Tank cycled and fish added

[Aggro]

Hey all my first time cycling a brand new tank 32g biocube. Cycle for 2 weeks prior to adding fish after a small nitrite and ammonia spike everything leveled out within 24 hrs and my nitrates sat at less then 5ppm. Ran another frozen mysis this time full cube instead of a half and same thing small ammonia and nitrate spike filtered out within 24 hrs. I tested before adding source and at the 12 hr marker and 24 hr marker. I know it’s a waste of a couple tests but aye whatever it was for my peace of mind. After that I decided to order my fish ordered on Friday so they didn’t ship till Monday which is what I wanted so I could test again the day before and when I did all test perfect. Did my first water change today and setup my qt tank.

question on qt tanks do I need to let them cycle I used some bio balls from main tank as well as 5g of that water with new water my qt is a 14g biolife.
Feel free to post any and all suggestions for both tanks. My next plan is a BTA for my clownies

 

[brandon429]

you need to dose the qt tank to about 1 ppm ammonia and then retest in 24 hours

if it hasn't significantly moved down, you need to add more surface area till it passes

nice job on dual tanking you are really set to go about this the right way.

 

[Spare time]

Using water from the main tank won't do anything for the cycle, but moving bioballs will. However, bioballs are really inefficient for their size so consider the use of other biomedia in the long term to save your space. Also, I think it might be wiser to get new biomedia to keep in both tanks so you don't have to disturb your main tank's biofilter when setting the qt filter up.

 

[El_Guapo13]

#reefsquad

 

[Aggro]

Using water from the main tank won't do anything for the cycle, but moving bioballs will. However, bioballs are really inefficient for their size so consider the use of other biomedia in the long term to save your space. Also, I think it might be wiser to get new biomedia to keep in both tanks so you don't have to disturb your main tank's biofilter when setting the qt filter up.

Ya I had gotten some cheaper black bio balls when I started to cycle and the ones I originally bought finally showed up Monday so I switched one bag out for the newer better porous balls. Lol. What would be good bio media to use for my main and qt I see a lot people use the sponge filters in their qt as well how would that work in there???

 

[Aggro]

you need to dose the qt tank to about 1 ppm ammonia and then retest in 24 hours

if it hasn't significantly moved down, you need to add more surface area till it passes

nice job on dual tanking you are really set to go about this the right way.

Thanks I liked how the biocube32 was handling everything for a small tank so I figure what the heck and I found a used biocube14 for 50 bucks has 3 10k lights on it the intank addin setup a bunch of heaters an xtra power head and the biocube slimmer that alone almost worth it.

so when you say add more surface area are you talking about getting bigger tank for qt?

 

[brandon429]

no it will be more bioballs or high surface area additives to pass water over. they like to keep qt tanks barren pretty much so that fish disease can't find refuge/hide from treatments inside organic insulations. by restricting rocks and sand up front, a QT is notoriously tending towards not enough surface area to pass wastewater over.

if you can move down 1 ppm free ammonia overnite into a lower reading you'll have enough surface area/biomedia for the qt tank to care for treated fish *and even then the treatments usually kill filter bac and you'll be using Prime*

 

[Aggro]

no it will be more bioballs or high surface area additives to pass water over. they like to keep qt tanks barren pretty much so that fish disease can't find refuge/hide from treatments inside organic insulations. by restricting rocks and sand up front, a QT is notoriously tending towards not enough surface area to pass wastewater over.

if you can move down 1 ppm free ammonia overnite into a lower reading you'll have enough surface area/biomedia for the qt tank to care for treated fish *and even then the treatments usually kill filter bac and you'll be using Prime*

Ok awesome I gotcha now. As of now I got filter floss in the top slot. middle slot is empty and bottom slot is bioballs I’ve read no carbon is case having to medicate. So should I add a thicker sponge or more bioballs in the middle?

 

[brandon429]

only if it doesn't pass oxidation testing, I believe the goal for QT is bare minimum surface area because excess = trapped organics and housing insulation for pathogens
they're relying more on Prime to prevent toxicity than surface area in a large portion of used QT systems running copper as pre treatment/tangs etc

 

[Aggro]

only if it doesn't pass oxidation testing, I believe the goal for QT is bare minimum surface area because excess = trapped organics and housing insulation for pathogens
they're relying more on Prime to prevent toxicity than surface area in a large portion of used QT systems running copper as pre treatment/tangs etc

Awesome I’ll dose it in next day or so and go from there

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all my first time cycling a brand new tank 32g biocube. Cycle for 2 weeks prior to adding fish after a small nitrite and ammonia spike everything leveled out within 24 hrs and my nitrates sat at less then 5ppm. Ran another frozen mysis this time full cube instead of a half and same thing small ammonia and nitrate spike filtered out within 24 hrs. I tested before adding source and at the 12 hr marker and 24 hr marker. I know it’s a waste of a couple tests but aye whatever it was for my peace of mind. After that I decided to order my fish ordered on Friday so they didn’t ship till Monday which is what I wanted so I could test again the day before and when I did all test perfect. Did my first water change today and setup my qt tank.

question on qt tanks do I need to let them cycle I used some bio balls from main tank as well as 5g of that water with new water my qt is a 14g biolife.
Feel free to post any and all suggestions for both tanks. My next plan is a BTA for my clownies

Liquid bacteria 1-2X per week such as bacter 7.
Test water weekly or even every 5 days. Feed sparingly. Assure filters are clean and reduce white light intensity a little to reduce chance of algae and diatom.

 

[saltyhog]

I use Biomax ceramic filter media in HOB (Aquaclear) filters in all of my QT tanks. I use the 110 gallon HOB in 20-30 gallon tanks and have zero problem with ammonia.

You do have to be careful when using certain antibiotics. Some of them can damage your biofilter and some can be rendered sub therapeutic by the biofilter.

 

[brandon429]

neat on the competition angle for reducing med efficiency, didnt know that.

 

[Aggro]

Liquid bacteria 1-2X per week such as bacter 7.
Test water weekly or even every 5 days. Feed sparingly. Assure filters are clean and reduce white light intensity a little to reduce chance of algae and diatom.

Unfortunately unless I upgrade light I can not adjust intensity of colors. As of right now I’m going to keep these running for the next year or so then I’m looking at going bigger like 155g and build it into a wall. I do know that keeping a smaller tank is a lot harder to maintain levels. I bigger tank just means more time to do water changes and such.

in my main I haven’t had any issues with algae or diatom yet. I forgotbut I did add a CuC big enough for a 10g tank. Didn’t get one for a 32g because I didn’t think I had all the stuff to keep them all fed so decided to go smaller. I’ll look into the Bacter 7.

 

[35ppt]

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