Fishless Cycling

[Squid]

SHould you have all of your plants and decorations present during this process? or do they go in after?

 

[kris-b-]

I did think plants were ok in a fishless cycle but not 100% sure but I'm currently cycling mine with plants in so I hope it's ok!

 

[rdd1952]

I cycled my 75 gallon with plants and had no problems. It at least gives you a pretty tank to look at while it is fishless. The one downside to adding plants first is that at the end of the cycle, with the nitrates so high, you end up with a lot of brown algae. The plants get covered and start to look bad. It will clear up though once you do the water change and lower the nitrates. I added some true siamese algae eaters and they had a feast with mine.

As for decorations, definitely add them. Some bacteria (but not a huge amount) will colonize on surfaces in the tank and the decorations provide another surface.

 

[love_fish]

Nice walkthrough. I'm referring to this when I get my new tank.

 

[Guppynovice]

Well - obviously well written. But not well understood for someone who is clueless in the fish world and obviously not well directed by the pet store. My water was never cloudy. I already have the fish in the tank - so what should I do now. The water is holding a good 78 temp - goes down to 76 with the lights and the fish seem fine - especially the betta. Some advice on some hardy fish that will live with the betta? Thanks.

 

[rdd1952]

Well - obviously well written. But not well understood for someone who is clueless in the fish world and obviously not well directed by the pet store. My water was never cloudy. I already have the fish in the tank - so what should I do now. The water is holding a good 78 temp - goes down to 76 with the lights and the fish seem fine - especially the betta. Some advice on some hardy fish that will live with the betta? Thanks.

Don't feel bad about getting bad info from your pet store. It is the norm, especially for a pet store that sells fish (not a true fish store). Even true fish stores will give bad advice too so they aren't immune either. Anyway, since you have fish, fishless cycling isn't an option. You will just have to test your ammonia and nitrite daily and do water changes as needed to keep the levels as low as possible. Optimally, you want both of those at 0 but during the cycling process with fish, try to keep them under .5 ppm (no higher than 1).

 

[love_fish]

Wait, so when you do the add and wait method, and ammonia goes down to 1 ppm after initial dose of 5 or 6ppm, you raise it to 3 or 4 ppm right? Or wait till it hits 0ppm?

 

[rdd1952]

Once it drops to 1 ppm raise it back to 3 or 4 ppm. Do that everytime it drops back to 1 until the nitrite finally drops to 0 and then your done. Do the big water change and add fish.

 

[love_fish]

Alright, sounds easy enough. Thanks for the help.

 

[scooterbug]

I will be using water from our well .
Our water altho delicious to drink has Iron in solution ( the iron does not show until it sits in a container for a few hours)

Should I be doing anything different ?



It's been prolly 30 years since I ran a tank.
I now have a 55 gal that I will be using

Shirley

 

[rdd1952]

I dont think the iron will be an issue in the cycling process. Actually, if you have live plants it is probably a good thing. I guess it depends on the level.

 

[love_fish]

How long should it take (approximately) for Ammonia to lower to 1.0, after initial 5 ppm (doing add and wait method)? It's been in there for a week now, and I see no change in the color of the tests.

 

[rdd1952]

Generally, the ammonia will drop back to 0 or 1 in about 7 to 10 days but it is generally a more gradual drop (nitrite will eventually drop from almost off the chart to 0 overnight), going down from 5 ppm to maybe 4 after 5 to 7 days, and then maybe a point a day after that. How high did you start the ammonia out? You should usually be seeing at least a slight drop after 7 days unless you started with the reading higher than the highest value on the chart.

 

[love_fish]

The ammonia was inbetween 4 and 5 ppm. I'm going to test it tomorrow cuz I dont feel like doing anything right now. I'll update you and maybe you could help me.

 

[love_fish]

I tested it, and it seems to be at four, or maybe a tiny bit greater than 4, but not at 5. Is this normal for after 8 days?