Once ammonia and nitrite levels return to zero your aquarium has completed its first cycle. You may now introduce additional fish. Your Aquarium: 15 — 30 Days After Setup: As ammonia is converted to nitrite and then nitrate, algae may begin to grow on the glass and other objects in the aquarium. This is normal and is an indication that the Nitrogen Cycle is established.
Remove algae from the glass using a scrub pad or algae scraper. Never use a scrubber that has been used with soap or chemicals! As long as ammonia and nitrite levels are at zero, you can continue adding fish to the aquarium during this period.
If algae has started to appear, introduce algae eating fish such as plecostomus, otocinclus, snails and other scavengers. If you don't want to add more fish to your aquarium, try adding Aqueon Algae Remover to help keep algal blooms under control. Always test water before purchasing new fish, and only buy a few fish at a time. Wait at least a week between new fish additions. Consider buying a plant or decoration with each fish purchase to give newcomers to the aquarium their own place to call home.
Occasionally, fish that have become established in the aquarium will act aggressively towards new fish because they consider the newcomers intruders to their "territory".
This is especially true among cichlids. Rearranging the aquarium and adding new decorations will often calm this behavior by eliminating territorial boundaries. Remember to treat tap water with Aqueon Water Conditioner before adding it to your aquarium. Small frequent water changes are best. Don't vacuum the gravel yet, as you may disrupt the good bacteria that are just starting to colonize your aquarium. Check the cartridge s in hang-on filters or mechanical filter media in canister filters and rinse solid waste off as needed.
If the cartridge or fiber pads seem especially dirty, you might be overfeeding! Do not disturb biological media at this time. Using filter media from a tank that already has beneficial bacteria will help increase the population in your tank drastically since it can take a very long time to repopulate your tank with bacteria otherwise.
Adding filter media might speed up the process, but make sure the established tank you use only has healthy fish. If you keep adding fish, bacteria will not have time to convert all the ammonia released from the waste and the excess food into harmless compounds. As the fish population increases, it will get harder and harder for the bacteria, which will result in your fish dying, which can, in turn, affect bacterial growth and the nitrogen cycle.
Your tank has animal waste and excess food, which can break down and produce harmful compounds like ammonia and nitrite. Too much nitrite and ammonia in your tank can kill your fish in just a few days.
Even if your water looks completely clear, ammonia may exist in high amounts. Here is how beneficial bacteria help—a beneficial bacterium called Nitrosomonas can break ammonia into a compound called Nitrite.
Another beneficial bacterium called Nitrobacter then turns nitrite into harmless nitrates. It is important to keep in mind that you need to clean your aquarium regularly to remove these nitrates since over time, they can harm the fish and the plants. Beneficial bacteria help keep your fish alive until cleaning day, which means it is vital to have them in your fish tank.
It is essential to add bacteria in your aquarium before adding the fish or they will all die within a few days since the ammonia will only keep on increasing with nothing to combat it and break it down into harmless compounds.
Sometimes, it can take a while for the nitrogen cycle in your tank to start but no need to worry — this only means that there are no nitrites or ammonia in your tank at the time. If you want to speed up the nitrogen cycle, you can always use water, a sponge or gravel to move things along, but it is best to let it happen naturally. It is also a good idea to avoid adding products that help neutralize pH and ammonia since they can lead to incorrect readings — the ammonia will still be in the water but it will not show.
It is always a better idea to get a reading when the nitrogen cycle has started. During the nitrogen cycle, your tank water may get a little cloudy. No need to worry — this only means that the beneficial bacteria are blooming. As long as the bio-load in the new tank is less than the tank you took the filter from the bacteria on the media should handle the bio-load in the new tank.
If you add fish you should not get an ammonia or nitrite spike and should start seeing nitrates within a week or so. If you choose to add ammonia instead of fish the ammonia should go down quickly and again you may not see a nitrite spike. I keep 2 dual sponge filters running in my heavily stocked tank at all times. When I need to set up another tank I just pull one of the sponge filters out.
Put both it and the fish I am setting the tank up for in the new tank. I never get either an ammonia or nitrite reading. Nitrates start rising within a week. The tank is instantly cycled. It will still take a while for the new tank to be firmly established and bacteria to grow on all the surfaces but the seeded media will have enough bacteria to handle the bio-load. Click to expand The bacteria colonies in an aquarium grow on every conceivable surface: glass, rocks, decorations, substrate , plants , heater , filter box, filter media, etc.
The bacteria in the filter media like a sponge filter are a significant part of the overall bacteria colony, but it does not contain sufficient bacteria to "instantly cycle a tank".
If the bioload in the new tank is small enough and the fish are hardy, the old filter media should be sufficient to take care of the waste generated, but you are still doing a fish-in cycle.
It will take several weeks for the beneficial to fully colonize every surface within the new system to the point where a full complement of livestock can be added. Even then, beneficial bacteria only grow to based on the amount of nutrients available in the tank. Thus, adding a lot of new fish at one time can cause an ammonia spike. Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle Forum You must log in or register to reply here. Similar Aquarium Threads. Replies 9 Views Oct 17, StarGirl.
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