Cycling Help

[Himmel]

Hi, I recently purchased a second hand 75 gall tank that has been used for both fresh and salt water in the past. What I need to know is how do I cycle the tank as I am allergic or adverse to ammonia I cant have household ammonia in my house. The tank comes with 3 filters and a protien skimmer.

 

[Will91]

It takes very little ammonia to get a tank cycled and once it is dropped into the tank, you will not smell it. However, I could imagine you might have a problem dispensing it initially from the bottle if you are allergic.

You can makes things much easier on yourself if you can locate some MarineLand BioSpira. There are many on-line sources if you can not find it locally. Do a search on this site and you will find some great information. I used it and it worked great.

 

[SJ2K]

3 filters and a protein skimmer for a 75g?!

Looks like you may be one of the few people who are advised to cycle with fish

 

[Himmel]

3 filters and a protein skimmer for a 75g?!

Looks like you may be one of the few people who are advised to cycle with fish

How do I cycle with fish and what type of fish would I get? goldies??

 

[Staccat0]

Do you know what you plan on putting in the tank?

 

[Shrimper]

You can cycle a tank by adding fish food and this will break down and produce amonia. This is how i cycled my tank last year.

Its not as easy as adding a set dose of liquid amonia as you wont know how much you are adding but if you keep checking with the test kits you will be able to check the Amonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and will be able to see when it is cycled.

 

[Himmel]

I want a tropical tank..... Pleco, weather loaches 0x3, and schooling fish i havent decided Goramies prehaps ... honey goramies that is lol

I do have gravel from an establish tank and I can get filter media from an established tank as well

 

[SJ2K]

Rather then just adding fish food straight to the tank (very messy), try sticking a prawn or 2 in a pair of tights and hang them in the water

 

[hollyp0p]

I cycled my tank without fish using tetra aqua's safe start....it's bottled bacteria really that sets up your aquarium, my aquarium has been set up nearly 2 months now.....I advise you get a water testing kit from the start so you can monitor the levels sa they have to rise, then drop....I didn't do this, but after just over 2 weeks I added 6 zebra danios and they were fine, then a week later 5 neons, one got new tank syndrome a little bit (lost his colour) but was fine after another week.
My levels ever since I got the testing kit have been stable, so in my experience safestart really really helps!

I don't want people to think it's a quick way past fishless cycling, really in retrospect knowing what I know now (didn't join the forum til after I got my danios)....I'd give the tank at least 3-4 weeks of careful monitoring before thinking too hard about fish.

 

[Esfa]

"I do have gravel from an establish tank and I can get filter media from an established tank as well"

If you do that, it's an instant cycle! No need for ammoina.

Just put the mature media in, and then slowly add your fish, making sure there is enough bioload to feed the bacteria, but not too high so that there is too much ammonia produced for the bacteria to eat.