# silent cycle advice



## graybot (Apr 24, 2011)

Hey there.. I'm working on cycling my 29g tank. It is currently hosting 3 2" convict cichlids. I am hoping to make the cycle less stressful for them by attempting a silent cycle seeded with some used filter media and gravel. I was wondering if I could have some advice on whether the number of plants I have will be sufficient, and how much I can expect the used filter media and gravel to help.

I'm using microbe-lift biologically alive substrate mixed with sand and about 5 cups of gravel from my established 10g tank.

My filtration system is an Eheim 2213 canister filter. I placed the used filter cartridge (from an Aqeon quiet flow 10) in the canister on top of the regular filter media.

Plant-wise, I have 3 12" Amazon Swords, 2 8" Hygrophila Angustifolia, 1 small Morimo ball, 6 6" sprigs of water wisteria planted and a few 12" stems of wisteria floating around.

I'm about halfway through week 3 of the cycle, but only just added the used filter media today. Ammonia has measured about 1.0 ppm for the past 2 weeks, haven't noticed it spike any higher, and I've performed one 20% water change (due to cloudiness from the substrate). No nitrites or nitrates yet.


Am I on the right track? Should I expect much more of an ammonia spike with this amount of plant life?


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## graybot (Apr 24, 2011)

Oh, here's a photo of the tank, to get a visual idea of how thick the planting is.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Sounds like you pretty much got it under control. Silent cycle....never heard that before, lol.


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## rtbob (Jul 18, 2010)

Nice setup. Can't tell by the picture, is it a male and a female? If so Convicts breed like crazy.

Your plants are keeping the ammonia level in check. Some would recommend keeping the ammonia level less than 0.50ppm while cycling with fish (this is what your doing is called by the way).

With the addition of established media I would expect nitrites to appear soon. What are you using for your water tests?

Just recently I fully cycled a 20g long in ten days. I used an established filter, Two less than 2" Jaguar Cichlids along with two platy's. No live plants. Seachem Stability was dosed following the instructions. Ammonia appeared on day two at 0.50ppm and never went above this level. Day five nitrites also showed up at 0.50ppm and held there.

Instead of water changes I dosed seachem prime to detox the ammonia and nitrites every other day. By day eight both ammonia and nitrites were at 0.25ppm and nitrates were around 20ppm. I stopped using the prime and stability at this time.

Day ten Ammonia and nitrites were at zero, nitrates were near 40ppm. I did a 50% water change, removed the platys (never seen fish happier, Jags are mean even when small). Continued testing daily for four more days. Zero ammonia and nitrites with nitrates 15-20ppm.


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## graybot (Apr 24, 2011)

There are 3 convicts... 2 females and a male. Eventually I'll be sending one of the females back to the LFS. They have spawned twice so far, each female one time. Once when they were in my 10g, and again after they were moved to the 29g. The fry didn't last past a few days in the 10g, probably due to water conditions as it was still cycling.

The male has been switching back and forth between the two females. Just after one female laid her eggs he decided to go back to the other female. Now I have one female protecting her brood in once corner, and the other pair making a nest in the opposite corner. They seem to have finally staked out their territories and haven't been bothering each other much.. but if any of them start showing battle damage I'll take the smaller female back to the LFS.

I'm testing with API liquid tests.. no nitrites yet, but ammonia is holding steady.

I've seen "silent cycling" mentioned in quite a few articles I've found about the nitrogen cycle. As of now, the ammonia buildup in the planted 29g has been far less than when I cycled the 10g, but increased water volume may account for some of that. Time will tell. I had ammonia spike to 8+ppm a number of times early on with the 10g, but it was very overstocked.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

A silent cycle is when you plant 75% of the tank with fast growing plants and adding others that aren't fast growing and then slowly start adding fish to it within a couple of days.


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## graybot (Apr 24, 2011)

Thought I'd update this thread, now that it's nearly a month later.

The three convicts are down to one, along with some fry. The male paired up with both females, but before the second set of eggs could hatch both females turned on him. Things were getting pretty violent, so I returned the male and one of the females to the LFS. 

No nitrites yet. No nitrates yet. Ammonia spikes to .25-1ppm every 3 days or so. 20% water change brings it back down. I'd let the ammonia rise a little higher for longer to get the cycle going faster, but there are about 15 month-old convict fry (finally starting to look like fish, stripes are visible, showing some personality) in the tank and I'd like at least a few to survive. 

Having a planted tank certainly makes the cycling process much easier (less dramatic spikes in water quality) but it sure seems to slow it down!


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

graybot said:


> ....
> 
> Having a planted tank certainly makes the cycling process much easier (less dramatic spikes in water quality) but it sure seems to slow it down!


+1

As long as you don't get spikes who cares?

FWIW I would not add food untill the ammonia drops to 0. But then possibly the ammonia is all locked up and not a threat also.

Glad the system is working.


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## benitahigg (May 22, 2011)

rtbob said:


> Nice setup. Can't tell by the picture, is it a male and a female? If so Convicts breed like crazy.
> 
> Your plants are keeping the ammonia level in check. Some would recommend keeping the ammonia level less than 0.50ppm while cycling with fish (this is what your doing is called by the way).
> 
> ...


 So in your opinion , you think live plants are the best way to go?
*thumbsup thanx:fish10:


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