Tank transfer - is it cycling ??

[AnnaG]

Hi, ive upgraded my 1 year old 20 gallon tank to a 85 gallon larger one. Popped some of the biomedia from my old tank to new one yesterday and did an ammonia test today and its reading 0.25 roughly. Is it cycling?? Thought that the tank wouldn't cycle as Ive already established biomedia in it.

 

[Spare time]

I am assuming you are using the API test. What often looks like 0.25ppm ammonia on API is actually a 0. This also applies to several other test kits. You can double check this by testing nitrite, which is removed by slower growing bacteria (thus the amount of nitrite is normally converted to nitrate more slowly than amount of ammonia is to nitrite when cycling). Was it just the biomedia moved over, or did you move rocks too? Did you just plop everything over to the larger tank?

 

[AnnaG]

I am assuming you are using the API test. What often looks like 0.25ppm ammonia on API is actually a 0. This also applies to several other test kits. You can double check this by testing nitrite, which is removed by slower growing bacteria (thus the amount of nitrite is normally converted to nitrate more slowly than amount of ammonia is to nitrite when cycling). Was it just the biomedia moved over, or did you move rocks too? Did you just plop everything over to the larger tank?

it’s really green. yeah i use the api, i even compared it to my other tank. i’m thinking, bc it was second hand, a lot of the dead little snails and other tiny creatures were left behind and all that. maybe my bacteria couldn’t handle such a high load? i put about 1 cup of my established bacteria matrix and 1 cup of new matrix, plus a small rock that had all my corraline and algae and all the goodies.

 

[Spare time]

it’s really green. yeah i use the api, i even compared it to my other tank. i’m thinking, bc it was second hand, a lot of the dead little snails and other tiny creatures were left behind and all that. maybe my bacteria couldn’t handle such a high load? i put about 1 cup of my established bacteria matrix and 1 cup of new matrix, plus a small rock that had all my corraline and algae and all the goodies.

Do you have a nitrite test? Was the this rock in the new tank dried before it went into yours? In that case, then yes it would make sense to see ammonia. If it is very green and not yellow green, then there probably is some ammonia.

 

[AnnaG]

Do you have a nitrite test? Was the this rock in the new tank dried before it went into yours? In that case, then yes it would make sense to see ammonia. If it is very green and not yellow green, then there probably is some ammonia.

I do have a nitrite test. I’ll do that later. It was live since i took it from the old tank.

 

[Spare time]

I do have a nitrite test. I’ll do that later. It was live since i took it from the old tank.

Could you post a pic of the API result?

 

[AnnaG]

Very green.

 

[Jedi1199]

Did you add any new bio-load to the new tank? New fish, cuc, corals? If not, I wouldn't worry.

I have established every tank I have ever had with a couple pieces of rock from an established tank. I would have used all of the rocks and old media from the old tank, but I assume it is too late for that now.

You started off light with your established media, "1 rock, and a couple cups of matrix loaded water" you have quadrupled your volume and added very little of your established media. I would honestly equate that to a new startup. It will go faster than a bare bones start, but a "skip-start" this is not. I would advise caution.

The fact your test shows an above level ammonia level concerns me somewhat. It says to me that this tank can not absorb the waste it is being fed at the moment. In a couple days, your colonies will replicate to a level that will absorb it, but in the meantime do NOT add to the bio-load. Remove any dead snails or other decaying matter you see in your tank.

Feed very lightly in the next week or so. You need to allow your tank to "catch up" to what you had before. It will happen quickly, but you are not there yet.

Continue testing daily. When you see that ammonia remains at zero and nitrates start to build again, you will know you are cycled completely.

 

[AnnaG]

Did you add any new bio-load to the new tank? New fish, cuc, corals? If not, I wouldn't worry.

I have established every tank I have ever had with a couple pieces of rock from an established tank. I would have used all of the rocks and old media from the old tank, but I assume it is too late for that now.

You started off light with your established media, "1 rock, and a couple cups of matrix loaded water" you have quadrupled your volume and added very little of your established media. I would honestly equate that to a new startup. It will go faster than a bare bones start, but a "skip-start" this is not. I would advise caution.

The fact your test shows an above level ammonia level concerns me somewhat. It says to me that this tank can not absorb the waste it is being fed at the moment. In a couple days, your colonies will replicate to a level that will absorb it, but in the meantime do NOT add to the bio-load. Remove any dead snails or other decaying matter you see in your tank.

Feed very lightly in the next week or so. You need to allow your tank to "catch up" to what you had before. It will happen quickly, but you are not there yet.

Continue testing daily. When you see that ammonia remains at zero and nitrates start to build again, you will know you are cycled completely.

don’t worry, both tanks are running atm, nothing alive is in the new one, old one still has my bio load. i guess my bio load couldn’t handle all the dead vermitid snails lol - it’s all in the pipes too so can’t really get it out

 

[Spare time]

Very green.

The easiest thing to do right now is just dump a bottle of cycling bacteria in. That will fix this almost instantly. I am not sure what caused that. Unless the rock in the new tank had something kill off a lot of organisms, it seems bizarre to have an ammonia spike.

 

[AnnaG]

The easiest thing to do right now is just dump a bottle of cycling bacteria in. That will fix this almost instantly. I am not sure what caused that. Unless the rock in the new tank had something kill off a lot of organisms, it seems bizarre to have an ammonia spike.

Yeah i’m just hoping that all of the bacteria from my old tank, which took a long time to establish, will still remain. i don’t want to go through the process of “new tank syndrome” again.

 

[Spare time]

Yeah i’m just hoping that all of the bacteria from my old tank, which took a long time to establish, will still remain. i don’t want to go through the process of “new tank syndrome” again.

As long as you see nitrite, you can tell the cycle is still moving.

 

[Harold999]

Hi, ive upgraded my 1 year old 20 gallon tank to a 85 gallon larger one. Popped some of the biomedia from my old tank to new one yesterday and did an ammonia test today and its reading 0.25 roughly. Is it cycling?? Thought that the tank wouldn't cycle as Ive already established biomedia in it.

"Putting some established filtermedia in a new tank and you're done" is overrated. A couple of weeks ago i bought a small nano for the bedroom. Did put some filtermedia from my other tank in it and a couple of drops ammonia, hung a Seneye in the back to monitor, and ammonia consumption after 2 weeks is.... zero. None. Nada. Ammonia the same as day 1.

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

Hi, ive upgraded my 1 year old 20 gallon tank to a 85 gallon larger one. Popped some of the biomedia from my old tank to new one yesterday and did an ammonia test today and its reading 0.25 roughly. Is it cycling?? Thought that the tank wouldn't cycle as Ive already established biomedia in it.

Only moving the biomedia will take a couple weeks for the bacteria to reestablish in the new tank. I always add live sand when setting up a new tank to speed up the cycle.