Author Topic: Restarting tank (Read 14534 times) 91 replies

barneyadi · « **on:** January 27, 2018, 11:38:47 AM »

Hi all

Will be restarting tank in the next couple of days and just checking best way to do it. My thoughts are to put sand and water in, take sponges out of water and back into filter, decoration in and then restart the tank.
Then after 24 hours put in 2ppm ammonia and test as per normal fishless cycle.

Anything I have missed or could do differently?

Sue · « **Reply #1 on:** January 27, 2018, 12:00:10 PM »

That sounds fine. Though if the tank will be fully stocked as soon as possible, use 3 ppm ammonia

barneyadi · « **Reply #2 on:** January 27, 2018, 01:36:11 PM »

Thanks Sue

I wasn't fully stocked when I shut tank down so thought 2ppm might be better but could always do 3ppm

Sue · « **Reply #3 on:** January 27, 2018, 01:58:38 PM »

It depends on how well stocked the tank will be in the future, and how quickly you will go to that stocking level. If you want to under stock again, 2 ppm is fine. If you want to fully stock but take it slowly, 2 ppm is fine. It's only if you intend to fully stock and do this quickly that you need 3 ppm

barneyadi · « **Reply #4 on:** January 27, 2018, 07:05:24 PM »

Hi Sue

Ok, will add 3ppm and see how things go. Do i need to follow the fishless cycle instructions as you list them or can I check every day for instance as hopefully the bacteria will wake up fairly quick?

Sue · « **Reply #5 on:** January 27, 2018, 07:25:05 PM »

I would check every day, but if the bacteria do seem to take a time to wake up, only add ammonia as per the instructions - as if you were only testing every thrid day

Matt · « **Reply #6 on:** January 27, 2018, 10:26:45 PM »

I might be misunderstanding your first post here... apologies if i am... but Ijust wanted to highlight that you don't want to put the filter media in water which hasn't been dechlorinated yet as this could kill the filter bacteria

Good luck completing your cycle. Hopefully it will go quite quickly if there are some bacteria already waiting to get multiplying.

barneyadi · « **Reply #7 on:** January 27, 2018, 10:43:37 PM »

Quote from: Matt on January 27, 2018, 10:26:45 PM

I might be misunderstanding your first post here... apologies if i am... but Ijust wanted to highlight that you don't want to put the filter media in water which hasn't been dechlorinated yet as this could kill the filter bacteria

Good luck completing your cycle.
Hopefully it will go quite quickly if there are some bacteria already waiting to get multiplying.

Thanks Matt. I did wonder about that but just dechlorinated the water as I added it in each bucket.

barneyadi · « **Reply #8 on:** January 29, 2018, 03:42:07 PM »

Well no ammonia drop after 24 hours but expected as been nearly 3 weeks since tank was running. I have temperature at 26c, would turning it up higher maybe help?

Sue · « **Reply #9 on:** January 29, 2018, 04:35:12 PM »

Yes. The bacteria multiply faster at 29 to 30 deg C.

barneyadi · « **Reply #10 on:** January 29, 2018, 07:58:15 PM »

Thanks Sue.

barneyadi · « **Reply #11 on:** January 30, 2018, 02:40:44 PM »

So day 2 and ammonia has dropped from 3.05ppm to 2.78ppm so hopefully a sign the bacteria is waking up.

barneyadi · « **Reply #12 on:** January 31, 2018, 02:58:42 PM »

Day 3 and ammonia down slight to 2.30ppm. A little slower than I was hoping but at least it seems to be decreasing every day.

Matt · « **Reply #13 on:** January 31, 2018, 10:12:12 PM »

The bacteria will be both reawakening and multiplying, I think things will speed up in a few days. Good luck with it

barneyadi · « **Reply #14 on:** February 01, 2018, 04:08:23 PM »

Well seems a good drop today, down to 1.47ppm so hopefully things are looking good.

Sue · « **Reply #15 on:** February 01, 2018, 04:16:03 PM »

What is your nitrite doing? If you added 3 ppm ammonia, and you've lost ~1.5 ppm, that should turn into ~ 4 ppm nitrite. Or if you have enough nitrite eaters alive and 'awake' to process all the nitrite as soon as it's made, that same 1.5 ppm ammonia should end up as ~5 ppm nitrate.

Unless the tank is well planted of course, in which case the plants are using all the ammonia that's disappeared.

barneyadi · « **Reply #16 on:** February 01, 2018, 04:30:31 PM »

Well Nitrite is 0.10ppm. When I tried a cycle last time Nitrite was always low, not sure why.

barneyadi · « **Reply #17 on:** February 01, 2018, 07:10:00 PM »

Just tested Nitrate and it is 8.5ppm. Is that anything to worry about?

Sue · « **Reply #18 on:** February 01, 2018, 07:14:42 PM »

How much is in your tap water? It could be all from your tap water or some could be being made by the bacteria.

Nitrate is toxic to fish but not as much as the other two. As long as you can keep it below 20 ppm when you have fish, that's fine.

Just out of curiosity, how did you get 8.5 ppm? With the tester I used to have I could only say over 5 but less than 10.

barneyadi · « **Reply #19 on:** February 01, 2018, 07:17:27 PM »

Quote from: Sue on February 01, 2018, 07:14:42 PM

How much is in your tap water? It could be all from your tap water or some could be being made by the bacteria.

Nitrate is toxic to fish but not as much as the other two. As long as you can keep it below 20 ppm when you have fish, that's fine.

Just out of curiosity, how did you get 8.5 ppm? With the tester I used to have I could only say over 5 but less than 10.

Forgot to test out the tap for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. to be honest. Will check tomorrow.

I have a Colorimeter which gives the exact figure.

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Restarting Tank

Restarting Tank

Author Topic: Restarting tank (Read 14534 times) 91 replies

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