Poor Timing

[kylekruko85]

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!

[Newstead]

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!

[kylekruko85]

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.

[Newstead]

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.

[kylekruko85]

Do I not put the purigen and chemi pure in the media basket until I get livestock?

[Nanomaniac]

Yes, wait until you begin to stock the tank before putting in the purigen and chemi pure.