Fishless Cycle

[basstracker_v16]

Greets all.

First time trying fishless cycle. Heres what I have so far:

15g tank
gravel
hand full of gravel from LFS in nilon sack
2 potted plants
heater
air stone
bio-wheel filter 125 (i think), its the next one up from smallest

3/30 to 4/2: 7 drops ammonia "ammo" reading=1.0, Ntrate 10, Nrite 0
4/3 to 4/4: 10 drops, rading 1.0, same, same

I went to 10 because I felt the 4 to 5 per 10g wasnt enough. Tests were done
before each dose.

How we doin so far?

Ok, question.. Can I add some frozen brine or bloodworms to tank to increase
ammo and does it help with bactiria? Or just let things ride as they are?

Also, I'd like to drop down one model of filter to the mini bio wheel, is this too late
to do or wait till tank is done?

Thanks all..

p/s: I have looked for posts like this, didnt find any unless I didnt look good enough.

 

[cat.fish]

howdy,

i dont think that you should add some blood worms or any othertype of food. if your ammonia is low i would add a couple of zebra danios (those specificly). as for the filter i would not change it to a mini. i have a 125 penguin bio-wheel on my 10 gallon and the water i as clear as can be and the water motion is slim (if that is what you're worried about). why do you want to change the filter in the first place?

HTH
cat.fish

 

[heresmike]

Agree with the not adding food and not changing filters. I disagree with adding fish when also adding ammonia. You should stick with one or the other IMO.

 

[basstracker_v16]

Well, I guess I should of said the filter I have is not the smallest, but third one up
from bottom, I guess its the smallest (mini) with the wheel I wanted due to water
noise. It's in my son's room. But if he gets used to it I'll leave it.

As far as my question bout food, I'll keep goin like I am for a bit and see what happens.

Thanks

 

[MadCow]

I would think you may want to boost the ammonia up a little more. I tried for a reading of 3-5 for ammonia initially and then added that same amount each day till nitrites showed up, then cut amount in half. Also I have read that boosting the temp of the tank up to closer to 84 degrees helps develop the bacteria faster. I think everything else is great. Gravel from lfs and potted plants for bacteria seed should help dramatically. Do not add fish though while adding ammonia. This is my opinion but I am speaking from little experience as I am in the middle of my first fishless cycle. Today I am 1 week and 1 day in and my ammonia has spiked and come down to 0 tonight when I tested. Nitrites are still high.

 

[heresmike]

Xlnt advice from madcow. I also shot for 5 ppm of ammonia with my fishless cycles.

 

[CMC]

Sounds like you're doing ok just the way you're doing it. We've cycled several tanks using the fishless cycle by adding ammonia and some used gravel and dropped established filter media in the tank. I wouldn't add any kind of food or other fish. Check out the pinned topic about fishless cycling. It's very handy.

All of our tanks took about 14 days to finish the cycle but I'm sure it varies with other people's tanks. If you're adding the proper amount of ammonia each day you should start to see your nitrites start to rise soon and your ammonia drop soon. If I remember correctly, it took about a week for the nitrites to rise and the ammonia to drop, and then another week for the nitrites to fall to zero. But like I said, we added some used gravel from another tank and dropped established filter media in during the cycling process so I'm sure helped speed up the process.

Patience is the key (our patience was tested when we cycled our 240 gallon because we couldn't wait to put fish in it!!)

Good luck.

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[basstracker_v16]

Update on fishless cycle:

Its been 29 days, I have a 15g tank, biowheel filter. After 19 days, ammo went
to 0, Trites went to 3. This lasted for at least 8 days.

If you read my first post you will see what I have in it. Anyways, After the ammo
went to 0, I went from adding 20 drops to 10.

Last night, put 10 drops in, after test which was ammo Slight reading to 0, Trites
was 0, Trates was 20. This moring ammo same, TRITES at .25, TRATES 20

A week after ammo went to 0 and TRITES was 3.0, I did a 2 gal water change,
I think I did 3 of these. *** mistake?? ***.

For past 2 days however, things looked like it was cycled till this morning.

Would it be alright to do a 50% change, and add one or 2 fish ?? or ??

 

[heresmike]

Doing water changes before nitrites hit zero might not be the best thing. I would wait 'til this evening, or 24 hours after adding the ammonia, to see what the nitrites read. When ammo and nitrites are consistently at zero, only then should you do a water change to reduce the nitrates, and then add your fish.

 

[Griggs2121]

Well, I guess I should of said the filter I have is not the smallest, but third one up from bottom, I guess its the smallest (mini) with the wheel I wanted due to water noise.

I'm not really sure what your talking about here, but the Penguins go like this (starting with the smallest) Mini, 125, 170, and 330. There is also Emperor 280 and 400 which have simliar designs. So if you have the third up, thats a 170. Either way if its Penguin it should have a bio-wheel. If it looks liek a penguin and doesnt have a bio-wheel that sounds like a Whisper. At any rate, all Penguins have their number (which represents Gallons Per Hour) at on the top of the lid that covers the bio-wheel.

As far as which filter to use, if you have a 170 thats great, if your going to use a 125 thats fine, and a mini, by most serious aquarists is too little of filtration, but I guess that depends on how much you care, and what your bio load is.

I've been using 170s on my 20Gs and I've found that quite a few people have 330s on their 20Gs which surprised me.

If you want a more quiet filter, I like the Aqua Clear filters a lot, I have a Mini and a 500 and they have less splashing noise, which is what I dont like when Im trying to sleep. But the big one (500) has a low murmor noise that I do like when I'm sleeping.

Well hope that was helpful!

*edit: I guess there is a Mini that doesn't come with a bio-wheel. So as far as quality and price that will fall below the Mini that comes with a bio-wheel. Bio-wheel adds some splashing noise though, from what I've noticed.

 

[Sky042]

I would discontinue doing any more water changes till you can sucessfully add ammonia 3 days in a row and within about 12-24 hours have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites.

I'm in the middle of a fishless cycle now but I'm doing it with higher ammonia levels I shot mine to about 6-8ppm and keep bumping it back to that point. nitrites are off the scal >10ppm just gotta be paitient but need to make sure your bacteria bed can support the fish which is why I'd suggest making sure they can deal with a greater level of ammonia prior to adding anything.