kylekruko85 Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 So my tank is at the tail end of cycling with ammonia being processed in 24 hours and nitrites are at .1 after 24 hours. It has been 4 weeks since I started my tank. I have a few spots on my rock that are what I think are diatoms but are not taking over by any means. My issue is this. Any day now my wife could be having our second child (which is awesome). I just chose to start a new hobby at an ill time . I am thinking the smartest thing to do would be to not add anything to the tank until things settle down. My question is, once I know my tank is cycled, what do steps do I take to keep my tank in proper order. Should I still do a large water change to get my nitrates down? What do I do to keep the bacteria fed? (I am dosing dr tims right now). Please advise! Link to comment
Newstead Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Congrats on the soon to be baby! I think I would let it cycle through til nitrites are 0, nitrates are up, do a quick water change and then ghost feed it a tiny pinch of food daily to keep the bacteria active. As long as there is a bit of food daily the bacteria should continue to populate, at least that is the way I read it. Enjoy the new baby! Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Congrats on the soon to be baby! I think I would let it cycle through til nitrites are 0, nitrates are up, do a quick water change and then ghost feed it a tiny pinch of food daily to keep the bacteria active. As long as there is a bit of food daily the bacteria should continue to populate, at least that is the way I read it. Enjoy the new baby! Thanks! This is basically what I was thinking but being I have never done this before I wasn't sure. Unless I get some big diatom bloom soon I see no reason to add a CUC or theyll starve. And if I read correctly the diatom bloom is just a cycle that will leave on its own after time. Link to comment
Newstead Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 You're right... the diatoms are step one. A longer cycle is better than a too short one anyway. I have only cycled 4 tanks, but the one I left for 8 weeks (it was to be a quarantine tank, became a goby/pistol tamk) was absolutely the best in terms of cycling through the diatoms then hair alhae - it was so simple to take individual rocks out, scrub off the algae, replace. With no livestock in there the algae seemed to cycle out quickly. Link to comment
kylekruko85 Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Do I not put the purigen and chemi pure in the media basket until I get livestock? Link to comment
Nanomaniac Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Yes, wait until you begin to stock the tank before putting in the purigen and chemi pure. Link to comment
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