Quarantine Tank -- Cycling Question

[BAPrince]

I set up this quarantine tank over a week ago. Added an entire packet of BioSpira, and dosed up to 1ppm of ammonia with Dr Tim's ammonium chloride. Today, it's still showing approx 1ppm ammonia. I thought this setup was supposed to cycle almost immediately?! Thoughts?

 

[Don Lidtke]

One thing I noticed when cycling my quarantine tanks was the nitrate got extremely high and that appeared to effect the ammonia reading. I did a 50% water change and the ammonia zeroed out.

 

[ReefChef19]

I set my qt using bio spira also, you don't have to cycle it persay. The bio spira is good bacteria that feeds off of the ammonia and waste. I added the bio spira a few hours before adding the fish and had no issues. But I did have an ammonia badge in the tank and extra bio spira and mixed salt water on hand in case of emergency. Good luck, I hope this helps.

 

[BAPrince]

I set my qt using bio spira also, you don't have to cycle it persay. The bio spira is good bacteria that feeds off of the ammonia and waste. I added the bio spira a few hours before adding the fish and had no issues. But I did have an ammonia badge in the tank and extra bio spira and mixed salt water on hand in case of emergency. Good luck, I hope this helps.

This is my first quarantine setup. From what I've read, it should just "quick cycle"... at least as far as ammonia is concerned. In my mind, that amount of BioSpira should have just immediately processed the ammonia. I have an ammonia badge on the tank, and it's showing a reading too. I really don't want to hurt the fish, and I'm afraid to put one in when it can't even process the small amount of ammonia I dosed?!

 

[ReefChef19]

I agree about not wanting to hurt the animals. You are thinking correctly. This was my first at also but that's how I did it after a lot of research and help from my local club. Did you follow the recommended amount on the bottle for the size tank? Also if you have extra bio spira add some to get the reading down, that's all you would do even if you had fish in the tank already. Basically the bio spira is a sponge for the ammonia.

 

[mcshams]

My wife and I prefer Humblefish recommendations on TTM for quarantine. We add prazipro as per his recommendations as well. If you do any antibiotic recommended quarantine methods, there should be no real scientific and/or logical reason to truly "cycle" and quarantine tank as there will be no real quality of beneficial bacterial storage to handle ammonia and other waste byproducts. Most water changes for quarantine will do the job (especially in TTM).

The TTM for both ich and velvet have several water changes at 36 hour intervals until the final few at 71 hour intervals. I'd link it, but not sure where I found it and I have a printed copy in my folder I keep for quick reference.

As per the ammonia levels you currently have, it might just have to do with the ammonia you added. There is very little to no substrate to house the beneficial bacteria, thus making it difficult to zero it out.

Not sure if this helps, but hope it does in some way.

 

[SMSREEF]

Maybe it was expired or went bad.
When I used bio spira, it brought the ammonia down considerably by the next day.

 

[Idoc]

I don't cycle my quarantine tanks prior to use. I just add some BioSpira a day or two prior to receiving my fish. But, I use an AquaClear HOB filter and soak the sponge in BioSpira for a few hours as well to give the bacteria a start on where I need them to colonize. A sterile tank with no substrate or rock (typical for a quarantine tank) doesn't give much area for bacteria to colonize.

I've never had issues with ammonia in my quarantine systems...but, I keep adding a little BioSpira daily for about a week into quarantine, though.

My guess for your system is that their wasn't enough space for the bacteria to colonize in quantities to take out 1ppm ammonia right now. If you've retested and also got the same amount of ammonia, I'd remove about 75% of the water and replace it. Then see if the bacteria can handle that smaller amount of ammonia....but make note...theoretically that would drop your ammonia to 0.25ppm...API ammonia test kits typically always show 0.25ppm readings!

 

[brandon429]

Team


would you classify this as a high surface area, high pass-through filtration setup

or not

 

[dodogoby]

Just let it run through the cycle process maybe add a piece of rock from your display? I never really had luck with quick cycle products tbh...

 

[PoorReefer]

I'm running a QT for my first 2 first (clowns) and I just used a piece of filter floss I had in my cycled DT. I didn't add any ammonia to the QT since the fish will bring their own. Just using the floss brought enough bacteria that I haven't detected ammonia at all. Now I have pretty high nitrites and nitrates that wont go away with 25 % water changes, but the fish are eating and look good so I guess it's not bad.

 

[BAPrince]

The BioSpira wasn't expired, but I guess it could have been bad?! My understanding is that the sponge should host the bacteria, plus the filter media in the HOB filter. I didn't expect it to be awesome at processing ammonia, but I did expect it to do SOMETHING?! It hasn't gone down at all. I put in the entire bottle (says you can't overdose), and that's supposed to seed up to 40 gallons. On a different post, someone asked if I washed the sponge filter before use, which I didn't. I also have a second sponge filter... would it help to run two?

 

[cmoore806]

I'm literally going through this exact situation. Glad to read it. I setup my display ant QT at the same time and the display is nearly down to zero ammonia (has dry live rock and sand and more biofilter/foam in the "sump' area. The quarantine tank with the HOB filter (foam and seachem matrix) I can't get ammonia down as fast as the display. Hence, I decided to go ahead and get fish in there this week and just watch the ammonia/waste and keep up with water changes.