10 gal cycle musings

[terrapin24h]

Hi all--
If you read the invert forums, you know at least two things about me:
1--I have gay snails(not that there's anything wrong with that of course, except that i want baby snails :) )
2--on 10/10 my lovely wife agreed to let me get a 10 gal tank for an invert community. Said tank has been fishless cycling since with a little help from some spent filter media from my 30 gal tank

Status:
Currently the tank is measuring about 3-4 for ammonia(and has all week), 0 for nitrite, and *40* nitrate. Temp is about 78. I reckon i have a cycle, sort of. I still have ammonia, but a couple of good size water changes could take care of that(I'd do 4 5 gal water changes through the day and figure that'd get it all) Then i could get critters. Or I could wait it out. I plan to get a bunch of snails to go with my current 4(prob 4 more) and then get some cherry shrimp goin. Wondering what the group opinion is? hit me. thx

--chris

[Northernguy]

Are you going to get male or female snails? lol:14:
I like your plan but thats really pushing the cycle isn't it?
Are you going to wait a day after your mass w/c day to retest first?

[Fishalicious]

If the snails are in that tank with ammonia readings and high nitrates then I am not suprised they are not doing the 'wild thing'!! Once the tank is running smoothly and the water parameters are even I wouldn't be suprised if they do start to breed... at the moment the water is not suitable to bring fragile little lives into it :c2:

[terrapin24h]

Are you going to get male or female snails? lol:14:
I like your plan but thats really pushing the cycle isn't it?
Are you going to wait a day after your mass w/c day to retest first?

haha. I hope you choke on all the baby snails yer going to have, lol ;)

I planned on doing the 4-5gal water changes across about 12 hours. Then testing an hour or so after the last change. Then the next morning testing again and going out and gettin critters. I don't think it's really rushing the cycle. I clearly have the bacteria needed to do all my converting, as i have alot of nitrate. Plus, we're not talking about a high bio load tank here, most of the bacteria i've cultured will probably die off anyway as inverts are not exactly messy. I'm not saying i'm married to the idea, it just popped into my head so i thought i'd float it.

--chris

[terrapin24h]

If the snails are in that tank with ammonia readings and high nitrates then I am not suprised they are not doing the 'wild thing'!! Once the tank is running smoothly and the water parameters are even I wouldn't be suprised if they do start to breed... at the moment the water is not suitable to bring fragile little lives into it :c2:

No no, my current snails are in my fully cycled 30 gal community tank and are well doted over. They get algae rocks home grown in my own algae garden, wafers, left over NLS spectrum pellets, flake, freeze dried brine shrimp, and of course fish poop.

--chris

[Northernguy]

haha. I hope you choke on all the baby snails yer going to have, lol ;)

--chris
LOL I wish I had a home for all of them!Destroying ALL those clutches sucks:c2:
I want to start an invert tank,but they gross my wife out.
I may start one in my shop though!

[terrapin24h]

all--
I was working this through in ym head and i realized that i use prime on this tank, and i *really* overdosed it. Prime has an ammonia locker in it and i know that they can throw false readings. So I did 1 5 gal WC and then within a couple hours checked the amm level. It was 1. Now i used prime in the WC so I assumed that 1 was from the prime not having worked it's way out yet, so i added a little bit of real ammonia, and i'm going to wait it now and see what happens.

--chris

[Sasquatch]

Make extra sure that all the ammonia is gone. As long as there is ammonia (if it's not a false reading ... ) the tank is not cycled.

Other than that, an invert tank is a cool idea. Let us know how it goes.

[terrapin24h]

The problem is that i can't tell(without some *very* expensive toys) what kind of ammonia i have. I suppose i could drop the ph of the tank(i have water with no buffer) to 6.5ish then it would become non toxic regardless. However, i'd prefer to not do that and let it fall naturally. The problem is that i let it go all week last week and my trates did shoot up(over 40) but the ammonia never fell; so i thought it had to be a false reading of some sort. Trates can't shoot up that high without very healthy bacteria communities. This weekend i went out and bought a small bag of "bio balls" and dropped that in the chamber of my main tank's filter so i don't have to "dead cycle" a tank ever again. Were I thinking, i'dve done that in the first place. I'll just keep an eye on it and hope the change i did last night smacks it into moving.

--chris

[terrapin24h]

my ammonia count has resumed falling, going from just over 1 to .25

i'm thinking i might be near ready :)

--chris