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Hi all
I started a fishless "quick" cycle on my new tank and just want to clarify something cause I went a few days without testing.
Long story but lets just say I didnt test at the beginning or the first few days.
I started the tank on the 11th, with a few handfuls of gravel from an old in use tank, sponge from an old in use canister filter. 40L out of the 380L was from an in use tank.
I planted a few plants (one in a pot which was bound to have bacteria in it) all within the first few days, as well as adding fish food. On the 13th I added 9 feeder fish.

Yesterday(16th) I finally got my test kit back and did the first test. No amonia, no nitrite and 20ppm nitrate.
This (presence of Nitrate) and no weird signs from the feeders would indicate to me that things are swimming along.

I did a 60L water change last night and will test again tonight but it looks like I missed seeing the spikes?

any thoughts? I haven't done a large tank b4 and certainly not in this fashion.

ohh and yes I did have my PH GH and KH test kits and they have been reading fine.


My 5footer
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2242540621_1a81dcb3c8.jpg

Sounds right. You did add quite a bit of bacteria-covered media. The spikes in the cycle only happen if you have a lot of ammonia or wastes and not enough bacteria to handle it. In fact you have the reverse; I'd actually wager your bacteria died off because there wasn't enough ammonia to support all the bacteria you have.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

When I have to reset up the replacement tank I will not have the luxury of doing a cycling process. I will not be touching the Eheim Pro11, all the substrate will be cleaned, the UGF will not even look like even starting up. The last time I had to do the replacement 5 years ago I can not remember exactly what I did.

This time I am a lot more knowledgeable and better products are available. The LFS who are replacing the tank for me showed me a product called "Seachem Stability"
[link=Seachem Stability]http://www.aquaticlifeaquariums.com.au/index1.html[/ink]
Apparently it is used by marine keepers a lot. I have no option to wait and I am relying on this product plus the Eheim filter.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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