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777james777 said:

My local aquarium shop is giving me some bacteria to add to the tank

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Slaphppy7 said:

Welcome to TFF

Cycling a tank usually will take more than 2 weeks, depending on the method you use...be sure to see here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

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Essjay said:

Many people believe just letting the tank run is cycling. It's not. Cycling is the process of growing two colonies of bacteria which 'eat' the ammonia waste made by the fish.
To grow these bacteria, we add ammonia from a bottle. There are a few ammonia eating bacteria in our tap water and feeding ammonia to the tank grows more of them. These bacteria 'poop' nitrite then the nitrite eaters have food so they too can grow a lot more of them.
These bacteria are slow growing and it can takes several weeks to grow enough of them to 'eat' the waste made by a tankful of fish. When I did a fishless cycle it took 42 days.

If fish are put into a tank that is not cycled, as soon as they go in the tank they start excreting ammonia. Because there aren't nearly enough bacteria, this ammonia builds up in the water and burns the fish's skin and gills. Eventually, ammonia eating bacteria multiply enough and they make nitrite. This binds to the oxygen receptors in the blood so the fish suffer oxygen starvation - in basic terms nitrite does to fish what carbon monoxide does to us.
Both ammonia and nitrite in the water will permanently harm and even kill the fish.



There are only two brands known to contain the correct species of nitrite eaters - Tetra Safe Start and Dr Tim's One & Only. Even they do not cycle a tank instantly and are best used to speed up a fishless cycle.


One final thing - never, ever believe anything a shop worker says. They won't tell you about cycling in case you go to another shop. They'll sell you a bacterial starter which doesn't work - if your fish die you'll buy more. They'll sell you fish which get too big for your tank. They'll sell you fish unsuitable for your water. And so on.

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777james777 said:

I have had a read through this and there’s a lot to take in. Is there a more “bullet point” way of looking at this that anyone can explain?

Currently-

Tank is full and pump is running (72 hours in)
I’m going to go to the fish shop on Saturday and he is going to give me some water with good bacteria in…

What’s next ?

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jaylach said:

This is a case of misinformation from a store. The bacteria you want resides in filter media, the substrate and on surfaces. Adding water from a cycled tank does very little if anything.

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777james777 said:

When he explained it he was saying about squeezing a filter into the water.

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jaylach said:

That will help some but the little buggers are pretty clingy and few will actually end up in the water by squeezing filter media. This is why you can re-use filter media by cleaning in old tank water when doing water changes. Get rid of gunk but most of the bacteria remains with the media.

BTW, if your filter system uses carbon don't bother. Replace the carbon with more filter media if possible. Carbon is more of a sales gimmick to get more of your money than anything else.

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• Fish poop in the tank
• Poop creates ammonia - ammonia is toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days in a range of 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Bacteria in our filters turns the ammonia to nitrite - nitrite is also toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Different bacteria in our filter and substrate turns the nitrite into nitrate - nitrate is slightly toxic to fish over 20 parts per million
• We do water changes to reduce the nitrate with the goal of keeping it as close to 0 as possible

• Fill tank with tap water and set up filter and heater
• Buy bottled ammonia (approx £5) and API master test kit (approx £25)
• Work out a measurement of ammonia to add to the tank with an online calculator (google fishless cycle calculator)
• Raise the ammonia to around 5ppm on the ammonia test chart
• Keep doing this over time and you will start to get a nitrite reading
• Keep doing this more and you will get a nitrate reading
• Once you get ammonia and nitrate to 0 within 24 hours of adding liquid ammonia you are ready for fish

Wills said:

Really good advice here already and great to see you are listening

In short - bullet point nitrogen cycle

• Fish poop in the tank
• Poop creates ammonia - ammonia is toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days in a range of 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Bacteria in our filters turns the ammonia to nitrite - nitrite is also toxic to fish and can kill in a few hours/days 0.5 - 5 parts per million
• Different bacteria in our filter and substrate turns the nitrite into nitrate - nitrate is slightly toxic to fish over 20 parts per million
• We do water changes to reduce the nitrate with the goal of keeping it as close to 0 as possible

To cycle a tank without exposing fish to ammonia and nitrite

• Fill tank with tap water and set up filter and heater
• Buy bottled ammonia (approx £5) and API master test kit (approx £25)
• Work out a measurement of ammonia to add to the tank with an online calculator (google fishless cycle calculator)
• Raise the ammonia to around 5ppm on the ammonia test chart
• Keep doing this over time and you will start to get a nitrite reading
• Keep doing this more and you will get a nitrate reading
• Once you get ammonia and nitrate to 0 within 24 hours of adding liquid ammonia you are ready for fish

Few caveats around this, you can add fast growing aquatic plants which will speed up the process - the fishless cycle process also takes on the basis of adding in the full stock of fish very quickly so if you want to add fish gradually IMO you dont have to wait for the final step of getting ammonia and nitrite to 0 in 24 hours.

Wills

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