[dale b]

I am setting up a new 75 gallon freshwater aquarium and have heard from others that there is a way to add ammonia to get the cycling started. I know I should be using clear ammonia but not sure in a tank of this size how much should be added, how often or for how long. Had alot of problems with cycling when I started my 10 and 20 gallon tanks and dont want to have these same problems again. Lost alot of fish as I wasnt sure then that the aquarium had to go through a cycling stage. Im a little wiser, but still have alot to learn. My present tanks are doing great and I want that to continue with the new tank as well. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

put the filter your going to use on the 75, on the bigger established tank, let it stay on there for 2 weeks.
then just put that back on the 75, take a panty hose and put gravel from the established tanks in the 75 and then let that run for a day or 2, add all thoes bacteria starter things... then put the fish in so all total it will take like 2-3 weeks.

 

[FDStation152]

you can't simply move the established filter to the new tank for a while and expect it to cycle the tank without fish. No fish means no ammonia which means no food for the bacteria and they starve. I've always just used the method of getting a few hardy fish and letting them cycle the tank. The clear household ammonia I hear will work but I'm not sure on the dosage for you and haven't tried it myself. I prefer the fish just in case something im not testing for during cycling is wrong and causes the fish to die. If I was just wondering about cycling I wouldnt be looking at anything but ammonia,nitrite, and nitrate. But if a previously healthy fish suddenly goes belly up you can be I'm checking everything. Better to catch those problems early with cycling fish than to find out about em later when you have the main fish you want in the tank.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

thats how i've always done it.. and most people i know who have fish.. have done it that way seems to work fine.

you can get the beneficial bacteria from the store to add aswell

 

[FDStation152]

it could possibly work if you were moving between two tanks of roughly equal size but thats a stretch to use existing equipment to transition from a 20 gal to a 75. And quite simply even bacteria need something to eat...thus if you move them to a tank that doesn't contain ammonia they will die. Another point to consider is the bio load. The amount of bacteria present in the filter media and gravel is dependant on the amount of fish waste being produced. Lower fish waste=lower bacteria levels. Thats why even in a well cycled tank you couldnt just dump in 20 new fish and expect things to be fine. So the amount of bacteria that will be transferring is limited and wont be nearly enough to handle the fish load of a 75gal tank. Now getting the bacteria from the store is a whole other story and like I said its not the method I use so I'm not gonna offer advice on it. Either way the point is this...if bacteria don't get the nutrients they require they'll day. That means either you have to get some ammonia into the tank one way or another.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

yip, i put my 29 gal filter, that i had on a 10 gallon. put the media in my 120.. and that benificial bacteria in there as well, and its cycled so ive had no problems with that kind of jump.


i know most of the bacteria/amonia things you get from the store have directions on how much to put in
i generally put about 3 treatments in it... once a week, i let my new tanks run at least 3 weeks with the added filter and the bacteria from the store and gravel.
seems to be long enough

 

[FDStation152]

so you are claiming that you went from a stocked 29 gallon tank to a stocked 120 instantly? That simply would not work.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

nope, not what i said.

i had a 29 gallon tank, with a filter on it... put i ton my 10 gallon for a few months, so it had good filtration on the 10
i put that on my 120, and had my new filter running on the 120 as well (rena xp3) put gravel from my established tanks as well, and put bacteria from a bottle and that ammonia stuff, in the 120.
let it run for 3 weeks now ive got my fish in there and its fine

 

[FDStation152]

ok then...misunderstanding. I was under the impression that you were advocating merely running the new filter in an established tank and then putting it and some old gravel in a new and much larger tank and calling it cycled. This method would work but I'd still just as soon use fish for the cycling.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

haha hey its ok, i was kinda wondering.. im like "this is cycling.." LOL
sorry i wasnt very clear, im so used to putting jotnotes in text, because of my job.

yeah, it really is alot easier to get some fish, but ifeel bad about killing them LOL *if they die that is* some fish just WONT die.. *shakes head*

 

[FDStation152]

speaking of a fish that wont die...my colombian tetra...that poor guy had it rough. He was in a 20 gal tank I had that suffered a pretty bad disease outbreak. I thought it had killed everything and pretty much just shut the tank down (it was in a spare room that no one uses). Well things come up and I don't think of this lone tank for months. One day I decide to fire it back up and go take a look at it...90% of the water is gone, the water temp is in the upper 60s, no food has been put in the tank for months, and theres the colombian tetra cruising around. Mustve been hiding on me in there when I first shut things down. And now he hangs out with my praecox rainbows like nothing ever happened.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

hhaha! omg, thats amazing! hearty little buggers

 

[FDStation152]

well the problem now is that theres really no place for him....he's with the rainbows for now until I start breeding them again but then he's gotta move....he cant go in my main tank, and im certainly not turning him loose in my plants and feeder guppy tank, the angel growout tank is already getting too small for the angels so he cant go there...I'm gonna have to set up a misfit tank soon just to have a place to put fish that no longer have a place in my other tanks.

 

[LadyOfLucidDepths]

aww im glad your going to put a new tank up for that

 

[FDStation152]

well I can't kill the thing...probably wouldn't die even if I tried! Besides if he held on for months in a diseased tank with no lights, no food, no heater, no filtration, and almost no water he deserves to stick around. I'm taking a tank off a friends hands later this week anyway that has a few fish in it that I really don't have much use for...maybe he can go with them and that'll be the misfit tank for the time being.