Q-Tank Cycling Question

[trilinearmipmap]

Beverly,

You stated that the tank seemed to be cycled, then you got an ammonia/nitrite spike after cleaning the tank and introducing the fish.

Perhaps instead of having cycled filter sponges in the tank, the large growth of cyanobacteria was consuming the ammonia, so when you tested the tank prior to introducing the fish, ammonia tested zero. After cleaning the tank (removing the cyano) there was nothing left to consume the ammonia.

Just my opinion.

[Beverly]

trilinearmipmap,

You may be correct that the cyano was eating some of the ammonia (and a whole lot of phosphate). I cleaned the tank in anticipation of dropping the salinity to 1.010 to treat my fish for ich and did not want a die off of cyano to cause a large ammonia then nitrite spikes.

As it turned out, the fish did not carry ich with them, so I did not have to drop the salinity. There is now another healthy growth of cyano in the tank , which cycled about two weeks ago before the cyano regained its foothold.

What I could do once the fish are back in the display tank in another ten days or so (gotta check the calendar), is drop the salinity for a week or two to see if the cyano in fact does die off. Knowing this would be useful if I had to treat new fish for ich in a Qtank that has cyano.

However, dropping salinity to find out the effect it has on cyano will not help me if new fish have velvet, a bacterial infection or whatever, which would require different treatments than hyposalinity. Before putting in new fish, I will probably still clean away the cyano anyway in anticipation of treating any possible health problem and not having any spikes due to cyano die off.

What I won't do, though, while cleaning the cyano is have the two AquaClears running but will instead syphon the the tank dry, then immediately add NSW and get the system running right away. The foams won't get filthy from catching all the loose cyano and there will be no need to do a thorough foam cleaning. I will do a gentle foam cleaning to rid them of large pieces of crud, which is what I do each water change. Even though I suck out any poop I find in the bare tank 2-3 times a day, some of it still gets caught in the foams. Leaving the large crud in the foams is just asking for trouble, imo. You wouldn't believe how dirty a half bucket of water gets from even this partial cleaning

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

do a water change on your biggest tank and use that aged water to kick start your quarantine tank.

Had a fish die in QT 10 days ago. Had been treating it for cloudy eyes, but was not sure if the cause was bacterial or parasitic, so I bleached and thoroughly rinsed/dechlored the tank, filtration systems, the whole shebang then started again using about 2/3 water from water changes and 1/3 NSW as suggested.

Am using ammonia (with no additives) to cycle the unlit tank instead of fish food, so there will be no cyano or algae growth to contend with later on. Tested the water this morning for nitrite which would be a sign that the bacteria from the old SW would be doing its thing already after 5 days. Nitrite is 0 ppm Shouldn't the cycle kick-starting have begun to happen already?