Cycling Pause

[Learner123]

Hi,

1. Feb 1st - Completed cycling for 30 gallon tank
2. Feb 1st - Purchased clown fish and added to 10 gallon quarantine tank (to monitor for a month)
3. Feb 11th - measured 30 gallon tank; Amonia (0ppm), Nitrate (0ppm), Nitrate (5ppm)

I have about 2.5 weeks left to quarantine clown fish in the 10 gallon QT tank. Should I leave the main tank alone for those 2.5 weeks (aside from topping off), or do I need to introduce ammonia into the tank so that the beneficial bacteria have something to eat and don't starve??

Thanks

 

[lapin]

Toss in a few bits of what you are feeding the clown 1x per week

 

[Azedenkae]

Hi,

1. Feb 1st - Completed cycling for 30 gallon tank
2. Feb 1st - Purchased clown fish and added to 10 gallon quarantine tank (to monitor for a month)
3. Feb 11th - measured 30 gallon tank; Amonia (0ppm), Nitrate (0ppm), Nitrate (5ppm)

I have about 2.5 weeks left to quarantine clown fish in the 10 gallon QT tank. Should I leave the main tank alone for those 2.5 weeks (aside from topping off), or do I need to introduce ammonia into the tank so that the beneficial bacteria have something to eat and don't starve??

Thanks

You can just dose ammonia every week or so and that should be fine.

 

[Learner123]

You can just dose ammonia every week or so and that should be fine.

Thanks - how many drops for a 30 gallon tank?

 

[nereefpat]

I would leave the main tank alone. I don't see a reason to add anything.

 

[Aquajamin]

You can add some of what ever you are feeding your clown once and see if the parameters change. At some point you should see an increase in nitrate since that's the end of the nitrogen cycle.
You can also turn you lights on now and see if you get an algae bloom and deal with it before introducing the fish.

 

[MaxTremors]

As others have said, I would either continue to ghost feed or add ammonia. Not doing so won’t kill the bacteria on the tank, but feeding them will keep them robust and keep the population high. In two weeks I don’t think enough bacteria would die that it wouldn’t be able to handle a couple clownfish (or reproduce fast enough that it wouldn’t have any negative effects), but you might as well keep the bio-filtration as robust and productive as possible.

 

[nereefpat]

I should have linked this earlier: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/e...hout-ammonia-or-other-supplementation.890358/

 

[Azedenkae]

Thanks - how many drops for a 30 gallon tank?

Whatever brings it to 1 to 2ppm should be plenty.