Cycling - I thought I understood it.

2189 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by pancakeloach, May 8, 2008

nerbaneth

Discussion Starter · May 7, 2008

hi everyone!

I have been using fish less cycling for 5 days now in my 90 gal and nothing has happened to the ammonia levels. I have been using old filter media, 2 sponge filters attached to maxi-jet 1200s plants and injected Co2. I used prime to dechlorinate when I filled the water up. I've used leaf zone by API to fertilize.

I have several questions so I will try to split them up.

a) Does Co2 inhibit cycling?

b) Why has my ammonia not been converted into nitrite? - From my readings ammonia changes quickly to nitrite and then spikes there for a while before it is converted to nitrate.

c) Should I go out and buy biro-spira, cycle or turbo start? I have read an equal amount of people say that each one of these products works and doesn't work.

d) Are my plants going to die because they aren't getting nitrate? Also do plants only consume nitrate or do they consume nitrite and ammonia as well?

e)I know its only been 5 days, but shouldn't something have happened by now?

thanks if you can help
-Nerb

Save

1 - 1 of 9 Posts

trigger

· #2 · May 7, 2008

I have one question to start with: did you add ammonia ???

Fishless cycling usually is to kick start a new filter... If you have a filter with seeded media, you can just add the fish. Keep an eye on the readings, because the different bio loads can make a difference.

When I got my last new tank, I hooked up the filter to my main tank a couple of weeks to seed it. When I got the fish for the new tank, I filled that with water, placed the now seeded filter on it and added the fish. The ammonia and nitrites fluctuated a bit when the filter was ajusting to the new bioload, but that was about it.

Save

1 - 1 of 9 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month