Cycling a new tank, but im confused

[Theplatymaster]

As some of you might now i have recently set up a 2.5gallon shrimp tank. Ive been using Stability to cycle it, and also dosing easy green. To make a long story short ive been using stability for a week now as suggested. Water parameters have high nitrates which im not worried about, but there is Nitrite. So is something wrong with my product? Are my tests wrong? What is happening here?

[RennjiDK]

Freshwater BB products suck. There's nothing more satisfying than added a bottle of Biospira and watching everything convert to NO3 in 36 hours. You're tank is fine. You're still in the middle of cycling. The reason why you have nitrates present is because easy green contains nitrogen. If you weren't dosing it, you probably wouldn't have tested any at this point. See if you can pick up a bottle of Fritz freshwater if you'd like to cycle faster, or just give it a little more time.

[AndEEss]

On 1/28/2023 at 5:35 PM, Theplatymaster said:

As some of you might now i have recently set up a 2.5gallon shrimp tank. Ive been using Stability to cycle it, and also dosing easy green. To make a long story short ive been using stability for a week now as suggested. Water parameters have high nitrates which im not worried about, but there is Nitrite. So is something wrong with my product? Are my tests wrong? What is happening here?

What is your source of ammonia? 
 

 

[Theplatymaster]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:06 PM, AndEEss said:

What is your source of ammonia? 
 

I should have ammonia because?

[Lennie]

On 1/29/2023 at 2:18 PM, Theplatymaster said:

I should have ammonia because?

I always use stability, I've never seen it cycling in one week even with established filter media addition and "seeding" with an old filter gunk. It just helps to introduce bacteria spores to the tank. And those need ammonia source in the tank to start feeding on and starting the cycle.

I'm sharing the following from seachem's official site:

 

"I have finished the suggested 7-day dosing, however, my tank is still not fully cycled. Why?

A: Since every tank will cycle differently, it is difficult for us to give an exact time frame as to when your tank will be fully cycled. However, generally most tanks are cycled within 4-6 weeks."

"If I plan to do a fishless cycle and use Stability™, do I need to add an ammonia source to kick-start the nitrogen cycle?

A: Yes, for expedited cycling times, you will want to add a pinch of food daily until you have an ammonia reading. At that point, you can stop adding the food and let the bacteria run its course."

 

here is the link: https://www.seachem.com/stability.php

Edited January 29, 2023 by Lennie

[Lennie]

On 1/29/2023 at 3:12 PM, Pepere said:

Most tanks are cycled within 6 weeks whether bacteria in a bottle products are used or not….

I think they played it safe there rather than giving an exact answer, but let's be fair, it is really impossible to tell how everyones tank gonna cycle. It depends on lots of stuff going on. Also seems like the understanding of "cycle" is very different. Coz when  @Irene tested the Dr. Tims "cycle" instructions, her 1 year old sponge filter could not meet the requirements of Dr.Tim's ammonia cycle kit.  These type of clean instructions are always open for discussion especially for stuff than varies subjectly for everyone and their tank!

I've cycled with stability before in different scenarios:

1- From zero. Just fish food and stability. Lots of plant since start. In my experience, it never took even 4 weeks from 0 just with stability and fish food. But I can't remember exactly how long it took.

But I'm also not sure if I would ever cycle with a fish food. It does release ammonia when it break down, but also fouls the water, may result in other undesired stuff as well. Including potential algae break. Because breaking down pinch of food does not help putting in something in balance. There is a stuff going on, but nothing stable.

2- I used some established media from an old tank HOB running for a year, added some seachem matrix media and filter wool around the new sponge. And poured the filted gunk water to the sponge filter area. With dosing stability, it took me 1.5 week to cycle. Lots of stuff combined, can't tell what helped the most.

3- In my new tank. I've planted it densely on day1. Just doing water changes in every 2-3 days due to aquasoil. It is heavily planted, some are melting and some are changing forms between emerged-submerged, so there are leaves decaying. Dropped a catappa leaf to decay as well to make sure there is a food will be ready for algae eaters in the future introduce. I don't take the decaying matter out. It has been sitting like that for almost 2 weeks. Started dosing stability yesterday. I feel like decaying plant matter+driftwood, a bit of ammonia from the aquasoil with stability is a good start. I only got the 50ml bottle tho, so I will be underdosing a lot.

I have a good plant growth going on. The HOB is running, and once I move in some stocking, I'm planning to add media from my established HOB to this one.  Do I need stability? Questionable, probably not :D. It just clears my mind about introducing all type of bacterias to the system. 

here is the video!

 

[AndEEss]

On 1/29/2023 at 4:18 AM, Theplatymaster said:

I should have ammonia because?

Because that’s what BB eat. 
 

You have to add some source of ammonia, whether it’s fish food, ammonium chloride or ammonia from fish in a fish-in cycle. 

Based on your response, there’s very little possibility that your tank is cycled.

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by AndEEss

[Theplatymaster]

i have added some rockwool i was holding for this purpose, but no results yet, i also squeezed out old filter media into the tank. I have added some fish food to the tank, and there are 3 small snails in there that snuck in on the plants.

[Lennie]

On 1/29/2023 at 5:51 PM, Pepere said:

Fwiw, I have cycled a new tank in a little over a week with good filter squeezings.

 

I also run suction cupped double sponge filters on all of my display tanks.   They are back up filtration for my quarantine tanks in case med trio knocks down the biofilter too much.

I def agree. Having hands on established media is a great tool

It is just, for example, when I decided to return the hobby last year after a long break, I did not have any chance to have some sort of established media on my hands. Literally could not get anything anywhere, and nobody around me is interested in the hobby. The source should be one that I really trust to anyway. So after all the searching time, I couldn't find any media. All I had was bottled bacteria option, because I dip my plants for hours before using them, I'm not sure beneficial bacterias  on them survive the dips. (not rly for the snails, but all other potential harmful planaria, hydra, parasites etc.)

 

I normally got myself an extra medium size sponge filter to run it in my established tank for a month, and then I was planning to either move it to my new tank, or move the HOB I had there after the sponge is seeded enough. But that tank has numerous MTS. You should see the sponges of both HOB prefilter and sponge filter itself. I've seen some even climbed inside the HOB from outside, as there is a sponge on intake tube.

I don't wanna introduce MTS to my new tank for now, so even that plan kinda failed. The best could be using ome established media from my old HOB, and washing it good making  sure no snails tranfers, and also they don't directly go in to HOB and potentially kill themselves and break stuff. It is really really hard to get them out with %100 success. Not the mention the potential transfer of duckweed I have 😄

When I squeezed the filter last time, it helped with cycle a lot, but I gradually found 4 really tiny mts babies in the 2nd tank. I'm not sure to risk it on my 3rd.

Would love to hear if you wanna give some suggestions.

My plan is just transferring media when introducing the fish on the same date, and trying to get some bb living there and lots of plant growth until I get to that point.

 

On 1/29/2023 at 5:51 PM, Pepere said:

The studies I have read shows time savings with importation of media, gravel etc, and also with innoculation with items such as pond muck, composted cow manure, garden soil etc.

I don't understand how bb ends up in our tank on its own without introducing it by any means, like no plants, not dirt, not established media whatsoever. so I really don't know much about it to comment really.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Lennie