move over. Took a few minutes to adjust tubing to correct lengths and while filling the rest of the tank, tossed in a bottle of TSS+ for safe measures.

36 hours later my cichlids, butterikoferi, Bala Shark & Clown Knife all are happy in their 75gal penthouse. Maybe the canister filter had enough BB to start colonizing the 75gal. I did have it seeding for over 2 months.

 

Sounds like you did it the proper way. I simply took a handful of bio media out of my established 20 gallon and put it in the filter of my 10 gallon.

 

Yeah looks like it wasn't enough for you. Should have also went with the 50% of tank water from the 20gal to start the 10gal. Hopefully all your reworking will have it stable.

 

I'm now going through the same thing with my new 20 high. I transferred the Aquaclear HOB from the 10 gallon as well as most of the water. Everything tested fine later that evening, but the next day my nitrite is elevated (0.25ppm). Guess with the new tank it is going to go through a minicycle.