Re-Cycling - Possible?

A friend of mine set up a tank and then went out of town (for a while) but before he went out of town he sprinkled some food in the tank. He had no way of monitoring if his params spiked and then went down while he was gone but when he came back after ~5/6 weeks, his tank went from being really cloudy to crystal clear, params are perfect, and everything looks good. My question is, to test if the tank actually cycled, can he put a raw shrimp in the tank and see if the params spike? because if im not mistaken, if the tank cycled, there should be only a little spike and thats in nitrate. Correct? Or will it completely recycle the tank? My logic is, the tank built the bacteria to support the waste (food pellets), so if we add a shrimp, it will just be keeping those bacterias and putting them to use by them braking them down into nitrite and then nitrate. I could be completely wrong and confusing, but please let me know what you think :-/ If the params do spike like a cycle, will it take like a whole 3 weeks or will it only be a mini-cycle?

Thanks a lot (and on my friends behalf),
Ryan

 

what's the time period for this?

I wouldn't test it like that personally... I would just monitor it and make sure ammonia/nitrite stays 0 for 2-3 weeks. if it does, then you're cycled enough for the next step...

 

God that sucks. So theres no way of testing for sure to see if its cycled?

 

I'm really missing a lot of info here...

How long was it setup b4 he went on vacation?

What is in the tank that he is sprinkling food for?


Like I said, he can test for ammonia and nitrites and if they remain 0 then it cycled. Seeing as how it's been setup at least 5 weeks (maybe longer) I'd say this is possible.

I'm not saying it's safe to add anything as I just don't have enough info, but you can test it and monitor it.

There is no way to see what your params were yesterday unless you tested yesterday...

 

Thanks for the intake!

Some more background, I added a damsel about a week after he left and i went back a week later and it was dead, i dont know how long it was dead, but that dead body probably played a role in building bacteria. You think?

 

yeah probably... perhaps the cycle was already started...

how did you acclimate it? often folks add one to kick off the cycle before it starts... so there's no ammonia to begin with.

dropping a fish (even a damsel) in a tank that's already in the midst of cycling... well, it would be hard to acclimate the fish to the ammonia vs putting it before the ammonia was measurable and it built up slowly and the fish had a chance to acclimate as it built up... vs just throwing it in a pool of ammonia (exaggerated a bit).


so it may have died from the ammonia... or it was bad acclimation or lack of food, or a sick fish, or someone stepped on it and put it back in... it's really hard to say when it's a tank you only see once every few weeks ya know?

 

Completely understood, i only added the fish info though because i wanted to let you know a yellow tail died in a cycling tank, and that the dead body might have helped the cycle further. Anyways, the fish was absolutely beautiful when i got it, i had him feed it for me and all went well. I actually drip acclimated him for around 45 minutes, exactly why you said - because of all the ammonia that was probably present. So im guessing he died because of the ammonia, which means there was ammonia present. As for the feeding, the tank is in his room and the house cleaner (maid, or whatever you wanna call it) fed the fish every day like i told her but "she doesnt remember when she stopped feeding it, but she knew it wasnt coming out anymore so she stopped" How stupid! she doesnt remember when she stopped feeding it either She thinks maybe after a day but wow is all i have to say. Well does that help any? Maybe we can start off with a chromis and see how it does in the tank (depending on your next response)?

 

Im going with the stepped on then put back in the tank theory. LOL But seriously, I would just check all the readings and if they are 0, then maybe add one hardy fish. Then watch it closely for a week or so. If nothing spikes real bad then I would say your ok to start adding stuff SLOWLY.

 

I agree with PG too.

Forget the damsel - lesson learned (wasn't needed).

Watch params for a week or two and make sure they stay at 0. If they do, then I'd add one fish and watch the system for another 2-3 weeks to make sure it stays stable.

In a young tank, it is common for each new fish addition to cause a spike as the bacteria rebalances out - it's one of the main reasons we say to add fish at a rate of only 1 every few weeks.

After a few weeks, if all is still good, then continue progressing.

 

Ok thank you very much. My final and last question is: There is no way, instead of wasting 2-3 weeks on monitoring params and buying a fish and wasting money, only to find out the tank hasnt cycled? I would hate for him to wait 2-3 weeks with nothing, buy a 20 dollar fish, have it die, and find out that the tank hasnt cycled yet. Again just asking and if no answer, ill just tell him to do what you said. thanks again for all the help! K+