Cycling a New Tank.

You can actaully add in some waste from other fish tank ( if you have) & introduce to the filter or sump tank section.

I used this method together with abig LH for my tank. It took around 1 month to see the result.

Remember;
once the you know the tank start to cycle the tank by itself, do not clean the filter wool or foam 100% if you need to waste it. Always leave behind some dirt & waste for the next round.

Update on my "in-process re-cyling of tank"

Water has cleared up to it's old state. The program of doing many minor water changes due to the high bioload worked well. Ammonia never made the huge spike that it does with normal cycling, likely due to the fact that some BB had already been cultivated on my remaining filter materials. Looking forward to a nice clean tank for a long time to come. I also do think that the addition of bottled bacteria straight to the filter did help to re-establish the biological filtration faster.

Thanks Aro Boi and all others who've added their expertise to this thread!

you should never wash your filter wool with tap water....it immediately kills all the cultivated BB and the whole cycle of cultivating BB has to begin from scratch again.

Originally posted by Nauzer
you should never wash your filter wool with tap water....it immediately kills all the cultivated BB and the whole cycle of cultivating BB has to begin from scratch again.

Dun think the whole cycle will begin from scratch again. All the medias are still untouched eg bio rings, bio balls, sintered glass, the wools in the other 2 compartments which houses the medias. The wool is just the filteration system and not the cultivation system or a third of the entire system in size but housing colony of BB is not much.

True that the BB in the washed wool died but is it material enough to cause the increase in ph??

[Arrowana Boi]

Originally posted by Nauzer
sorry i may have missed earlier pages of this thread...but what do you guys think of introducing PNTs first, during the cycling of tanks?

First of all, they produce enormous amounts of ammonia and waste...
secondly, they are totally resistant to chlorine/ chloramine, ammonia spikes, drastic changes in ph levels, etc...as they breathe through their noses...

And then maybe after several days, begin to introduce fishes for testing the 'safety' of the water.

any opinions? thanks...

Arrowana Boi, this thread is extremely informative!

Hi bro Nauzer, thank u for ur comments. As for using PNTs for cycling the tanks, hmmm i think its a good way too after u have mentioned. I havent used a PNT before cos my parents dont really like the idea of keeping turtles and i really have no idea what i might wanna do with it after letting it go through the cycle.

But of cos, bros who have interest in PNTs could go ahead with it and try using PNTs to help cycle their tank. I think bro Nauzer's suggestion is feasible. Afterall its the ammonia and other waster products we are after for the cycle.

[Arrowana Boi]

Originally posted by olddragon
You can actaully add in some waste from other fish tank ( if you have) & introduce to the filter or sump tank section.

I used this method together with abig LH for my tank. It took around 1 month to see the result.

Remember;
once the you know the tank start to cycle the tank by itself, do not clean the filter wool or foam 100% if you need to waste it. Always leave behind some dirt & waste for the next round.

Yup this is a method of seeding. Its been mentioned on page 1 of this thread. It speed things up by alot but u will have to make sure that the source of this old filter medium must come from a disease free tank or it will contaminate the new tank.

I will have to say that the real and true way of seeding and speeding things up is the transfer of old filter medium or gravel etc from the old tank to the new tank and not just purely waste product. Its the filter medium that has the most BB in them to kick start the BB colony growth in the filter. The addition of waste is jus a way of bringing up the level of ammonia and nitrite quickly so that the nitrobacters and nitrosomonas have a ready source of "food" and will start to produce. All in all a combination of the above methods will be very good in speeding things up.

[Arrowana Boi]

Originally posted by KJam
Update on my "in-process re-cyling of tank"

Water has cleared up to it's old state. The program of doing many minor water changes due to the high bioload worked well. Ammonia never made the huge spike that it does with normal cycling, likely due to the fact that some BB had already been cultivated on my remaining filter materials. Looking forward to a nice clean tank for a long time to come. I also do think that the addition of bottled bacteria straight to the filter did help to re-establish the biological filtration faster.

Thanks Aro Boi and all others who've added their expertise to this thread!

Good to hear things are back to normal for u bro

[Arrowana Boi]

Originally posted by JAAR
Arrowana boi

Last weekend I cleaned my filteration wool thoroughly. Not much dirt and black black stuff left. Though that I did not touch the medias it was alright. Wash my wool with tap water.

Suddenly my ph has dropped drasticly from a stable 7-7.5 to 5.5-6.5. Could this be the reason for the drop. Checked the ammonia level... normal. Can this lead to ammonia spike too??

I have placed more coal chips to increase the ph. It is stable at 6.5 for now dunnoe whether it will increase higher... dun wan the ph to move up and down like yo-yo. What is your advice?? ANy bros.

Hi bro JAAR, if im not wrong u are using a sump tank right. I remember u took out a lot of the coral chips the other time to lower down the pH. So if u have done a water change this time round u might wanna put back those chips. I will recommend a total of 2.5 kg of coral chips for ur tank and change them after every 3 months.

Ur sump is actually still quite young and not very stabilize thus i would say that most of the BB colony should be still sited at the filter wool. But dont worry, a good part of these colony should be at the bio filtration site as well. The wool serves as mechanical filtration but since it has the most waste on it thats why it also houses the biggest BB colony at the initial stage. Its only as time passes will these colony take site in the sintered glass in large colonies.

What i will suggest u do now is to just observe the water paremeters and try to maintain the pH value by the using coral chips to adjust the level. I doubt u will have to cycle all over again.
But i would recommend that u use ur tank water to clean the filter wool for the next few filter cleaning. After about another 2 months i think ur main bio filtration section of ur sump tank should be very season by then and u can go ahead and wash ur wool with tap water. But besides the drop in pH level at this moment which could be due to low kH i really dont foresee u having any major problems on ammonia and nirite level. It might increase a little during these few days but i would say that things will go back to normal very soon. No worries at all

Good Luck

Originally posted by Arrowana Boi
Hi bro JAAR, if im not wrong u are using a sump tank right. I remember u took out a lot of the coral chips the other time to lower down the pH. So if u have done a water change this time round u might wanna put back those chips. I will recommend a total of 2.5 kg of coral chips for ur tank and change them after every 3 months.

Ur sump is actually still quite young and not very stabilize thus i would say that most of the BB colony should be still sited at the filter wool. But dont worry, a good part of these colony should be at the bio filtration site as well. The wool serves as mechanical filtration but since it has the most waste on it thats why it also houses the biggest BB colony at the initial stage. Its only as time passes will these colony take site in the sintered glass in large colonies.

What i will suggest u do now is to just observe the water paremeters and try to maintain the pH value by the using coral chips to adjust the level. I doubt u will have to cycle all over again.
But i would recommend that u use ur tank water to clean the filter wool for the next few filter cleaning. After about another 2 months i think ur main bio filtration section of ur sump tank should be very season by then and u can go ahead and wash ur wool with tap water. But besides the drop in pH level at this moment which could be due to low kH i really dont foresee u having any major problems on ammonia and nirite level. It might increase a little during these few days but i would say that things will go back to normal very soon. No worries at all

Good Luck

Thanks bro. Was lucky enough that you replied today. The current set-up has been operating over 2 months now and my other 2 compartments also has filter wool. These filter wools too have some waste from the colour and do hope they and the medias have sufficient BB colony.

I tested my parameters when I saw that the water was a bit cloudy and thought that the BB were not doing their job. No cause for alarm I guess but I'd like to be prepared just in case. I have a ray in the tank too, if water parameter is not good, the ray should be the 1st to react. So far my ray, clown loaches, tigers and RTG are pretty ok. Appetite is still good.

Will continue to monitor. Thanks again bro. Good that you could remember my filteration system.

In regards to biological bacteria from a bottle, there seem to be many opinions on the board in regards to it's usefulness. One variable that many don't account for though is the brand or type sold from LFS.

Just to give my experiences, Stresszyme from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals works very well. Bottle does not have to be frozen or refrigerated and bacteria remain alive for a time to come. Have cycled without it in the past, but used it this time around and each time I added it directly to the filter during the process, saw immediate results. Cycling time was also reduced.

My 2 cents.

Cheers bros!