Fishless cycle

[Discomafia]

Is it possible? I'm hopefully getting a 10 gallon from a member in this boards and I was wondering if I could do a fishless cycle on that one w/o a testing kit. I've read up on it, and I don't think it's impossible, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers,

 

[Phantom Thief]

I did a fish cycle without test kits. Dunno if you can do a fishless without it though...

P.T.

 

[Discomafia]

Hey kawan, apa macam!

What fish did you use, how many, and what was the size of your tank?

Only thing I need is a nitrite test kit anyway, right?

Chers,

 

[NinjaSmurf]

You can do a fishless cycle without fish or testing, I've done it many, many times. Just don't add too many fish at once and if you're getting plants put them in a day or two earlier. If the water gets coudy do a 50% change and that should clear it up.

 

[Discomafia]

You can do a fishless cycle without fish or testing, I've done it many, many times. Just don't add too many fish at once and if you're getting plants put them in a day or two earlier. If the water gets coudy do a 50% change and that should clear it up.

I've got a java fern with a few neon tetra fry in my 1 gallon hospital tank now. So how long will the process take then? The usual 10 days to 2 weeks then? And the plants 2 days before the fish. Got you. And is 50% a good amount to be changing when they're already fish in the tank?

Cheers,

 

[mrV]

It's not impossible to do fishless cycle without test kits. But you may have problems without measuring ammonia/ammonium and nitrite levels. Optimum state is then when ammonia/ammonium level is about 5 mg/l all the time. If you add too much ammonia, bacteria suffer it and cycle doesn't progress so good, even at all.

You need both test kit. You cannot add any fish to your tank without knowing that ammonia level is zero and nitrite too. And only way to know it, it is to measure them.

The usual 10 days to 2 weeks then?

It depends on how you feed those bacteria. If you don't feed them at all, you can sit and wait till you're in a grave. When they get food enough, it usually takes 2-4 weeks - sometimes longer..

You can do a fishless cycle without fish or testing, I've done it many, many times. Just don't add too many fish at once and if you're getting plants put them in a day or two earlier. If the water gets coudy do a 50% change and that should clear it up.

Hmm... Fishless cycling means literally that you don't use fish to cycle your tank. And if your tank goes cloudy, it means that there is exceptional bacteria behaviour (tank wasn't cycle yet). Idea of doing fishless cycling is that you protect your fish to get first ammonia poisoning and then nitrite poisoning - and you put fish to your tank not until the tank is cycled.

First there is ammonia/ammonium in water. Then Nitrosomonas sp. start to get food and they start to multiply. After that, you see increasing nitrite level and now Nitrospira sp. is getting food and they start to multiply. When both bacteria are enough (tank is cycled), ammonia is oxidized quickly to nitrate by bacteria although you add more ammonia to your tank.

So, first keep ammonia/ammonium level in 5mg/l. When nitrite level start to increase, you can add ammonia so much that NH3/NH4+ level is about 2 mg/l. When nitrite-spike is gone, your tank is cycled.

 

[canarsie11]

Buy a test!

 

[Phantom Thief]

I used 3 zebra danios in a 65 gallon. And also, dont speak malay here, dunno if anyone might get mad because of it. Send me a personal message (PM) if you want to. Also, many members here may freak out if you want to do a fish cycle.

P.T.

 

[luxum]

Is it possible? I'm hopefully getting a 10 gallon from a member in this boards and I was wondering if I could do a fishless cycle on that one w/o a testing kit. I've read up on it, and I don't think it's impossible, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

The process will work whether you test or not, but you'll have no way of knowing when it's done and you can add fish unless you test. You're going to want to have those test kits anyway to make sure your water parameters are good (contrary to popular belief, water quality can not be discerned by judging the appearance of the water), so you might as well buy a master test kit with ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and Ph at a minimum.

It is possible to cycle the tank with fish (although needlessly cruel imo since exposure to toxic levels causes permanent gill damage even if the fish live through the process) but then you have to go very slowly, adding only a few fish and slowly building up your stocking over six months or so, and you will often end up doing daily water changes trying to keep the levels down so they don't stress the fish, prolonging the establishment of the cycle.

If you fishless cycle with ammonia instead, you spend a few weeks fretting over an empty tank, but the payoff comes when you can add your entire fishload all at once and the fish never have to suffer. This is also especially handy if you don't have a quarantine tank because you won't have to keep adding fish over time, opening your tank up to infectious diseases.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I was just stating what has worked with me before. The water got cloudy after I put the fish in, then I changed the water (50%) and everything was fine. I did forget to mention that the filter cartridge was used before, but I let it sit longer than normal couple of days, anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. Who knows, maybe I 'm just lucky, I was just saying it could be done.

 

[luxum]

I don't think what you are describing is really what we mean when we say "fishless cycling," no offense. Were you adding ammonia?

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Fill the tank with tapwater, put in dechloranator, start filter. I waited about, eh, two, three weeks, put fish in. Wait some more, add more fish. If the water gets coudy, I change it and then it's fine. That's just how I do it.

 

[luxum]

Right, that is a with fish cycle, not a fishless cycle.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

How is that with fish? Isn't the tank done cycling when I put them in? I don't add any chemicals.

 

[luxum]

"Fishless cycling" refers to establishing the nitrogen cycle in a tank (this is how fish wastes are converted) by feeding the bacterial bed before fish are added with clear household or lab grade ammonia until the ammonia and nitrite spikes pass and the bacteria are able to fully metabolize fish wastes.

What you did was let the tank sit empty without a source of ammonia, therefore the tank did not actually begin the process we call cycling until you added your fish. For more information, check this thread.