tank starting to cycle again

92smokeaccord

my ciclid tank has been out of cycle for about 4months now but has been up for 6 .slowly added fish between this time and now i had my water tested and it came bad ammonia is up quite a bit and so is my nitrate/trite.my lfs said that it looks as if its doing a mini cycle.how does this happen? don't have the exact parameters and i recently changed substrate to sand with some rock which was in the tank be for the change.im adding once a day "cycle" and on water changes i use cycle,stress coat and api salt...wtf im sorta flipping out as to wondering why that tank would randomly start to cycle again.any help is appreciated.

Tazman

What size tank and what filter (s) do you have to start off with? What are the fish in the tank?

Am not sure what you mean by this "my ciclid tank has been out of cycle for about 4months now but has been up for 6" Can you explain it more please.

Changing the substrate for one will nearly always send the tank into a mini cycle unless the tank is heavily planted. Simple reason is a lot of the good bacteria reside in the substrate as well as the filter.

92smokeaccord

crap i ment to put a vid there sorry!!!lol

as for the up for 6 months.i set it up 6 months ago during this 6 months it took 2 months to fully cycle.so it has been done cycling for 4 months. filters are aqua clear 70,aquan 30, aqua clear has bio max.

55 gallon long
5 electric yellow ciclids
4 african ciclids
2 unknown ciclids
2 balla sharks
2 red devil ciclids
1 rainbow ciclid
1 Rainbow Shark
1 bumble bee catfish
1 cat shark/columbian
1 pelco
no plants but i did use some rock from the tank befor i changed to sand.givin it the rocky beach look.

92smokeaccord

ny one?taz where you at bud??

eug

You changed the whole substrate in one go? Probably you lost lots of nitrifying bacteria if so, and that's why you're seeing ammonia and nitrite.

92smokeaccord

yup filled a bucket up with some tank water put my old gravel in there changed to sand and put about a handfull or more of the old gravel in to give it a sandy beach effect.

Tazman

Changing the whole substrate at once is more likely the cause of the mini cycle. As mentioned a ton of good bacteria will have been moved in the changeover.

In terms of cichlids you are way overstocked for a 55g tank, 12-15 fish max in a 55g not 20, you also have some bad mixes of fish there, sorry to say.

The red devils unless you plan on upgrading the tank within the next 6 months will have to go as they need at least a 125g as they get to 16", they are also extremely aggressive, grow fast and produce a ton of waste.

Bala sharks are very hit and miss with Cichlids, sometimes they work, sometimes they dont.

Purple one with a yellow tail is a Pseudotropheus sp "Acei"

92smokeaccord

yeah i kno..im sopposed to be doing a deal with a guy on craigslist for a 135 gallon for fred so freds tank will now be the ciclids tank so they will be in a 100 gallon.i actually might combine freds tank with the ciclids tanks when i get the 135 but add a lot of hiding spots for the little guys..i plan on a lot of rearranging between fish and tanks. so mini cycle due to substrate change..thanks