Cycling questions

[Kami2011]

Hi, I have a 90 gallon tank that’s been up and running for 3 years now. I just got some marinepure ceramic spheres and I was wondering how long I need to keep it in my 90 gallon tank to fully cycle the new media. I want to put the cycles media in a quarantine tank.

 

[Big G]

Takes about a month for the media to be fully seeded. I used a 9x9 plate in mine and then moved it into my qt. Long story short, the tank had to be treated with antibiotics and had a heck of a bacteria bloom reaction.

 

[Kami2011]

Takes about a month for the media to be fully seeded. I used a 9x9 plate in mine and then moved it into my qt. Long story short, the tank had to be treated with antibiotics and had a heck of a bacteria bloom reaction.

You had a bacteria bloom in the qt?

 

[Big G]

You had a bacteria bloom in the qt?

Yep. Pretty sure it was all the good bacteria within and on the Marinepure reacting to the coppersafe & meds in the tank. Bad velvet outbreak.

 

[Kami2011]

Yep. Pretty sure it was all the good bacteria within and on the Marinepure reacting to the coppersafe & meds in the tank. Bad velvet outbreak.

Ah so you were trying to medicate some fish. I’m getting a new fish and just want to keep a eye on it before I set it loose in the DT.

 

[brandon429]

All cycling charts we can search out on google are a pretty typical timeframe even though different people write charts

:)

 

[Kami2011]

All cycling charts we can search out on google are a pretty typical timeframe even though different people write charts

:)

I was just wondering if it would be populated with bacteria faster since it would be going into a old cycled tank.

 

[brandon429]

Good point


fully established feed webs and bacteria all circulating (for sure the water has plenty of nitrifiers on floc etc) plus the blocks are uber surface area.

So much beyond norm for the space taken that even a light biofilm coverage will digest ammonia. Done for sure by 30, and 15 days closes in as a real potential. The universal test of cycle completion could tell us.

Anything claimed cycled should endure a complete water change, or be placed in a clean water vessel in this case, brought to 2 ppm ammonia with accurate testing and checked in 24 hours. By using totally new water the test centers only on surface biofilm and not by suspended bacteria. That is surely one way to tell.

 

[Kami2011]

I see, very interesting. Thanks Brandon429