Question: Beginning to cycle a tank

[Ohana]

I am a little embarrassed to say I have never cycled a tank before, so I am hoping for help in beginning the cycling process.

My two lotls, a leucy and a gold (Maui and Honolulu) are around 3 inches now, still living in their separate large plastic storage bins fit with hides and floaty plastic plants. I do daily water changes and they sit in smaller tubs during water changes for feeding time. (Thanks Kaysie for the blackworm suggestion for my little underwater hoovers! Lol) They have grown well and have gorgeous little manes, so I'd like to assume they're thriving.

I purchased a 55 gallon tank (a 55 high?) For them to move into and wanted to begin cycling now as I'm sure they're getting big enough to start thinking about transitioning into a new home (play sand substrate and live plants to be included)

How do I start? Other than adding water to the tank and having a slow filtration, adding dechlorinator and testing the water? What are good ranges for each test? Does anyone have a good beinngers cycling link?

Also, at what size can they be transitioned into a large tank?

Any other tips? I have never loved something so much that I couldn't snuggle, but these guys have me over the moon <3 I'm so lucky to have met such a wonderful breeder to help me along the way, and I hope to get a little mel from her to complete the family

 

[crazydragon89]

Caudata Culture Articles - Cycling

the basic guide.
i'm pretty sure you can add your axies into as big a tank as you want now that they're juvies. if anything, its easier since you won't have to daily clean, and you won't have to upgrade sizes since you're starting with such a big tank. be wary of putting them together immediately, though; they are likely to nip, so a divider may be advised until they're used to being together.

cycle your tank before you put them in, if you can which it seems is the case. put the sand in to begin with, add water, and put in any other decorations/plants you want. if your tap has chloromine, then you'll need dechlorinater. if it has normal chlorine, then you don't really have to use it, since it will naturally evaporate in a day or so and your tank will be sitting for quite a while. even with water changes, until you put your axies in, just go straight from tap. let it sit a day before you finally add them in, though. chloromine doesn't naturally break down, so the dechlorinator must be used regardless.

you can either cycle with or without fish. fish will produce amonia, while fishless you need to supply amonia through other means, such as fish food. with fish, you have to be more on top of your water changes, if you care about keeping them alive.

water checks. buy yourself a freshwater test kit, you're in for a long haul. proper cycling, with no previous media, can take 6-8 weeks. there are some products you can use to try to speed it up, but these could potentially give you false readings, resulting in your cycle crashing and you having to start all over again. you're first going to have a spike in amonia (which fish and rotting food/plants produce), then a decrease, then a spike in nitrite (produced by bacteria that ate the previous amonia), then a decrease, then a spike in nitrate (produced by other bacteria that ate the nitrite). you're done after that, if your amonia/nitrite remain at 0. basically, its a sit and watch the chemicals game with or without fish, so less stress about keeping the animals alive without fish. if you don't use fish, you can also use the old water from your axies tubs when you change them, to seed the tank and give it amonia to work with. this works quite well; have done it myself.

make sure the amonia and nitrite are stable before putting your axies in once you think the cycling has completed, or you'll have to continue the process with them inside, which can stress or kill them. its fine if you watch it, but its a considerable pain doing the constant water changes and water checks when you do, since you're CONSTANTLY worried the axies are getting hurt, going to die, bla bla bla...bit easier, in my opinion, to keep them in the tubs where you know its safe and it works instead of putting them in too early and worrying they're dying/horribly stressed. amonia/nitrite levels above .25 are a big problem, but if you still need to cycle with the axies in, try your darndest to keep it .25 or lower! they can survive temporary peaks. jeez, before i got the know-how, my axies were in EASILY an 8.0 amonia tank! how they lived? i've no idea...but anywhere above 1.0+ in amonia/nitrite they should probably be removed until its lowered.

any old filter/aquarium media from an established tank will speed up the process, but i dont' think you have that; your tubs weren't cycled the way you kept them, so i doubt they have any real bacteria on the decorations/hides, but you can try. :/

uhm...other than that, i don't think there's really anything else. be sure to clean the sand you get thoroughly, until it has clean water running out it. then clean it some more to be sure. once the tank is cycled, you'll also want to do housecleaning in the form of clipping rotting plants, removing axie poops and old food, and any other dead plant matter or amonia sources you can find. this will keep the amonia levels down in the cycled tank, and not throw off your cycle or endanger your axies by having an amonia bio-load that the cycle can't handle. stay on top of water checks even when cycled, and be sure to do a 20% water change weekly to keep nitrate levels down, which become toxic only once they hit very high levels (around 60+). live plants keep these down, since you plan to include them, but not necessarily enough to go without water changes. this is another user's blog that acts as a guide as well.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/blogs/mereb/717-cycling-what-why-how.html

i think that's pretty much everything...wow i typed a ton more than i had planned. @.@;

i hate cycling, thus i know almost everything there is about it. :wacko:

good luck! :3

 

[Ohana]

Dear Cady,

I love you,

Love Jaci

Lol

I do have a goldfish tank but I don't have test strips just yet to see what the water parameters are. They're fat and happy, though. Would using some of their water be ok, I wonder? I mean after testing it. They have plastic plants and live anacharis in the tank and little to no algae.

I will be printing what you typed and checking out that link, too. Thank you, thank you.

I also don't plan on putting the kids in the tank until I'm confident the water is stable and won't kill or stress them out.

 

[carsona246]

Take some used filter media from your goldfish tank if it is cycled, and stick it in the filter for your new tank. Your gonna need to get a drip test kit and see if your goldfish tank has any ammonia/nitrite, and if it does not, then its cycled. Make sure when you do add the filter media it has some source of ammonia in the new tank.

 

[larn]

You should get a proper test kit and see if your goldfish tank is properly cycled, if it is then you can seed the new tank with the media, it won't take so long to cycle.

I just finsished cycling my tank this way and it only took 2 weeks

 

[crazydragon89]

just because i feel like following up. :wacko:
hurray! you have a potentially established fish tank to work with! this speeds things up CONSIDERABLY! IF its cycled. if not, it won't really have the necessary bacteria established, so don't bother using anything unless you're positive the amonia and nitrite levels are 0. if it is cycled, which i get the impression since you said your fish seem to be doing fine, as the others said, try to use the old filter media (works especially well if the filters are the same). and i'd say bye-bye to the decorations in the goldfish tank for a bit; they'll have some bacteria on them, so let them chill in the cycling tank until its finished. what substrate do the fishies have? gravel/sand? either way, that can have bacteria, too, so you can add a bit of it to the cycling tank, although if you have gravel, be sure to remove ALL of it before putting the axies in. no gravel = no dead axies.

the water drop kits are considerably more accurate than the paper tests. the drop kits may be pricey at first, but you'll be using them religiously once you own them, so well worth the cost in the end. plus no worries about the chemical/bacteria levels.

and from all these responses, i think you're pretty much set. so good luck and report back with a pic once its all finished and beautiful! :wacko: (<<== i like this smiley too much)