Fishless Cycling

[Miss Wiggle]

i dont get cycling at all. ive never cycled my tanks and my fish r okay (i only hav 2 mosquitofish and a guppy but still) . Is it okay to let the water sit? will it stabilize itself? i dont get cycling at all.... BTW plz click my eggs and dragon on my sig! -heart , ally86ozzy

no the water won't stabilise by itself, leaving a tank to sit for a few months won't do anything. in actual fact you did cycle your tanks, you just cycled them with fish and weren't aware of it at the time. the link in my sig whats cycling will explain it a bit more for you.

 

[Efren]

thanks for the instructions



i'll say goodbye to "nutrafin cycle" from now on

 

[Yuji18]

wow never heard of fishless cycling till this thread . Thanks alot for the guide. Now i will be opting for fishless cycling than using fish to cycle my tank

Thanks!

 

[wilchil64]

They're definitely not dumb questions. It generally takes between 2 and 4 weeks to do a fishless cycle if you start from scratch. Mine have almost all been in or around 3 weeks, about 1 week for the ammonia spike to drop and another 2 weeks for the nitrite to go down. If you have an established tank, you can take some filter media from there and add to the new filter to jump start it. That can cut the time down to as little as a few days

Hi, I have just set up a new tank four days ago, with gravel, live plants and a piece of bogwood (pre soaked). The tank holds 125 litres. This is my first tank (I have also posted on "NEw to the hobby" topic Cycling New Tank).

I have added a plant from my daughter's 21 litre tank to the new tank hoping the bacteria will get it up and running. As you stated above, this will cut down the time, my question now is, how do I continue? And where can I buy ammonia if still required here in the UK. This is the first thing I have done to commence cycling, apart from adding Nutrafin Cycle and a pinch of food as advised in the instructions that came with the tank which is from Fluval.

I will not be able to get to a pet store until this evening due to lack of transport, but I can go to a large well known chain of pet store tonight, if they stock ammonia and also purchase a testing kit. I wish someone had told me all this when I bought the tank and kit at the weekend!

Thanks for your help.

 

[chesterscot]

in the uk most boots pharmacies can get ammonia for you
scot

 

[Sarette]

I got my ammonia from HomeBase

 

[wilchil64]

in the uk most boots pharmacies can get ammonia for you
scot

Thanks.

 

[gladfrog]

[
great advice
one thing though if the nitrite take 10 hours to reach zero after adding ammonia, wont the ammonia be zoero before the nitrite and therefore the bacteria starts to die, also when should add fish is it the same day as the big water change

 

[Corleone]

The bacteria won't start dying in any meaningful amounts within 12 hours - ammonia is normally dosed every 24 hours. Past that you'll get a bit of die-off, something like 10% every 24 hours.

Ideally you'll want to add fish the same day or the day after the big water change. If for some reason you can't, you can continue dosing ammonia daily to sustain the bacteria. This can go on indefinitely if necessary - I think waterdrop had one going for several months after the cycle completed earlier this year.

 

[gladfrog]

The bacteria won't start dying in any meaningful amounts within 12 hours - ammonia is normally dosed every 24 hours. Past that you'll get a bit of die-off, something like 10% every 24 hours.

Ideally you'll want to add fish the same day or the day after the big water change. If for some reason you can't, you can continue dosing ammonia daily to sustain the bacteria. This can go on indefinitely if necessary - I think waterdrop had one going for several months after the cycle completed earlier this year.

thank you corleone

gladfrog

 

[Malachite]

Thanks to rdd for the great article on how to do this. I started last night, using ammonia that I got from Ace Hardware. No ingredients listed but I tried the shake test and it seemed fine. Used the calculator which said I should add 3.2 ml to my tank (20g) - I started by adding 1 ml at a time (via syringe) until I reached 2.75 ml and the reading on the API card seems around 4-5ppm...have a hard time telling even under my daylight bulb. Might be okay to add the another 1/4 ml but I am worried of putting in too much. Is it better to follow the calc exactly?

So, will test daily and see how it goes. Crossing my fingers it will be ready in 3 weeks as my husband will be here from England and I want to surprise him with this. He is only here for two weeks and would like us to go pick out the first fish together.

Malachite

 

[Corleone]

If it's in the 4-5 range, it's good enough. It's not that exact a science. Some ammonia is different concentration, so it's best to follow the test, not the calculator.

If you have a harsh white florescent tube (like a shop light), use that instead of the daylight bulb, I get the best results with them. Stand with your back to the light with no other lights on, and hole a white sheet of paper behind the tube. Sometimes being in a room with a lot of green or blue can screw you up, particularly later on when you're trying to catch a faint shade of isitgreenyet.

I got mine from Ace, too. If it's the same brand in California as Michigan, it's the good stuff.

 

[Malachite]

Thanks for the info. No harsh white florescent....just regular bulbs around the house. I'll try different rooms and see what happens.

I filled the tank last Sunday with 17 gallons of bottled water (had to use bottled, the pipes are old here and the water comes out brown....I won't drink it and I can't imagine the fish would like it either) By Monday I noticed an odor on the tank that has been getting stronger. I did a search on the smell and see it's normal to have it...just never remembered having it all those years ago. I guess it's an earthy smell...maybe with a bit of cat piss added to it!

 

[Corleone]

You'll get a rank smell during the cycle. IMO it's more like a dirty toilet for the first couple weeks particularly. It'll shift through the second phase, and after the cycle it'll smell like rich black soil.

If you don't have any lights like I described, you could get one of the cheap lower quality CFLs to do the same thing, but it's not that necessary. Just try to stand with your back to the whitest light source you can get and that should be sufficient. Take the shade off a bright lamp, for example. Try different rooms (wall, ceiling, and floor color can have a major effect on light quality, distorting colors) and lights until you find one you're comfortable with - once you're used to reading under a certain light, being able to accurately see the color is less important than being able to consistently see it. Yellow may look green in a certain room, but you'll get used to the "right" shade of green and still should be able to pick out bad readings.

Using bottled water, you should post in tropical discussion for some more experienced help. Bottled water comes lacks the trace minerals fish need and has very low to no hardness, making the pH very unstable. You'll probably have to add something to the water to make it suitable. There are some products like this, somebody can probably advise you. If the water's coming out brown, that's probably iron pipes rusting, some old water systems in my state have iron mains and the water is unfit for much of anything. If possible, it may be worth having a plumber look at it (in case you have iron pipes yourself), and if it's definitely from the water system, complain to local authorities about the state of the water supply (which likely won't do good unless you can organize other affected households, but complaining has beneficial and stress relieving effects )

 

[Malachite]

Glad it's not just me that thinks it smells bad!

Thanks for the tip on the water - I'll post and see what I need to do.