Cycling Tank

[Gdel]

Hi All,

I'm setting up both my display tank and quarantine tank at the same time. I used some starter bacteria and a raw shrimp in each tank to start the cycle. My display cycled really fast and I think it's due to the the rock, sand, and media present in the tank. My quarantine tank is bare bottom with some ceramic bio media in a bag and seems to be stuck at this point. My Nitrites don't seem to be dropping like they did in my display. When a tank seems stuck like this should I just add more of the starter bacteria and continue testing? My quarantine tank is a standard ten gallon PetCo tank with hang on the back filter. My other tank is a 60 gallon cube.

Also, if the shrimp fully decomposes do you add another shrimp/ammonia source to keep the bacteria going? My fish will be in quarantine for at least 3-4 weeks so I'm wondering how to maintain my display tank w/out any source of ammonia to feed the bacteria.

Thank you,
Gabe

 

[ZapataInc]

Hi All,

I'm setting up both my display tank and quarantine tank at the same time. I used some starter bacteria and a raw shrimp in each tank to start the cycle. My display cycled really fast and I think it's due to the the rock, sand, and media present in the tank. My quarantine tank is bare bottom with some ceramic bio media in a bag and seems to be stuck at this point. My Nitrites don't seem to be dropping like they did in my display. When a tank seems stuck like this should I just add more of the starter bacteria and continue testing? My quarantine tank is a standard ten gallon PetCo tank with hang on the back filter. My other tank is a 60 gallon cube.

Also, if the shrimp fully decomposes do you add another shrimp/ammonia source to keep the bacteria going? My fish will be in quarantine for at least 3-4 weeks so I'm wondering how to maintain my display tank w/out any source of ammonia to feed the bacteria.

Thank you,
Gabe

You can do what they call "ghost feeding" so with the tank empty just drop a little bit of food in there when you feed your QT. And im no expert in QTs but you really are just looking for ammonia spikes. And you deal with those with water changes. Alot of people use the ammonia badges like this in the QTs to determine when to do a water change. And with a 10g QT you can deal with nutrients really fast with a small water change.

 

[Shawn]

So essentially what's happening is the bacteria that you're trying to grow doesn't have as much surface area to grow on in your QT. I used to have a canister filter that I removed the sponge filters from and dropped two in each of my QT tanks. Between that and the media in the HOB filters (that I never change) you should be able to grow some bacteria.

What I do is a keep bags of Matrix in my sump so that if my QT tanks spike I can drop pre-seeded matrix into my QT tanks. Haven't had to do that, but I would definitely have to if I wasn't prepared for it

 

[bzb]

I don't cycle my QT, but I also don't keep it up 24/7. It's only prepped when I'm about to introduce new fish (which won't be any time soon).

I do the same as @aestheticlibra and have a bag of Matrix in my sump. If I have to setup a hospital tank, I'll drop that bag in the HOB on the QT and a couple capfuls of bacteria and off we go.

I don't even really deal with ammonia, as I use Seachem Prime to deal with it.

 

[bzb]

I just put my QT process in my tank build thread for future reference!

bzb's 90 Gallon

Figured I'd stop updating my problem threads and post updates here. I really enjoy seeing the progress photos and how much things have grown, so I'll continue that here, instead! From Feb 2, 2020: New update! I've now got the dosing pumps doing ~15mL daily of both Alk and Ca. I do the...

atlantareefclub.org

 

[Gdel]

Thanks everyone. My plan is to add another half shrimp and another dose of bacteria. I will also add in some of those media blocks to provide more surface area for the bacteria to grow. Then keep waiting for the ammonia and nitrites to drop.