Alternative To Fishless Cycle

[fish.com1]

Hi everyone.
I've got a new 35 litre tank to set up for a betta. I was wondering if instead of doing a fishless cycle could i just leave the tank to mature by itself (without doing anything to it - e.g. adding ammonia) for 6 weeks or so. Would the tank(or filter) mature and get a colony of bacteria. If i added fish food occaissonally for the bacteria to feed on would this help. Also I could put some filter media from my other tank to help get it going. Can you cut used filter sponges up because this filters smaller than my other tank.

Also some other questions.

would riccia grow with 1.5 wpg or would i need to upgrade to 3 wpg?
And the heater i bought for the tank. it is a visi-therm 50watt. The coils at the bottom of the heater rattle when moved around. Is this normal?

EDIT - Forgot something - do you do water changes while the tank is cycling or not? If so how big?

Thanks everyone.

 

[minxfishy]

If you take approximately 1/3 of your existing filter media, you can infact add the betta immediately as this will cycle the tank, you may need to keep a regular check on the water params but with only one fish, I imagine the filter would cope just fine.

Obviously replace the media you have taken out of your existing filter with new, but as the filter is mature it will multiply enough to cope with the bacteria taken out within 24 hours or so.

Cant help on the plants as I am not a planty person, but I have had heaters (not visitherm) with rattley coils they are fine.

 

[doresy]

Hi everyone.
I've got a new 35 litre tank to set up for a betta. I was wondering if instead of doing a fishless cycle could i just leave the tank to mature by itself (without doing anything to it - e.g. adding ammonia) for 6 weeks or so. Would the tank(or filter) mature and get a colony of bacteria. If i added fish food occaissonally for the bacteria to feed on would this help. Also I could put some filter media from my other tank to help get it going. Can you cut used filter sponges up because this filters smaller than my other tank.

Also some other questions.

would riccia grow with 1.5 wpg or would i need to upgrade to 3 wpg?
And the heater i bought for the tank. it is a visi-therm 50watt. The coils at the bottom of the heater rattle when moved around. Is this normal?

EDIT - Forgot something - do you do water changes while the tank is cycling or not? If so how big?

Thanks everyone.

Hi, not sure what you mean here. You have the tank, does it have a filter? If yes then it needs a constant supply of ammonia to feed the bacteria as it forms. To do this you either need to add ammonia artificially (pure ammonia) or by adding food which rots to produce ammonia which are the start of a fishless cycle.
When the ammonia runs out (ie enough bacteria is formed to process the the level of ammonia present) if then the source of ammonia is not replaced then the bacteria dies and you are back to square one.

If you just set up the tank and drop food in every few days then yes eventually the cycle would happen but why hit and miss, why not just do a controlled cycle?

Answer to the heater rattle, yes it is normal.

Water changes are done daily if you are doing a cycle WITH fish but are only done in a fishLESS cycle at the end (to get rid of the very high level of nitrAte) or if the cycle stalls or the PH level gets too high or the nitrIte level really wont come down.

 

[fish.com1]

Thanks for repyling.

So can i add my mature filter foam to the new tank as soon as i set it up? I'd rather leave the filter for a few weeks instead of adding the betta straight away(just to be safe), so if i did leave it would it grow more bacteria? Also how often and how much fish food should i add?

thanks

 

[Corleone]

Leaving it run after adding mature media won't help - the bacteria will die off unless you're doing something to feed them. In the short term, it might get dust out of the water that didn't get washed out of the substrate, but past that, you're refiltering perfect water. You can run the new filter on your existing tank for a month, it will be colonized by bacteria there, and then you can move it over to the new tank when you get your betta. Either method, it's safe to add fish immediately with mature media (and normally recommended, as the bacteria will start to die off), no need to add fish food to cycle by that method.

 

[fish.com1]

Ok. I've added the filter to my existing tank. So should i just leave it for a month? When i get the betta should i put the filter in the tank the day before i get him or before i go out to get him (same day) or when i get back with him? Also after the filter is in the new tank, how long should i wait before changing the filter media?

thanks again.

 

[minxfishy]

Yep you can run the filter on your existing mature tank for 3/4 weeks to cycle it, that will be plenty of time for the bacteria to grow enough to cope with a single betta.

Add the filter the day you go to buy the fish, just take it out and pop it in as your leaving to go to the shop

The media will only need cleaning/changing as any other media, I usually only give mine a squeeze in removed tank water when the flow seems reduced from the outlet. Otherwise I leave it be.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

agree with the post above.

if you have a read of the link in my sig about weekly maintenance it will tell you a bit more about cleaning and replacing filter media

 

[Keithoms]

IF you put mature media from your old tank into your new filter, the bacteria thats in it will be able to handle a betta fine and will spread around the new filter thats in the new one very quickly, No real need to run it in your existing tank.

 

[fish.com1]

IF you put mature media from your old tank into your new filter, the bacteria thats in it will be able to handle a betta fine and will spread around the new filter thats in the new one very quickly, No real need to run it in your existing tank.

Yeah was thinking of doing that but thought running it in my tank would give me some time to get equipment and plants for new tank sorted.

 

[aaronnorth]

you can also use bactinettes.

riccia will survive floating, although if you tie it down it may struggle unless you have plenty of nutrients & CO2.

 

[Keithoms]

IF you put mature media from your old tank into your new filter, the bacteria thats in it will be able to handle a betta fine and will spread around the new filter thats in the new one very quickly, No real need to run it in your existing tank.

Yeah was thinking of doing that but thought running it in my tank would give me some time to get equipment and plants for new tank sorted.

Ofcorse doing that will do absolutely no harm aslong as the tank you put it in has an active source of ammonia.