Mini cycle advice

Hi

I tested my water today with my fluval kit.. it measures in increments of 0.1 and the 0 reading is already a light shade of green so theres no issues with false positives.. anyways I noticed my ammonia was somewhere around 0.15, which shouldn't be since my tank is cycled. I am likely experiencing a mini cycle since I switched out a box filter that wasn't functioning properly for a sponge filter. It hadn't been in my tank for long and it wasn't my primary media but I still removed it.

This is a bad time because 3 rasboras came in today to complete my school! They are currently acclimating.

I did a 40% WC and dosed with prime, plus a full cap of stability. I won't feed my fish tomorrow as the new arrivals will likely be light eaters anyways. I have 5 RCS and a bamboo shrimp for cleanup crew.

I had already dosed with prime yesterday and my Ph is 7.0, so the amount of ammonia in my tank will be negligible in terms of how it affects my fish.

Is there anything else I should do or look out for? I'm still new at this. I caught it in time but I would hate to miss something silly.

Thanks

 

Just keep an eye on it. It sounds like you did everything you should. Keep an eye on the Nitrites too. Water change and dose with prime is about all you can do.

 

Hi

I tested my water today with my fluval kit.. it measures in increments of 0.1 and the 0 reading is already a light shade of green so theres no issues with false positives.. anyways I noticed my ammonia was somewhere around 0.15, which shouldn't be since my tank is cycled. I am likely experiencing a mini cycle since I switched out a box filter that wasn't functioning properly for a sponge filter. It hadn't been in my tank for long and it wasn't my primary media but I still removed it.

This is a bad time because 3 rasboras came in today to complete my school! They are currently acclimating.

I did a 40% WC and dosed with prime, plus a full cap of stability. I won't feed my fish tomorrow as the new arrivals will likely be light eaters anyways. I have 5 RCS and a bamboo shrimp for cleanup crew.

I had already dosed with prime yesterday and my Ph is 7.0, so the amount of ammonia in my tank will be negligible in terms of how it affects my fish.

Is there anything else I should do or look out for? I'm still new at this. I caught it in time but I would hate to miss something silly.

Thanks

Seems like youre doing everything you can be doing at this point. Lesson learned though, it s never a good idea to completely change out a filter without letting the new one run on the tank for a bit first.

 

Thanks guys. Lesson learned for sure. My bamboo shrimp decided to finally stop being shy and has been searching for currents, I had to powder feed him. I'll have to just do water changes every day for a few days! Oh well. Lesson learned for sure

 

It's pretty normal for tanks that have not matured yet to go through mini cycles. We all go through it especially the first year or from accidentally cleaning too much at once. Partial water changes until the bacteria re-establish will help. Feeding light and keep testing. Next time you switch filter, make sure you either seed the new media or put in the new media and SLOWLY remove the old media. Good luck!