Bio Load

[Tesar]

Hello all,

I have a 75gal tank set up and has been running since the first of the year. I have 12 tetra's in the tank (4 red, 4 black and 4 gold skirted). Last week the water went cloudy on me and I was thinking that this would be the start of the cycle. Well as of Sunday morning the tank is now back to crystal clear. I have been doing a water test every night to see how things are progressing. Over the last 3 weeks I have seen the ammonia climb and is at 2ppm. But I have not seen a single spike in nitrites.

What I am wondering is if I need to add more tetras to help this cycle along or will these get the cycle started? I understand that it takes anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to complete a cycle, but I would have assumed that after seeing the tank go from crystal clear to cloudy and then back again, I would have started to see nitrites by now. Am I doing something wrong? Am I expecting to much? Just give it more time?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tesar

[White Worm]

Cloudy water is from what would be called "New Tank Syndrome" Your tank is most likely not cycled. Nitrates are a good indicator of a cycled tank.

[Graham]

Hi The cloudiness that you saw had nothing to do with a ''cycle'' and the nitrifiying bacteria. It would have been a bloom of another type of bacteria.

The nitrites will come just give them time. NH3 > NO2 > N03

Someting to keep in mind is that these few little tetras are only producing X amount of ammonia.Since the amount is small, the bio-film that will develop will be small too. So when you add more and bigger fish that are now producing XXX amounts of ammonia there won't be the colony of bacteria to handle it and you'll get an ammonia/nitrite spike. Which could be harmfull.

So either add fish slowly over time so the bacteria can handle the NH3 increase or remove all fish and do a fishless cycle and really build the bio-film

[Don Trinko]

The tank going from clear to cloudy may or may not be related to the cycle. For me it's when I over feed several days in a row.
You should see the amonia drop and the nitrites spike, then several weeks later the nitrites will drop and you will start to see nittrates. If you are cyling with fish I would not add more fish. It is beter to cycle with a few fish and after cycled add fish slowly to let the bacteria catch up. Since your amonia is at 2 I would feed less for a few days and let it drop. If you had sensative fish in 2 would be too high! You might consider some chemical treatment to lower the amonia. (amaquel+ or other). When you add discus (or any other fish) watch the amonia and nitrites. Sometimes they will spike again because of the larger bioload. ( Again I use Amaquel+ if this happens. Don T.

[White Worm]

Hi The cloudiness that you saw had nothing to do with a ''cycle'' and the nitrifiying bacteria. It would have been a bloom of another type of bacteria.

Hey G,
I have noticed a cloudy look after I clean the filters a little too good once in a while ...but it goes clear within 24 hours or so since it now has alot of cleaner water. I would have thought this to be just a small knock back of my good bio? I have seen it with new tanks until the cycle is completed. What kind of bacteria are we talking about?

[Graham]

Hi we all think that our bio-convertors/filters only contain a couple of species of bacteria Nitrosomonas and NitroSpira ...''The Nitrifiers'' when, actually they contain dozens of species of bacteria. These bacteria can be other species of autotrophs or hetertrophs, both aerobic and anaerobic. it'll also have fungi and algaes with in it. They form the bio-film or a matrix on all the surfaces with in the tank

So when we distrub something in the filters or add some new water with additional food sources or a different chemical make up, we give anyone of those species an oppertunity to explode in thier numbers. They exhust whatever it was that allowed them to bloom and they crash out.

If you had distrubed the nitrifiers enough to knock them back you would have a measurable level of NH4/NH3/NO2....

Once a bio-film is well established and it takes many months to get it well established it's tough as nails and can't be just rinsed away with a bit of water. The bacteria attach via a fimbraiae (sp?) a protein based substance. Generally what we see being sloughed off is dirt fines and dead bacteria, the healthy ones are still there.

As far as the NO3 levels are concerned... if a hobbyist were to weigh out exact amounts of food, with a known protien level and feed it daily to the same group of fish and record the NO3 and KH levels they would soon see a direct relationship.

They would know that within X amount of days, the tank would generate Xppm of NO3 and would use Xppm of bicarbonate.

The amount of ammonia produced is directly related to the protein levels of the food fed and the amounts and it's also know how much bicarbonate/carbonate the nitrifiers will used to oxidize that ammonia/nitrite

There's no real need to test anything if the same husbandry is practised all the time

[White Worm]

There's no real need to test anything if the same husbandry is practised all the time

I agree, thanks for the info. My filters are pretty well established and I dont worry too much about rinsing them under tap water just to get the gunk out.

[Tesar]

To add another question in the mix. I was doing some research on the Bio Chem Zorb pad that I have in my Rena XP3 filter. The LFS told me to put in there, so I did. I thought I read somewhere on here that carbon would not be needed in the filter and could actually be harmful. Should I remove this Bio Chem Zorb pad from my filter?

[Graham]

It doesn't really matter...the worry has always been that activated carbon removed trace elements...if you're not using RO water and have a decent GH then it's up to you whether to remove it or not

G

[White Worm]

I didnt bother to put it in my XP3.