Fishless Cycling

[OldMan47]

Most of us only change filter media when it is physically worn out. The two exceptions are that carbon gets changed quite often if you are using carbon and a polishing filter of floss can be changed quite often too. Since carbon is used to adsorb chemicals, it exhausts fairly quickly and never builds up much of biological colony so nothing much is lost by tossing it. The thin pad of filter floss that is just used to polish the water of small particles plugs up so fast that there is no option except to toss it quite often. The sponges, ceramics, bioballs and similar components are almost never changed because they contain most of the beneficial bacteria. Instead we give then a good cleaning in old tank water and put them back into the filter.

 

[unknowntbeast]

First off I want to say this is an excellent article! But I did have a few questions. Using the Add and Wait method you said after the bacteria is able to process the ammonia within 12 hours, you still need to fed the bacteria by adding ammonia everyday. How much? Half like in the Add everyday? To 4-5ppm? You also said that your not really cycling the tank but the filter. Or are you talking about the filter housing? So do I keep the filter in there the whole time? And what about after you do the big water change at the end? Even normal filter changes would be near impossible to do because it is the filter that is cycled. And if at the end there is a bunch of algae, what do I do about it? Scrub it off? And from the talk in the Ammonia Sources in the US/UK post it seems that regular cleaning ammonia will do the job, right? Could you unconfuse me please, I do not want to mess this thing up. Oh and this most definitely needs to get pinned!

 

[OldMan47]

The principle is easy but the details can seem complicated. Once you have the bacteria grown to the point that they will process ammonia in 12 hours, you want to maintain that bacteria level until the fish are added so you keep dosing as much as you have been every day to keep those bacteria alive and thriving. The parts of the filter are all involved in cycling the tank, along with the walls of the tank itself and everything in the tank. The bacteria grow on surfaces that receive oxygen and good flow. In a filter, the case has a very small area compared to the filter media so you get much more bacteria growing in the media than on the filter surfaces. You do not do filter changes, that is a myth promulgated by filter manufacturers. You gently clean the filter media including filter cartridges, in used tank water and then you reuse the filter. When I clean my canister filters, I drain 3 gallons of water into a 5 gallon bucket so that I have some tank water to work with. Then I shut off the filter and open it up. The filter media containers come out of the filter and the media gets dumped into that bucket where I clean the media fairly well. The baskets that hold the media get cleaned off in the bathroom sink along with the pumping parts in the canister power head. The canister itself gets its water dumped out into the sink after I give the sides of the container a bit of a scrub using the water that was in it. Now that everything in the filter has been cleaned one way or another, the filter gets put back together, connected to the tank, filled with water and re-started. Meanwhile I finish my water change by starting out with that 3 gallons in the bucket that goes right onto my vegetable garden. You won't find water that is much more fertile than the water used to clean a filter.

The ammonia is indeed the clear ammonia found in some stores cleaning aisles. It has no fancy scents, detergents, surfactants or soaps. It is just "clear ammonia". Products are made with lemon scents added, with surfactants added to improve cleaning and with soaps added that earns the final product the name cloudy ammonia. These products are to be avoided.

Actually the link to this thread is pinned.

 

[unknowntbeast]

So if I read this correctly, there is no need to change the filter, at all, for all eternity? You just take some tank water, and wash it out in there? Take the housing unit and rinse it out in the sink? What in the world is the "media"? And what about the activated carbon in the filter?

And in the mean-time, I am going to the store and getting my test kit, ammonia, a heater and a medicne dropper.

 

[OldMan47]

Activated carbon becomes depleted very quickly. If you use it you must replace it but I do not use it. I do have a few filters that use a cartridge that has a small trace of carbon in it and I ignore the carbon. By the first cleaning, the carbon has been exhausted for weeks so why stress about it at filter cleaning time. All filter media will eventually degrade to the point that it falls apart. When you see that day coming, you start building the bacteria on a new cartridge or whatever your filter uses so that when the last one finally can't be used any more the new one will be ready.
Media is the generic name that we use to include everything in the filter that is actually involved in the cleaning process. It includes sponges, ceramic chunks of various shapes, bioballs, pot scrubbers, etc. etc.. It even includes the felted cartridges that some filters like the Whisper series use as their only filter element. In my largest canister, I have coarse sponges, finer sponges, bioballs with stiff filter pads filling the gaps around the balls, some material that looks like small rocks called Seachem Matrix, and a basket full of 3 plastic pot scrubbers (one is cut in half to fit better). I top it all off with the only disposable part in my filter, a thin layer of filter floss that is right ahead of the impeller to keep any stray particles from damaging the impeller.

 

[unknowntbeast]

Just Great! I've been running the filter now for about 3 days to let all the dust settle and filtered and now when I get home, it's nearly clogged up! The water is not getting thru the filter the much and just flowing back out other ways. So since I haven't started to cycle yet can I change the filter?

 

[OldMan47]

Rinse out the filter pad in some tank water. There is no reason to start out with bad habits like tossing a perfectly good filter pad.

 

[unknowntbeast]

Rinse out the filter pad in some tank water. There is no reason to start out with bad habits like tossing a perfectly good filter pad.

And leave the carbon in it or replace it?

 

[OldMan47]

If it is built like the Whisper filters, pull the closure clip off the top of the filter cartridge and dump out the carbon. There is so little in one of those cartridges that it wouldn't last an hour if you actually had a need for carbon. If the cartridge is sealed, leave the carbon right where it is, it won't hurt anything there.

 

[MXS]

Can anyone help me? I have been following the add and wait method and now I'm having a big problem right as I near the end of cycling.

Hello everyone, I am cycling my 10 gallon tank (which I've been doing for over a month ) and I finally got to the end of the cycling, then it stopped.

I was adding pure ammonia to my tank every time the ammonia would drop back to 0. I was to keep doing this until my nitrite dropped down to zero, then if my tank could cycle 4-5 ppm bring of ammonia and bring nitrites down to 0 then I'd be done.

WELL, my nitrites dropped to 0, but my ammonia isn't being processed anymore.
My ammonia won't go any lower then 1.0 ppm. It's been like this for over a day.

Any ideas on what I should do?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Try doing a water change, about 50%. Then see what happens.

 

[waterdrop]

Try doing a water change, about 50%. Then see what happens.

Agree, a water change couldn't hurt. Its extremely common to see one or the other of ammonia or nitrite drop time become "stuck" for a while near the very end of fishless cycling (regardless of whether it was doing it ok in the earlier stages, surprisingly.) Basically the immature pair of bacterial colonies just still need more time to settle in and become robust enough to be what we consider "good enough" for fish.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. Why not start your own thread, it helps the helpers to give you more personal advice and keeps the old fishless cycling article less cluttered. Regardless though, welcome to TFF!

 

[isi123]

Thank you! very clear compared to others i've read!

 

[busterbrit]

Can I use this process on a 16 gallon Biorb? I was given a brand new one from a friend.

My only other question is I have to change that filter on the biorb once a month. Is that going to be ok? should I change it before I add the fish or wait a little while after?

Thanks!

 

[waterdrop]

Can I use this process on a 16 gallon Biorb? I was given a brand new one from a friend.

My only other question is I have to change that filter on the biorb once a month. Is that going to be ok? should I change it before I add the fish or wait a little while after?

Thanks!

Yes, fishless cycling will work on a 16 gallon tank. It should work on any tank with a sufficient filter. Ah, but there lies your first question, is the filter in the Biorb good enough? It might be! I don't know. There is a lot of discussion about Biorb filters and a good many of them get replaced prior or early on during use. I'm not knowledgeable about these, it might be only on Biorb models smaller than yours. Getting your filter "right" is a good thing to do prior to starting your fishless cycle, so I'd start a thread here in the beginners section (although I'd also query the betta forum, as there are more biorb users there possibly) and figure out if things need to be changed.

As far as changing your filter once a month, I can answer that. Filter media needs to be -cleaned- regularly, not necessarily -changed-. The manufacturers of course would like to get you in the habit of buying something, but experienced aquarists rarely handle filter media this way. You've lucked in to a great hobbyist site here at TFF, so filter media, cleaning and maintaining are another topic to learn about in your own thread while/after figuring out the filter itself! Its an excellent question of course, because you do indeed want to preserve the media that has the beneficial bacteria attached and growing on it! In fact, its essential that these be preserved and maintained carefully as they are one of the core things of your tank! Good luck and don't worry if the process of getting this all figured out seems slow, its worth it in the long run.

~~waterdrop~~