Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Hi Bob,
I've written you before, and have since read all your books. My current question regards a plenum that I have set up in a Discus aquarium. I have set up the plenum in accordance with the instructions regarding construction, substrate size and depth. However, I substituted river sand of the same size for obvious reasons. I cycled the aquarium with a Freshwater bacteria culture product approximately four weeks ago. Today I ran a battery of tests, and was surprised to see non-detectable nitrate levels. I was using a multitest nitrite/nitrate test kit, and also ran a reference test with same results and a second nitrate test with same result. Would you happen to know whether the culture product could have contributed to a bacterial colony in the substrate so quickly? The sand was quite inert before I cycled the aquarium. Needless to say, I am a firm believer in NNR and read your column in FAMA every month. Your help and your contribution to FAMA are greatly appreciated.
Russ Schultz
Hi Russ,
One month would be a little quick to cycle the aquarium fully, no matter what brand product was used. If your system has a reasonable current bioload, i.e., fishes and feeding as necessary, and there is no sign of ammonia or nitrite, then I would feel comfortable in saying the system has probably cycled. Yet, without knowing the present bioload I recommend caution and further testing.
Bob
