Cycling tank with Eco-Complete substrate

[travelgirl]

We eventually want live plants in our aquarium, so Eco-Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate was recommended to us to start off with. We got a 26 gallon tank, and this is our first aquarium.

We were also told that it would help get the cycling of the tank over with more quickly, since there's BB already in it.

We set up our tank on Saturday, and they said we could come and pick out a few fish the next day as long as we had the water temp set between 76 and 78. It was, so on Sunday, we went over and picked out 4 fish.

1 zebra danio
1 leopard danio
1 neon glowfish
1 swordtail

I got an API test kit (liquid) and tested the water yesterday.

Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites were all at 0, and the ph was 7.5.

Will we still get the ammonia spike cycling our tank this way? Does anyone else have any experience starting a tank with this substrate?

Here's a link, if you aren't familiar with it. http://www.petsolutions.com/Eco-Complete-Planted-Aquarium-Substrate+I18400770+C41.aspx

[rich311k]

It is supposed to contain bacteria that will help establish a tank. I do not beleive you will avoid a cycle however. I still had a cyle in my 75 gallon with over a hundred pounds of the stuff.

[travism76]

If you have 0 for all 3 than it seems to me that you are basically starting a brand new cycle. My guess is that you will see your ammonia go up as you feed your fish. Since you don't have any nitrates this will continue to go up until the tank cycles. Keep an eye on your ammonia levels. Make sure you read them carefully. My test kit is API and can be difficult to tell if its 0 or. 25.

Eco complete is great substrate for planting. It does a good job cutting down the cycle time when a bacteria booster is used, but the tank will need to be cycled.

[SunSchein89]

Yeah, you will still get a cycle, but I did notice it goes through a lot quicker. Pretty much the same as buying the stuff in a bottle.

[Wild Turkey]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the "Beneficial Bacteria" contained in the eco complete is for breaking down organics, its heterotropic bacteria, not nitrifying bacteria. They are both "beneficial" for your tank but no, eco complete doesnt help cycle the tank. I use it in almost all of my tanks and its never made any difference whatsoever.

What will help the cycling process is securing some used media from someone else's tank and adding that media to your filter.


Make sure you proceed as usual with a fish-in cycle, yes you are going to have ammonia and nitrite spikes, just like any other fish-in cycle. You will need to monitor your parameters daily and do appropriate water changes as needed. If you can get that seeded media though, the process will be much shorter.



Always double check anything anyone at a petstore tells you, especially before introducing fish.

[travelgirl]

I knew it would still need to cycle, but I didn't know if it would really shorten the amount of time that it would take to get through the cycle.

I will continue testing paramaters daily, and doing the necessary water changes, and I will see if I can get my hands on some media from a friend's well established tank.

The pet store told us last week that we can bring in a water sample so they can test it for us (they do free testing, I don't know what type of test kit they use yet) and said that we could possibly pick out a few more fish in a week's time.

Should we wait to add any more fish until it's through cycling? I'm leaning towards waiting. We're quite entertained by the four we have in there at the moment, and I don't want to put more fish at risk than is necessary during cycling.

Thank you for all the quick responses!

[rich311k]

By all means wait until the cycle is done before adding new fish.

[travism76]

definately wait to add more fish until you are 100% sure your tank is completely cycled.

Adding more before would just result in a bigger ammonia spike and make it more difficult to cycle the tank completely

[Wild Turkey]

+1, dont add anymore fish until a while after you are getting 0/0/some.

You really will do a lot better with liquid test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. API sells them all together in a kit along with PH for about 20$ if you shop around.

Trying to keep track of the parameters of the cycle by taking the samples to the lfs is a pain in the butt, and they may be using test strips, which are much, much less accurate if not worthless.

The up side is you have plenty of time to research your fish and possible stocking combinations before you get there, which will spare you from a lot of potential problems.

Some of the fish you have need a group of 6+ to feel comfortable, and thats what I would focus on once its time to add more fish.

[Lady Hobbs]

You probably should have picked up 4-6 danio's instead of 1 of each of what you have.

[travelgirl]

+1, dont add anymore fish until a while after you are getting 0/0/some.

You really will do a lot better with liquid test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. API sells them all together in a kit along with PH for about 20$ if you shop around.

Trying to keep track of the parameters of the cycle by taking the samples to the lfs is a pain in the butt, and they may be using test strips, which are much, much less accurate if not worthless.

The up side is you have plenty of time to research your fish and possible stocking combinations before you get there, which will spare you from a lot of potential problems.

Some of the fish you have need a group of 6+ to feel comfortable, and thats what I would focus on once its time to add more fish.

The liquid test kit is what I got.

We will probably take in a water sample to have them test the water just to see if their readings are the same as ours. It's a 45 minute drive to get there, though, so we won't be doing that very often. Which is why I wanted to get the liquid test kit, which I hear is much more accurate than test strips.

I'm learning a TON here about what combinations of fish live well together, and I'm reading as much as I can prior to choosing more fish for our tank.