cycling question

[rica5tully]

Hello,

I am in the process of cycling my 10-gallon quarantine tank in preparation to restart my bigger reef tank.

It doesn't seem to be working! Am I doing something wrong?

1) I put a whole dead shrimp in the tank (from Pick N Save)

2) I ran an Aqua C Remora skimmer in there.

3) After 1.5 weeks, hardly any Ammonia, no Nitrite.

4) Found shrimp remains in skimmer cup; dumped some of the nasty juice back in the tank.

5) waited a couple of days, put in another shrimp. Turned the skimmer off.

6) After 5 days, Ammonia = 1-2; Nitrites = 0; and I'm getting whitish cloudy water.

Q: Do I have a bacteria bloom? Is that bad? Will it correct itself?

Q: Maybe my test kit is bad? I think even with a skimmer running part of the time, I should still see some Nitrite after two weeks.

The tank is at 80 degrees; do I need to turn it up?

Thanks, I'm trying to be patient, but it seems like the Ammonia is very low for having a rotting shrimp for two weeks.

- Eric

 

[MrZ]

First of all - kudos to you for doing it the humane way and not putting two damsels in there to suffer. What else do you have in the tank? I am assuming you have some type of biological filtration in there? You didn't mention anything other than a glass box, some water and a skimmer.

An explanation for zero nitrite is that almost none of the ammonia is being converted to nitrite. This would happen for one of two reasons - a person is two impatient to wait for bacteria to begin breaking down the ammonia (two weeks sounds about right though) or because there is nothing for the bacteria to adhere to.

For your quarantine tank you will need some type of biological filtration. Popular options might be a spare hang on filter like a whisper or magnum or even simpler would be one of those corner foam filters driven by an airstone.

-Z

 

[rica5tully]

Yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention that.

I have an AquaClear Hang-on-back power filter that has two big sponges that the water passes through. So it's just a big sponge filter. Otherwise, the only thing in the tank is a big PVC elbow for the fish to eventually hide in.

The reason I'm confused is that the charts I see in books (Wilkerson, Fenner) shows the Nitrite at least beginning to develop by a week and a half at least. But it doesn't peak until later, like week 3. So I thought I'd at least see something.

 

[MarineOne]

Hmmm, why are you running a skimmer?

A new set-up should have nothing to skim....

You may just need more time... or a better test kit...lol

What do you plan on QTing in a 10 gallon tank?

 

[ozz1116]

What I do for my quarantine tank that works very well.
Is when I plan on buying a new fish I take water out of my big tank
and put it in my quarantine get the temp correct.Then buy my
fish let him live their for about 2 weaks.Then I put him in the big
tank. Works great. Then I tear down the tank.

 

[prugs]

Remove the skimmer till the tank is cycled.
I would guess the nitrite test kit is bad also. Did you ever test for nitrate?

 

[rica5tully]

yeah, the skimmer isn't running now. It's been off for about a week.

I did test for Nitrate awhile ago, but maybe it's time to try again.

I'll take some water into the fish store and see if they come up with anything for Nitrite. Maybe it is a bad test kit. I'm using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals which I've always been happy with...so I don't know.

 

[MadTownMax]

One of the best things you can get for this hobby is a Salifert Test kit for Nitrate

Read it from the top for nitrates in the 10-100 ppm range, then when you get them low, read it from the side to get from .1-10 ppm - and they're not much more expensive than your standard nitrate test kit - but have the precision that you require for this hobby.

If you really want to do a simple cycle for your QT tank - ask someone local to you from the boards if you can get some of their old water the next time they do a water change :thumbsup:

 

[prugs]

I always used the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals nitrite kit & was happy with it also.

 

[rica5tully]

Update:

I tookwater into the LFS and their test kits showed the exact same thing:

- High ammonia
- Zero Nitrite
- everything else normal

So I guess I just have to wait. Maybe running my skimmer at the beginning stripped everything out of the water and it wasn't really cycling at all that whole time.

ET

 

[rica5tully]

Well, things aren't any better.

- the LFS confirmed that I had 0 nitrite, so I assume the test kit is ok
- it's now been 3.5 weeks and I'm showing ZERO nitrite! I just don't understand it. I'm running a power filter with sponges, so there should be a place for the bacteria to live.
- Ammonia is between 4-6. Salinity is a little low: 1.020; temp is 78
- I'm not showing any Nitrate either

What should I do?

Thanks for your help.

ET

 

[MadTownMax]

I can pm you my # and address if you're interested in some of the water that I just moved my fish from DE to WI in (I need to get the live rock and fish out of the cooler that they're in and into the new set-up asap now that I have a tank); then you will have some cultured water that will have all bacteria that you should need.

Another solution that pops to mind is Bio-Spira (LFS's have it for rapid-cycling a tank, but I think it's pricey) - if I remember correctly it's a super-dose of all the bacters that reduce ammonia to nitrate.

FWIW - I'll still stand behind my earlier claim of salifert test kits - unless your LFS is using one of these, I wouldn't trust the results - but then again I've been working in a pretty nice chemistry lab for the last 3 years, so I may be more of a stickler for quality results than others