New Tank Set Up - Preparing For Fishless Cycling

Hi,

We have got ourselves a fluval edge tank and have set it up with gravel, a few plants and have got ourselves some household ammonia from boots in preparation for doing a fishless cycle. Then I read the sticky in the planted aquariums resource centre 'Why We Should Not Fishless Cycle Planted Tanks'.

We have added the Nutrafin cycle stuff supplied with the tank and have tested the water. Results are as follows

Tap water
pH = 7.5 to 8.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0

After one week the water in the tank gave the following results

pH = 9.0
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0.1
Nitrate = 5

If I wasnt confused before... I sure am now... Should I go ahead with adding the ammonia and doing the cycle or not? What do people suggest?

that cycle stuff is junk.

your pH is a little high - I would drain the tank, fill it again with conditioned tap water and add the ammonia to bring it up to 5ppm.

have you got a test kit yet?

We did fill it with conditioned tap water and have a test kit, a Nutrafin Mini Master test kit.

You have done nothing wrong so far Dave but as Kstch said you would be a bit better off in our thread that is designed for people in your circumstances.

Thanks for replies Ktsch and OldMan47. Which thread would I be better off in?

Hi DavidG, perhaps OM47 moved you over here to our "Your New Freshwater Tank" subforum from somewhere else?

Have you begun your fishless cycle?

~~waterdrop~~

No I haven't started the fishless cycle yet. I picked up the household ammonia i'd from Boots here in uk. Now I am going to see about working out the quantity to put in.

I put a few plants in it to begin with 3 small anubias and 3 Vallisneria Spiralis. Some of the vallisnerias leaves went transparent within a week so I removed them and finally removed them completely. So I now have just the three small anubias.

I am going to do a 25% water change to see if that helps the pH. But is it alright to do the fishless cycle with the plants in?

I'm doing fishless with plants and they are doing fine.

I would do a 100% w/c just to get your pH back to a baseline (that cycle stuff may have affected it)

Make sure you dechlorinate - wait for an hour do a full set of tests then add ammonia and test the ammonia again to get it up to 5ppm.

Then you may as well just wait for about 5 - 7 days as this is how long it'll take for the first drop in ammonia.

Sounds fine, a water change never hurts. For figuring out the 4 or 5ppm the first time I recommend coming in a tad lower than what the calculator predicts and then adding a little more if your ammonia test looks lighter than the 4ppm color. Matching the 4ppm color is fine as far as I'm concerned for the beginning of a fishless cycle, its only at the very end (weeks or months away) that we maybe try for a tiny bit darker to supposedly get us to 5ppm and hope that the final bacterial colony sizes are a bit more robust.

Occasional ammonia and pH results are about all you need around the end of the first week I'd say.

~~waterdrop~~

Ok finally had some time yesterday to get the fishless cycle underway. First things first I tested the pH of the existing water in the tank and it was still up so I did a 100% water change (down to the gravel). I refilled with treated tap water and left to settle for a good while. Then in the evening I did a full suite of tests which were as follows

• pH - 7.5
• Ammonia - 0
• Nitrite - 0.1ppm
• Nitrate - 5ppm

Now that the pH was back down I felt happy to get underway with adding the ammonia. Luckily i had managed to obatain a v small syringe which was ideal for the job. I used the calculator on this site and took waterdrop's advice and added just under. I waited a short while and tested for ammonia again and it was a bit under 4 so I stuck a bit more in and tested again after a little while and it is between 4.5 and 5.

I will keep updating here with progress.... one question though... tonight we noticed a very small snail has appeared in the tank. Should I remove it?

OK, sounds like your fishless cycle is off to a correct start. Don't forget that it helps to keep all your data daily in a clear log in your aquarium notebook. This information, along with a journal of your insights, can be invaluable to you later. Record all actions to your tank - sometimes its particularly easy to miss the really obvious ones like adding new fish or when you purchase things or make a big decision, so learn to record those too.

Snails are a personal decision. I tend to get rid of them because of bad memories of some of my tanks being overrun with them in my earlier period in the hobby. I can imagine though that a single snail (oh if it would only stay just one, lol) might be entertaining in an empty fishless cycling tank! Snails can usually tolerate the higher ammonia levels.

~~waterdrop~~

You are going to do fine with those water parameters David. The pH is well within the acceptable range of about 6.6 to 8.4 and the small nitrate levels will be meaningless for the cycle although it may later cause issues if you keep fish that are intolerant of any nitrates. The remaining Anubias, being slow growing plants, will not hurt or help your cycle really. If you post results that are showing a slow and gradual decline in ammonia levels, you must be aware of the fact that the Anubias may be the thing removing ammonia. In that respect, it makes tracking your progress a bit more challenging for us but it will do no harm to the actual cycle. I have even seen some speculation, especially by plant enthusiasts, that the plant roots may have brought in some of the correct bacteria to help your cycle on its way. I am unable to judge that aspect because the plants themselves impact a tank's water more than I would expect from a small bacterial sample arriving on plant roots.

Hi,

It is just over a week since I started my fishless cycle so I thought I would post a quick update. I have attached an image of my log. Things seem to be progressing quite well. Not sure if this is luck or not.



I test for Ammonia each night.... the times are a bit irregular but i have been working late quite bit so hopefully not such a big issue. Once the first drop in Ammonia happened I started testing for Nitrite which is off the scale still but beginning to drop.

Hopefully I am doing things right.... any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am unable to go wherever you have posted that attachment David. In the first week we do not expect to see much at all changing. If that is what that post would show me, you are on track for a proper fishless cycle.

Ok not sure why the attachment upload didnt work. Have switched to the basic uploader.and tried again still no luck. Brb