# Question on cycling



## carb850 (Mar 7, 2007)

Not bicycling, I know about that  

Yesterday I added water for the first time on my new tank. Only thing in the tank is Aqua Soil and a piece of petrified wood. This evening I noticed the tank smelled and looked yellow. I knew the parameters would be off, but I wanted to check just to see were they were. 

PH - 6.2
NO2 - 0.1
NH3/NH4 - 7.5 (actually off the cart)

What is causing the ammonia to be so incredibly high? No livestock in the tank, no plants either. Based upon what I read, I thought you had to add ammonia or some livestock that produced waste. I assume it has to be coming form the Aqua Soil, right? If I do nothing other than daily water changes, will the parameters clear themselves up in time? I have a vague understanding of the cycling process but the process is nnot 100% by any means.

I was reading about the products that aid in cycling but I'm now leaning toward getting used filter media from someone locally. Would adding the used filter media to my tank for a day be enough to help it out? Then just go back to my daily water changes?

Also, would it be safe to add any plants at this point or should I wait?


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Plants are ok to add when ever, and will actually help remove ammonia, nitrates and nitrites from your water. A heavly planted tank never really goes through a cycle period, the plants will keep a "cycle" from happening and the water will be sutable for inhabitants almost immedietly. 

Also with your cycle are you adding any thing to help it cycle? If you sprinkle in some fish food every day it will help the benificial bacteria get built up and begin to take the bad things out of your water. 

The yellow water is probably from the leaching tannis from the driftwood. Did you soak it/boil it prior to using it? I boiled my piece of driftwood long enough it was an enitre propane tank. This helped pull a lot of the tannis out but i still have some in my water. Dont fret over this, it's not harmful.

As for the WC's i'm not sure if that's helping or hurting? I'll wait for someone else to respond.


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## carb850 (Mar 7, 2007)

That is good to know about plants. I just recently purchased some HC from a board member and I expect it late next week. I wondered if I should ask him to hold off a week before shipping for my tank to cycle. Sound like that it will not hurt things at all.

As for the tannis, I do not have any driftwood. Just petrified wood, I think it is more rock than wood at this point.


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## carb850 (Mar 7, 2007)

BTW, thanks for the tip on the food. I might give that a try.


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## LilLou (Apr 23, 2006)

The Aquasoil leaches ammonia into the water column. The advice I was given was to do water changes for 2-3 weeks and it should stabalize. I tested my tank last night and my Ammonia was 4.0, 0 Nitrite, 40 Nitrate. I did a 30% WC and my pH went from 5.4 back to 6.3. SO I suspect that eh Aquasoil also leaches nitrates into the water column.

To my knowledge the petrified wood doesn't leach it's more like a rock.

You can hold off on the plants until your water stabilizes or put em in right away. If you decide to put them in right away check the following thread:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...c-substrates/37664-ada-as-melting-plants.html


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## carb850 (Mar 7, 2007)

I have seen it stated a few places on this board to do daily water changes but a couple of local people which I respect suggest leaving it alone and letting the ammonia run its cycle. Anyone else want to comment?


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## Yoshi (Apr 7, 2007)

Try doing ~30-40% water changes bi-weekly for the first 2-3 weeks. I'm not confident on those exact numbers, but... it's in an old thread somewhere; I believe this is what Amano himself recommends for newly set-up tanks with AquaSoil.

EDIT: Found it, the link is from PT.net ...it's recommended to do 50% water changes 2-3x a week for the first month. 
Read more here:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/p...-update-4.html?highlight=water+ada#post399954


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## LilLou (Apr 23, 2006)

Just to let you know when i got home the pH had dropped from 6.3 down to 5.6. 

I just finished a 50% water change and the pH is now 6.5

I don't mind letting things run their course but i want to get this thing planted sometime soon and get some fish in it. So I guess anything to speed up the process is the way to go.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

carb850 said:


> I have seen it stated a few places on this board to do daily water changes but a couple of local people which I respect suggest leaving it alone and letting the ammonia run its cycle. Anyone else want to comment?


I think people's reasoning behind not doing water changes is that if you're doing traditional cycling of a tank you want to develop the bacterial bed in your filter and to do this you want the ammonia and other waste products to provide the food source to get them growing.

Of course with a heavily planted tank it seems that the plants will use all the waste anyway so cycling may be a moot point.

If you have fish in the tank though you need to do a lot of water changes to keep Ammonia and Nitrite at safe levels for any inhabitants.


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## carb850 (Mar 7, 2007)

ed seeley said:


> I think people's reasoning behind not doing water changes is that if you're doing traditional cycling of a tank you want to develop the bacterial bed in your filter and to do this you want the ammonia and other waste products to provide the food source to get them growing.
> 
> Of course with a heavily planted tank it seems that the plants will use all the waste anyway so cycling may be a moot point.
> 
> If you have fish in the tank though you need to do a lot of water changes to keep Ammonia and Nitrite at safe levels for any inhabitants.


For my filter, I'm just using the foam block in a Aqua Clear filter, skipping both the carbon and the biomax. So my filter is doing mechanical only, but I thought you get a bacteria bed in your substrate even when doing a heavily planted tank. Is that not the case?


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## carb850 (Mar 7, 2007)

Yoshi said:


> Try doing ~30-40% water changes bi-weekly for the first 2-3 weeks. I'm not confident on those exact numbers, but... it's in an old thread somewhere; I believe this is what Amano himself recommends for newly set-up tanks with AquaSoil.
> 
> EDIT: Found it, the link is from PT.net ...it's recommended to do 50% water changes 2-3x a week for the first month.
> Read more here:
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/p...-update-4.html?highlight=water+ada#post399954


Thanks for the link. Good info. Last night I emailed ADG to see what they suggested.


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

If you set up your tank with a lot of fast growing stem plants (Bylaxia aqatica, Cabomba Aquatica, ludwiga, anacharis, hornwort) and cover most of your footprint you will be able to cut the cycle down to, well a few days. Just heavly plant with fast growing stems.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

carb850 said:


> For my filter, I'm just using the foam block in a Aqua Clear filter, skipping both the carbon and the biomax. So my filter is doing mechanical only, but I thought you get a bacteria bed in your substrate even when doing a heavily planted tank. Is that not the case?


Bacteria will grow everywhere that conditions are suitable. Nitrifying bacteria need oxygenated water with suitable nutrients to provide their energy source. This definitely includes your substrate, glass, rocks, wood etc. and will also definitely include your filter! Just because you have only put 'mechanical' media in means nothing to bacteria! They will happily grow on foam, it is an excellent Biological filter as well as a mechanical one. Just don't wash it in tap water or replace it with a new one regularly. If you have to replaxce it just cut the food down (or don't feed) for a few days to allow the bacteria population to recover. All of my tanks, apart from my main tank, run or foam filters, either air powered or Internal powered ones. They work really well.

As Muirner said, lot of people will run heavily planted tanks and never have a problem as the plants should use all the nutrients the fish produce, but I like having the back up so I have a nice big filter on my main tank filled with Biological media with the foam and floss doing the mechanical filtration too! I do tend to stock heavily and my tanks are fish tanks with plants really as the fish I keep and breed are my priority. The plants are a high priority, but they tend to do really well for me so far without compromising my fish keeping.


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