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Cycling 5 gallon and 10 gallon tanks

2K views 38 replies 6 participants last post by  Roemgie 
#1 ·
Hey guys! So I have a friend who wants her betta in a 10 gallon tank and i stopped her because she didn't realize about cycling or anything related to that. So for a couple of weeks I've been cycling her tank. Well now it's ready BUT my ammonia level reads between 0ppm and .25 ppm. So when I moved the tank I did almost a 50% water change (it was heavy) and I'm hoping this won't mess up the process. There is no live plants in the 10 gallon



So with my 5 gallon I have so far 5 plants in there and it is also cycled BUT my ammonia levels are also between 0ppm-0.25 ppm so I did a 25% water change yesterday. Today the levels still read the same
I would hope i'm reading it wrong but please tell me if I am or not. Here's my 5 gallon


Now for my 5 gallon I was going to put in two females. I saw them at Petland and someone had dropped them off, they're in a tank with larger fish and frogs and they all seem fairly friendly with each other. I of course just read some where that you shouldn't have less than 10 gallons and less than 4 females. So I don't know what to do. Someone just dropped them off to petland, and it seemed they brought a lot of them (they said they'd sold 4 already, they could be lying). So any who I really need some advice on that but I'll post it on another thread as well hopefully to get more advice.
 
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#2 ·
What are you using as an ammonia source to cycle the tanks? The bacteria won't grow if there is no food for them.
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#4 ·
I was at first using actual ammonia and then I started using water from my betta's tanks. I had two in 2.5 gallons and so when I did their water change every 4 days I'd add some of their water into the tanks and continue on my way. I personally would like the 10 gallon to have a sponge filter instead. How would I do that without having to start all over again?
 
#3 ·
The nitrates are HIGH so there has to be some ammonia source.

I would add more ammonia, get it up to like 2-4ppm then retest in 24 hours. If it can cycle that out in 24 hours you may just be misreading the test.
 
#5 ·
Ok so if I take my regular ammonia and just add (how many?) drops until I get it to 2-4 just wait until tomorrow to see what happens? But I just moved the 10 gallon to her room so I'll have to wait for her to be back or her roommate but I can do my 5 gallon right now
 
#8 ·
Squeezing the old filter media onto the new filter will do nothing. Your good bacteria live on the surface area, NOT in the water. I would run both filters in the tank at one time for a month and then remove the old filter.

Your tank is close to cycled and adding the fish now won't do any harm as long as you keep up with water changes but you will need a large (like 90%) water change to get rid of those nitrates.

I'd try like maybe 4 drops, test it and then recheck in 24 hours. It really only needs to be at least 1ppm but no more than 4ppm.
 
#9 ·
Ok I can get the girl today if that's ok and just put her into the 5 gallon? Or should I do the huge water change right now and wait until tomorrow to get the girl? Or should I get her today and put her into my 2.5 gallon tank until my 5 gallon is ready? And I'm afraid to add all that ammonia because i've been waiting for weeks to finally cycle my tanks.

And the sponge filter is on its way over so hopefully it'll get here by next week or this week
 
#10 · (Edited)
Your nitrates are really high.. How long has this been set up?

5 drops of ace ammonia will bring a 10 gallon to 4-5ppm. I'd use 2-3 drops in a 5g. Since you are so so close I'd dose 1-2 drops and see how things look in 24 hours. That ammonia test looks pretty yellow to me..

Before you add fish you will need to do a 90% ish change - siphon all the way down to the gravel but don't' disturb the gravel. Then retest make sure nitrates are under control. I would have them low as possible for new fish who have never seen nitrates before. Your nitrates should stay under 20ppm.
 
#11 ·
Your nitrates are really high.. How long has this been set up?

5 drops of ace ammonia will bring a 10 gallon to 4-5ppm. I'd use 2-3 drops in a 5g. Since you are so so close I'd dose 1-2 drops and see how things look in 24 hours. That ammonia test looks pretty yellow to me..

Before you add fish you will need to do a 90% ish change - siphon all the way down to the gravel but don't' disturb the gravel. Then retest make sure nitrates are under control. I would have them low as possible for new fish who have never seen nitrates before.
Ok I'll do those two drops and look at the tank tomorrow.

So I'm guessing after I do that whole thing depending on the results do the 90% water change? Or just go ahead with the water change without the drops?
 
#12 ·
Make sure to test the water right after you add the drops. You want to see a dramatic drop in ammonia in 24 hours. If you don't... the tank isn't cycled. If the tank can phase out 1-4ppm ammonia in 24 hours thats a pretty good sign that it should be ready to add your girl to it (after the giant water change, of course.)
 
#14 ·
Ok great I will at least do my 5 gallon now, and i have 'Ammonia Chloride Solution for Fishless cycling' from DrTim's Aquatics. Do I do the same amount of drops since it should be the same?
 
#15 ·
That ammonia.. should it say on the bottle how much to use?

Add the drop(s). Wait like an hour for it to circulate. Test.

Wait 24 hours test again.

If it's all gone do the large water change.

Test again to make sure nitrates are as close to zero as possible. Definitely needs to be under 10ppm imho.

Only then you can add fish.
 
#17 ·
Ok awesome! Thank you so much for being patient with me! I just want whats best for these guys and I get so paranoid that I could potentially hurt them from my lack of knowledge!

Ok I added 3 drops (the 3rd one came out on accident) and I'm going to wait a few minutes to see if that did anything (I'm getting ready to leave so I'll be back in more like 3 hours rather than one).

Ok when reading the booklet it said under 40 ppm is good for a freshwater aquarium so I'm guessing even lower is better?

So regarding stress for the girl. Right now she's in a (supposedly) 25 gallon tank with a ton of neon large fish (I forgot their names) and neon frogs. There were 2 other females with her BUT I wasn't specific on which two I wanted SO she may have gone to a home already. I paid 3 dollars for both so I don't mind losing the 3 for not taking two but I was going to let them know that today so that they could find the other one a home. She was hiding under the little filter (I made sure it wasn't sucking her in and it wasn't because the sucking part was at the top away from where she was).

Long story short there was another girl who had bright stress strips and kept swimming back and forth (I could also see eggs so I figured she would go fast if someone wanted to breed her). I wanted to get the shier one so that I could bring her home and have he 'come out' of her shell here. I wanted to wait until next week because I'm leaving this weekend (someone will be here to feed them). BUT if you think she'll be less stress staying with me until my tank is cycled I can pick her up today rather than wait until I get back home next week.
 
#16 ·
The amount of drops really depends. The ammonia could be a higher concentration, the drop sizes could be different, and then of course the tank size... I would start with two, test it, and add more if necessary.

After you add it wait 24 hours and see if the ammonia drops. The reason you need to test to see how high it is right after adding the ammonia is because the ammount you add might not change your test results at all or it could be way over 4ppm which isn't good.
 
#18 ·
Ok I accidentally put 3 instead of 2 but I'm getting ready to test the water to see what comes up.

Also I already wrote a super long comment (and thank you also for putting up with me!) but do you think it would be wise to go ahead and get the female now or should I just leave her at petland until next week? I would keep her in my 2.5 gallon tank until my 5 was ready
 
#21 · (Edited)
Depends on how hardy the fish is. Also fish can build up a slight of immunity to nitrates so that they can take on more, if it stats low and raises with them in the tank... depending on how hardy they are. But if you drop a fish in that's never seen nitrates into a large amount they can die from the shock. Some fish can take more than others. More hardy ones can take up to 40ppm, again if it rises with them in the tank. Dropping a fish coming from no nitrates to 40ppm can kill them. 20 is much safer. Start as low as possible for new fish.

The federal legal limit in our drinking water is 10 and even that much has been shown to cause series illness in babies so..
 
#22 ·
Ok so my ammonia level so far hasn't gone past .50 but I just tested it again so we'll see. And when I go I'll see the condition she is in and determined whether or not if I should take her now or later
 
#23 ·
Ok so I tested my water when I got back, it was around 1.0-2.0 so I added more and this morning its reading .5 so I'm guessing either my tank is cycled OR my test isn't reading correctly.

ALSO I decided to go ahead to Petland to go check to see if they still had the girl I wanted. Well when I got there I found this

She was being eaten by not only the frogs and other fish in her tank but also the other betas.

AND since they told me she was probably going to pass away I went ahead and adopted the other one as planned. Since I only had one heater I put them in a 5 gallon tank and split it with some filter thing (I hope it is safe).

This morning before class she was fine or at least swimming around but when I got back she had passed away. My second one looked a lot healthier than the first one obviously but I noticed some ichy stuff on her. So now I'm worried




I would like to say that I find it disrespectful to take pictures of those who have passed away but I am only doing so to help protect my new female and healthy male
 
#24 ·
That looks like culomnaris. The tank they were in was likely infected... And the girl in the first picture almost looks like she had the 'mystery' disease (well, its not a mystery anymore, but...)

Whatever tank and supplies she came into contact with will need to be disinfected thoroughly. I will recommend that you don't get another female from that same place.
 
#25 ·
Yeah I just posted her picture and someone said the exact same thing. The girl who is half and half is still alive as of right now so I'm keeping a watch on her and I moved my friends male to her room to keep him as far away from her as possible.

I read that bleach isn't the answer but lysol is. I'm not much of a cleaning supply person so do you recommend anything else? I usually always bleach my tanks before using them again and I usually bleach, let dry, rinse, let dry, rinse, let dry until I'm sure they're safe to use again.

And also supposedly the females came from someone who just dropped them off. Should I contact the local petstore and tell them? Or just at least let them know that my girls were infected with something and they should watch out?
 
#26 ·
Hey! So I did the test this morning and my ammonia levels are still at 0-.25 (they went back down) my nitrite levels are 0 (but could potentially be .1) and my nitrate levels are about 40-80 (I guess since I accidentally added too much ammonia).

I'm going to go ahead and do the water change but I might go to 80%, just for being scared that something may go wrong or what not. I also won't have a few until at least Monday. But I'm not sure if I'm going to take on anyone for a while so should I do a huge water change now or just wait a little bit and feed my tank?

The 10 gallon though (although I didn't get a change to add ammonia because they weren't in their rooms until late) is waiting for Umi. Should i go ahead with the big water change and see what the results come out to be or should I do the ammonia test and then see? Because I cycled both tanks the same way
 
#27 ·
Your nitrates are too high.
If it happens to be that mycobacteria crud, I would warn the store to protect the employees but they may just ignore you, anyways.
 
#28 ·
Ok so I will go ahead and do a 90% water change? Here's some pictures from my 5 and my friends 10


5 gallon




Here's from the 10 gallon




I was planning on telling them but they're not exactly fish people and they would either laugh at me or think I'm trying to say that they don't know what they're doing
 
#29 ·
Like I said, they may not heed your advice but that mycobacteria crud could get humans sick possibly. You'll need to do a water change before you add fish... Not necessary until you do. I'd QT any fish before adding them to those tanks because you wouldn't want the tanks infected.
 
#30 ·
I may sound like a bad person but I'm not 100% worried about the people as much as I am about the animals. My friend actually went there today and all the fish in that tank looked fine to her. So I wonder if she was getting picked on and then something took advantage of that and infected her. But I do plan on trying to call tomorrow and letting them know or at least driving by.

And I'll do a big water change tomorrow before I head home and go from there. Is there any change that it could ruin the cycling process or the bacteria should be fine?
 
#31 ·
It won't ruin the cycle... But if you go too long without a food source, the bacteria will die off. The only thing that would ruin your cycle would be turning off the filter for too long or adding unconditioned water to the tank. Both your fish and your good bacteria need water conditioner :)

Also, its possible they were being picked on. There were three females in the tank, right? Chances are the tank wasn't decorated enough and plus, you need more than three females for them to live together.
 
#32 ·
Ok good :) I will be doing my water changes tomorrow :D (finally lol!) And I did add the ammonia to my 5 gallon but I never got around to doing it to the 10 gallon so I may just add some of Umi's old water after I do the big change so that there will be some ammonia. And here's the million dollar question, how in the world do I introduce him to the cycled water safely? Or at least how long should I take? Because I'm so scared to go to fast!

I know that the litter one, Half n Half was defiantly especially with her back end being dead skin. And there was only one little plant in the middle, bright lights and a ton of other fish and frogs. They were supposedly in a 25 gallon tank but the frogs were aggressive and there was no cover for them at all.
 
#33 ·
Float a cup in the tank to get the temperature to the same temp and slowly add small amounts of new tank water to the cup in increments of like 15 minutes. You can slowly reduce the time of the increments and increase the amount of water you add (like spoonfuls). I'd go at least an hour, or as much time as you have. The longer, the better.
 
#36 ·
Ok, I'll hopefully have that time and more so that I don't stress her out by hurrying especially since She would have about an hours drive before she got to my room
 
#35 ·
No no this is a completely different tank from the one with my sick girl, don't worry :)
 
#37 ·
My new girl is happily enjoying her tank!!
 
#39 ·
Thank you :) she seems like she is incredible happy with her new set up!! I really cannot wait to be able to get my bigger tank and get more females so she can have company :D




This picture makes her look scary but the sun wasn't out on our side lol
 
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