CGY_Betta_Guy
02-09-2010, 05:58 PM
Hello AC helpers!
Got a question that I need an opinion on but I will explain the situation first.
I originally got into fish keeping back in April of last year and did the fishless cycle and it worked great with no problems. I have not had any mass die offs and have never dosed any sort of medications in any of my main tanks. My water changes are probably every 2-4 weeks because they are heavily planted (I know some will say I should be doing weekly water changes). I have been using Prime as my dechlorinator and my ammonia and nitrite params are always reading 0. I dont check my nitrates that often because of being heavily planted but the last time I checked it was pretty low (0.5ppm) after not having dosed ferts for a week and after dosing it will jump back up to 5-10ppm. I usually dose ferts every few days to a week so the nitrate readings are usually up and down depending on what I have added to the water column for nutrient deficiencies evident in my plants. Anyways, I used a tray of the ceramic media from the canister filter of this first tank to put into a 58 gallon tank that I got used in sept and planted as well with no issues but I didnt test cycle the tank as I assumed that the media would be fine. Parameters for this tank have also always been 0-0 for ammonia and nitrites and it is also pretty heavily planted. I am sure my API liquid test kit is fine and working.
I recently bought a Fluval Edge (6G) and grabbed some media out of my canister filters and dropped them into the HOB filter that comes with the tank and decided to make sure that the bacteria is still there by doing a fishless cycle by ammonia addition. What I have discovered is that the ammonia eating bacteria exists and turns it over to nitrites quite easily but my nitrites were not being converted to nitrates which tells me that I have no nitrite eating bacteria. Its been just over a month now and I am only now starting to see movement of nitrites to nitrates which is a good sign that the bacteria are growing.
Now my question is: Is it possible that because of the heavy planting in my main tanks that I have actually starved this bacteria and killed it off? I would have expected that I could immediately "cycle" my Fluval Edge by using existing media but it has proved to not be the case here.
Opinions?
Got a question that I need an opinion on but I will explain the situation first.
I originally got into fish keeping back in April of last year and did the fishless cycle and it worked great with no problems. I have not had any mass die offs and have never dosed any sort of medications in any of my main tanks. My water changes are probably every 2-4 weeks because they are heavily planted (I know some will say I should be doing weekly water changes). I have been using Prime as my dechlorinator and my ammonia and nitrite params are always reading 0. I dont check my nitrates that often because of being heavily planted but the last time I checked it was pretty low (0.5ppm) after not having dosed ferts for a week and after dosing it will jump back up to 5-10ppm. I usually dose ferts every few days to a week so the nitrate readings are usually up and down depending on what I have added to the water column for nutrient deficiencies evident in my plants. Anyways, I used a tray of the ceramic media from the canister filter of this first tank to put into a 58 gallon tank that I got used in sept and planted as well with no issues but I didnt test cycle the tank as I assumed that the media would be fine. Parameters for this tank have also always been 0-0 for ammonia and nitrites and it is also pretty heavily planted. I am sure my API liquid test kit is fine and working.
I recently bought a Fluval Edge (6G) and grabbed some media out of my canister filters and dropped them into the HOB filter that comes with the tank and decided to make sure that the bacteria is still there by doing a fishless cycle by ammonia addition. What I have discovered is that the ammonia eating bacteria exists and turns it over to nitrites quite easily but my nitrites were not being converted to nitrates which tells me that I have no nitrite eating bacteria. Its been just over a month now and I am only now starting to see movement of nitrites to nitrates which is a good sign that the bacteria are growing.
Now my question is: Is it possible that because of the heavy planting in my main tanks that I have actually starved this bacteria and killed it off? I would have expected that I could immediately "cycle" my Fluval Edge by using existing media but it has proved to not be the case here.
Opinions?