UPDATE ON PROGRESS OF 29 GAL. BIOCUBE

[JDSmith]

I thought that I would see what you all thought of the progress of my 29 gal. BioCube. It has been up and running for 8 days now. I have 30 lbs of ls and 20 lbs of lr. I used seasoned water from my lfs. I did a water analysis and had these results. What do you all think?

Ammonia--0 ppm
Nitrite------0 ppm
Nitrate----15 ppm
pH----------8.3
Specific Gravity-1.024

How much longer before I can add invertebrates/fish?

 

[skipm]

With only 8 days since the tank was set up I would be hesitant to add anything, even though the test results look like cycling may be complete I would wait for at least another week to be sure. Then I would start out by doing a water change to lower the nitrates before adding anything. I would then add the cleaning crew first.

 

[Trogdor]

I agree. Even with seasoned water from another tank, it will do good to have more of a bacteria growth period. I don't know how other feel about it, but I would feed the tank a few small pieces of mysis or dry food to see how the tank handles it. Worse case is you start another cycle, but it would be better than killing off livestock if your tank can't really handle the bioload of a few pieces of food.

 

[islandcreation]

JDmith,

I'd wait another 2 weeks. Add a cleanup crew and wait another week. After words get one fish and wait a week. Then add another fish..... repeat the process. Safe and most cost effective way. :mrgreen:

 

[KChan]

Believe it or not I added things into my tank after a week. Although it is best to let the tank cycle and do a couple of water changes before adding anything. But I think each case is different...some people may have luck and some just dont. A lot of my customers added things after just a few days and they are new to the hobby and have not had problems. :shock: