Cycling a tank with established sponge filters

[Justin Campbell]

I picked up a 40 Breeder from the Petco dollar-per-gallon sale, painted it, cleaned it out and dried it. I filled it with tap water and a capful of Prime (5ml or 50g worth). ~20 minutes later I took 2 sponge filters from established tanks and added them:

1. Medium sponge filter from a planted 40B with 8 Boesemani Rainbows and 1 Bristlenose Pleco, which also has an AquaClear 70.
2. Medium sponge filter from a 10g tank with no fish currently (fry system), but it has 2 breeder boxes with Bladder Snails and Ramshorn Snails for Pea Puffer food.

I added 1ppm Ammonium Chloride (Fritz powdered), and then 24 hours later... nothing? Ammonia shows 1ppm still, Nitrites are 0. I did not test Nitrates as I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference of the ~10ppm Nitrates our tap water has vs a small increase over that.

Would you expect 1ppm Ammonia to process with those 2 sponge filters? Is it possible that the AquaClear has so much capacity that the sponge filter wasn't doing that much, and the snail tank is also a very low bioload? Or is it just that the tank needs to grow biofilm on all of the surfaces and not just the sponge filters to process that much?

I'm debating continuing with the fishless cycle like it's a brand new tank, or trying something like Fritz Zyme 7. I've had so-so results with other bottled bacteria brands, but I don't really want to wait 6+ weeks to move fish into this tank, as I have 6 juvenile Angels in a 20H which are not doing great in the confined space (I'm planning to separate them after they pair off).

Thanks in advance! -Justin

[Alesha]

When I do this sort of "auto-cycling" (for lack of a better term), I do a couple of other things too:

1. I add water from the established tanks along with the sponges.
2. I add plants from the other tanks as well - even I just let them float for a while. It seems to kickstart it all a little bit faster.

So...maybe give those things a try? It might help. 🙂

Alesha

[DaveSamsell]

13 minutes ago, Justin Campbell said:

I picked up a 40 Breeder from the Petco dollar-per-gallon sale, painted it, cleaned it out and dried it. I filled it with tap water and a capful of Prime (5ml or 50g worth). ~20 minutes later I took 2 sponge filters from established tanks and added them:

1. Medium sponge filter from a planted 40B with 8 Boesemani Rainbows and 1 Bristlenose Pleco, which also has an AquaClear 70.
2. Medium sponge filter from a 10g tank with no fish currently (fry system), but it has 2 breeder boxes with Bladder Snails and Ramshorn Snails for Pea Puffer food.

I added 1ppm Ammonium Chloride (Fritz powdered), and then 24 hours later... nothing? Ammonia shows 1ppm still, Nitrites are 0. I did not test Nitrates as I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference of the ~10ppm Nitrates our tap water has vs a small increase over that.

Would you expect 1ppm Ammonia to process with those 2 sponge filters? Is it possible that the AquaClear has so much capacity that the sponge filter wasn't doing that much, and the snail tank is also a very low bioload? Or is it just that the tank needs to grow biofilm on all of the surfaces and not just the sponge filters to process that much?

I'm debating continuing with the fishless cycle like it's a brand new tank, or trying something like Fritz Zyme 7. I've had so-so results with other bottled bacteria brands, but I don't really want to wait 6+ weeks to move fish into this tank, as I have 6 juvenile Angels in a 20H which are not doing great in the confined space (I'm planning to separate them after they pair off).

Thanks in advance! -Justin

 

The "internet" often times talks about many different ways in cycling aquariums.  I have tried fish-in, fishless, adding "cycled" material and "plant cycled" aquariums.  My personal favorite way of cycling an aquarium is with plants and fertilizer.  By growing life in the tank, it shows that the tanks is starting to process ammonia, etc. 

Whatever the method, it still takes time and patience, IME.  

Here is an interesting video about plant cycling for your consideration.   

 

 

[Justin Campbell]

@AleshaThanks! I hadn’t considered adding water too, I’ll try that. I did move an Amazon Sword but it’s only 1 plant.

@DaveSamsellThanks for the suggestion. I do have a lot of other planted tanks that I’ve done that with successfully, but I’d like to keep this one bare-bottom (aside from a few pots or Easy Planters).

[Justin Campbell]

One other thought I had was to wait for this initial ammonia to process, and then add fish assuming that the sponges will catch up to the bio load quickly enough.

[MickS77]

1 minute ago, Justin Campbell said:

One other thought I had was to wait for this initial ammonia to process, and then add fish assuming that the sponges will catch up to the bio load quickly enough.

This is what I would do in your situation, just feed lightly until it looks like everything is holding steady. I've never done a cycle with ammonia additives, not sure when that became a thing haha. 

[DaveSamsell]

@MickS77, BTW, I wanted to mention that I truly like your hat.  🤠

[Daniel]

6 minutes ago, MickS77 said:

This is what I would do in your situation, just feed lightly until it looks like everything is holding steady. I've never done a cycle with ammonia additives, not sure when that became a thing haha. 

I am with @MickS77. When I started keeping aquariums in the late 1960s, the only thing I was told was to use dechlorinator and let the water sit a day or two before you used it. So I did and it worked.

Currently I start a new aquarium with water and plants from a previous aquarium and a few fish.

[Paul]

This what I've done with all the tanks that use sponge filters. Tap water, Prime, a sponge from an established tank, Fritzyme 7, plants, and a heater let it run for a couple three days then start adding fish. Both of these pictures were taken shortly after adding the fish. I switched the sponge for the Ziss filter in the top picture.

Edited November 19, 2020 by Paul

[Ken Burke]

I might get in a little internet trouble for this:

 

When I set up my last tank, I did a gravel vac on my big tank and poured the water from the change into the new tank mulm and all.  Of course it was a planted tank, and I lightly stocked with very hardy fish.  
 

cycled pretty fast, no fish losses.